Chad and Leigh Yen met in 2007, while they were still in high school, through Leigh Yen’s older brother, Ryan. Chad would come over Leigh Yen’s parents’ house to hang out with Ryan. Leigh Yen found Chad charming and handsome and would tag along whenever the guys would hangout. Eventually Leigh Yen would muster up the courage to tell Chad that she liked him but Chad didn’t want to ruin his friendship with Ryan so they stayed friends. The following year, Leigh Yen went off to college in Richmond, Virginia. Leigh Yen would come home on the weekends and would see Chad often due to having many mutual friends. Their casual conversations on the weekends became daily texts and night time phone calls. They bonded over similar tastes in hobbies, movies, music, food, etc. Eventually with the encouragement of their friends, Chad asked Leigh Yen’s older brothers Ryan and Allen for their blessing to date Leigh Yen. Afterwards Chad asked Leigh Yen’s parents, Bob and Yen, and her grandmother, Evangeline, for their blessings as well. They officially started dating March 2009.
Chad started traveling for his job in February 2019. His first contract was in California and was a year long. This would be the first time since 2012, after Leigh Yen had graduated from VCU, that they would be apart. Leigh Yen accompanied Chad on his drive across country and stayed with him for a couple days while he got situated before flying back to Virginia. They texted, called and video chatted everyday despite the 3 hour time difference and working different shifts. In September, Chad took a week long vacation and visited back home. Leigh Yen unfortunately couldn’t take the whole week off but booked a little get away to National Harbor, Maryland for her and Chad at the end of the week. What Leigh Yen didn’t know was while she was working, Chad was secretly planning his proposal. He went and picked out the ring and asked her family for their blessing to marry Leigh Yen, in which they replied “About time!” On September 12th, after patiently waiting for Leigh Yen to finish getting ready for the day, Chad pulled her to the sitting area of their hotel room and got down on one knee and asked Leigh Yen marry him and she said “Yes!”