We first met each other on Stanford's campus, in the golden hush of a California summer afternoon, amidst gentle breeze and the long shadows cast among the oak trees centuries old. Our conversation started with the simple exchange of photos we've taken; those first shared images were the quiet and unexpected beginning of a wish and hope that we might go on capturing the world with our lenses, for and with each other, for much longer to come. (She was 15 minutes late because she drove along the wrong route and then commandeered my bike from the first moment she saw it. She also didn't like my suggested edits about her photos too much.)

It was Chinese New Year’s Eve. I put on new clothes and did my makeup. We planned early to go out for a big dinner. I arrived first, standing by the restaurant door, watching for him. He came in holding a bouquet of blue flowers. I thought that was the only surprise. But he told me to guess. Then he said two friends were coming too. Well, it seems there was a bigger surprise coming. Inside the cozy Italian restaurant, he fumbled with a ring he had just gotten that day. Then, on one knee, he asked. I answered the only answer there ever could be. (He was proud of the surprise action, because he was right to observe that otherwise I would have had my curious and picky little nose all over his plan.)

Beach, bookstore, then campus. Our pictures are taken at the places that unpretentiously marked where we each belonged. She was always the woodland elf, eager for an outdoors adventure. I had my more reclusive leanings and preferred the soft dimmness and breathing space of a bookstore. We returned to the campus where we met, that in-between world where forest paths and bookshelves exist in perfect unison. It was there, fittingly and under our family's blessing, that we also signed our wedding certificate. (She also wants to let y'all know that we spent the summer time when we should have been prepping for the wedding to get both of us US Sailing Small Boat Certifited. Such were her priorities.)