Stephanie and Raymond met at Fairfield University in 2009. At the time, Stephanie was a Freshman and Raymond was a Junior. They quickly became friends and would spend hours sending each other BBMs (before iPhones were a thing). They bonded over their shared love of RnB and party cake ice cream while Raymond pretended to love all things Disney to get extra brownie points. On April 11, 2010, Raymond asked Stephanie to be his girlfriend and the rest is history.

Raymond's mother, Armi, had always wanted to travel to Machu Picchu so he and Stephanie organized a trip to visit Cusco, Peru for 5 days with his parents. Upon arrival in Cusco (a town at 11,200ft elevation), they each experienced severe altitude sickness with bad headaches, nausea, low oxygen levels, and an inability to walk without exhaustion. Raymond was very nervous that they would have to cancel the day trip to Machu Picchu and he'd have to propose in the hotel restaurant. Fortunately, they got acclimated to the altitude by the second day and the trip to Machu Picchu could proceed as planned - and on their 9 year dating anniversary. When they reached the top of Machu Picchu, Stephanie had her back to everyone and was admiring the view. Raymond asked her to turn around and as she did, he took the ring box out of his pocket, got down on one knee and asked Stephanie to marry him. It was perfect.