We met in college at UC Irvine when I drove Jon and two other friends from a PIKE fraternity party in Newport Beach to Albatross to get Mexican food. I unfortunately do not remember this event. (Not because I was drinking, but because it was just another typical night. Woops.) Shortly after, Jon wrote on my Facebook wall but I left him on read and never responded back. (Woops again!) Fast forward a few years later to post-college in 2014, we ran into each other at XS night club in Las Vegas. Jon spotted me with eagle eyes - "calmly and casually" came up to me, bought me a drink and asked for my number. For our first date, Jon accomplished a near-impossible task. He drove from Diamond Bar all the way to Torrance to pick me up, drove to Downtown LA for dinner, then to Santa Monica for drinks, back to Torrance to drop me off and finally went back to Diamond Bar to sleep in his own bed. For driving 150+ miles through LA traffic in one night to impress the girl of his dreams, I give him an A+ for effort. haha We dated for a year (and me wondering that existential question WHAT ARE WE?!) before Jon FINALLY asked me to be his girlfriend after I threatened to leave. (Can't commit?! Baiiii) After that, the rest is history! We've made so many memories over the years - traveling to Japan, Taiwan, Greece and so many other memorable places, spending holidays with family, hanging out with friends, navigating our careers and getting our fur baby Benny during the pandemic in 2020. 8 years later, here we are about to tie the knot! (dun dun dun...) Jon is such a lucky guy. ;)

Through the years Chie made it clear she wanted to get engaged at 30 but of course, I downplayed like any guy would. Fast forward to 2020, the year Chie turned 30, I knew her patience would be wearing thin. Admittedly, I hadn’t thought of marriage or came close to knowing the first thing about diamonds at the time. It wasn’t until one Sunday while driving home after being away for the entire day did I realize how excited I was to come home and spend time with Chie. That’s when I knew she REALLY was the one. So I got to work and secretly looked for rings while we were in lockdown. Ring shopping wasn’t exactly easy while everyone was forced to stay at home so I took the first opportunity to head back into the office just to get away a few times a week. After a couple months of searching, I found the perfect diamond. I told Chie my company was throwing a “Return to Work” summer party at one of our properties and even made a fake flyer to throw her off. On the day of, we made our way to DTLA with the space already set up. When we arrived on the rooftop deck, Chie looked around, missed the fact we were standing in front of a heart made of rose petals and asked me, “Where is everyone? Are we the first ones here?”. That’s when I got down on one knee, fumbled my words and eventually strung together the words, "Will you marry me?" (for whatever reason the first word out of my mouth was "Surprise!"). From there, we enjoyed a private picnic dinner inspired by some of our “First & Favorite” events together and were joined by friends to celebrate through the night!