Marco and Mindy first crossed paths through their positions in their high school student government. He was Student Body President, she was Sophomore President, and they'll both admit there was a fair share of head-butting at first. Somewhere between the meetings and the mild disagreements, a genuine friendship started to bloom. They began hanging out after school and even shared the stage together through traditional Vietnamese drumming performances, which they both participated in through their school's Vietnamese American Culture Club and somewhere in between the rehearsals, meetings, and the chaos, it became clear this was more than just a friendship waiting to happen.

Marco knew from early on that Mindy was someone special so asking her to be his girlfriend had to be special too. The day after he got his driver's license, he took her on a date to a hidden beach she'd never been to, because he knew how much she loved the ocean and he wanted the day to feel like it was made just for her. He spent hours searching for the perfect moment, but every time he worked up the nerve, it slipped away. As the sun started to set and the day was coming to an end, they began walking back to the car and Marco started quietly panicking, knowing time was running out. Then a small hill stopped him in his tracks. Wildflowers everywhere, the whole coastline spread out below them, the sunset in full display. He looked at her and knew this was the spot, and she was the girl. He took a breath, asked "Will you be my girlfriend?" to which she excitedly said yes!

Just as things were hitting their stride, life threw its first real test their way. Marco headed off to his dream school at UC Irvine in 2019, with Mindy following to UC Riverside in 2020 and then COVID hit, changing everything almost overnight. The daily time together they had taken for granted vanished, replaced by distance, uncertainty, and a pandemic that made the world feel smaller and lonelier all at once. Seeing each other went from an everyday given to a handful of times a month. But their love didn't waver; if anything, it grew deeper. Through four years of college, through the chaos and the distance and everything in between, they pushed each other to be their best, celebrated each other's wins, and came out the other side with something stronger than they started with.

From the moment Marco graduated from UCI, the feeling he'd carried since 2018, that Mindy was simply the one, had never been louder. He bought the ring the day he graduated and quietly held onto it for six months, planning the perfect moment. That moment would come in New York City, their favorite vacation spot, on a winter trip in December. He had one spot in mind: a place in Brooklyn with an unobstructed view of the entire Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge, the kind of backdrop that looked straight out of a movie. Mindy had a feeling a proposal might be coming on the trip, and as each day passed without it, that hope quietly faded, and by the second-to-last day, she had nearly convinced herself it wasn't happening. That's exactly when Marco got down on one knee. Before he could even finish his words, Mindy was already jumping up and down, already saying yes. Just like that, the next chapter began.

With the ring on her finger, Mindy finished her final chapter of college, and the two of them stepped into the next season of life together, building their careers, moving in together, and building their future side by side. From two stubborn student government kids who used to butt heads, to a couple that has weathered distance, a pandemic, and everything life has thrown their way, it's been quite the journey. On June 2026, they'll stand in front of everyone who has loved and supported them along the way and make it official. The best is truly yet to come!