How We Met
A mutual friend introduced us on Facebook senior year of high school, and when he asked me out I had said no. Fast forward a few years in college and we reconnected with a simple, “Hey, long time no talk. Send me a text!” – the rest is history!
how they asked – by the bride
The weeks leading up to the proposal I was suspicious – well, more hopeful if anything. I couldn’t tell if I was overanalyzing, but sometimes things were said by him or his family or even my family (they knew too!) that seemed sort of off, so I always wondered if it would be possible. Now in my culture, we aren’t shy of engagement discussions, so Tigran and I would often talk about “when we’re engaged” or “when we’re married we’ll…” so nothing really seemed out of the ordinary. Then we started going out more often on the weekends – nice new adventures, cute places, random dates, etc. The weekend before, we got all dolled up and went to the Getty Villa in Malibu, which was a sweet date (I definitely wondered if it would happen then). Then we started making plans for the following weeks (our 3-year anniversary was coming up). He suggested Huntington Library + Botanical Gardens on the 20th (our anniversary is on the 25th) and, since I had never been, I happily agreed. He told me that the gardens there are themed, so there are Chinese gardens and Japanese gardens and so on, and that the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. I didn’t make the link then, but evidently he remembered (along with some help from my close friend Ben) that once upon a time, I told him my dream proposal would be in Sakura, Japan, under the cherry blossom trees, since they’re my absolute favorite. Well, that weekend, my parents told me that my dad’s cousin had just moved here so we would be having guests on Saturday – so I spent Friday night at home helping my mum prepare since I wouldn’t be there to help on Saturday. Later that night, my sister texted me asking to go shopping after my date (turns out they were all doing it on purpose to throw me off!). The next morning, we got all dolled up and went to the Huntington Library. I didn’t really let myself think about it until we actually went inside and started heading towards the Japanese gardens – that’s when he wasn’t behaving like his usual self. He’s usually more talkative but on our walk towards the gardens he wasn’t as animated, and I caught him checking his phone. He then said “let’s go under those cherry blossoms near the bridge” and that’s when my heart started racing. When we got there, he told me he had something to give me and handed me a book – I had given him that book when we first started dating to kick start the series, and had written some cute lovey-dovey stuff on the first page.
When he handed it to me I was confused, until he flipped it to the last page, where he had written. I started to read it and immediately knew where it was headed, and when I was finished reading the last sentence, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Afterwards, our wonderful hidden photographer revealed herself and we had a super fun 30-minute photo-shoot under those gorgeous trees. When all was over, we went to a restaurant for some champagne and appetizers before going home to both our families waiting for us.
how they asked – by the groom
There was no doubt that the time had come to finally ask her to marry me. I don’t even remember what life was like before we became a couple, so when I went to buy the ring, it was pure excitement. I’m not going to lie, it’s all very stressful in terms of the planning. Trying to custom make the perfect ring, finding the best photographers, picking the best suited place, and finding just the right way to ask – but it’s all worth it when you think about how she’s going to feel when it all unravels right in front of her. That simple thought was why I never settled for the easy way out. After constantly going back and forth, I finally had everything set and ready and couldn’t have been more excited for it. I knew that she was expecting me to propose some time in the near future, so I did everything to throw her off. I even went as far as to ask her family to tell her about other plans they had made that she’d be required to be there for. When we got to the gardens, the only nerves I felt were nerves for my plan being poorly executed. It seemed like a lot to accomplish in such a short burst of time, and it was hard acting normal because everything is scripted. I anxiously looked around for the photographer while trying to maintain normal conversation. When we finally got to my proposal spot, and the photographer and I had made eye contact, the entire moment felt like it happened at the speed of light, and it all felt surreal. After all the stress and nerves, the moment she said ‘yes,’ made every single second of the stress and planning worth while.
