Soulmate Contestants #1 Irene & David

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Couple #1: Irene & David's story

How we met:
When people ask us how we met, we’ll give you one of two answers: “through a friend”, would be the more traditional answer, and “online dating” would be kind of answer we’d reply with accompanied by a playful chuckle. Both of which are true.

You can say it all started at this fateful church organized snow trip in February of 2007. Irene was a new kid at church, all naïve, fresh out of college, fresh out of her first relationship, and starting her first job as a corporate entry-level peon, but I guess you can say that she was bright-eyed and bushy tailed none the less. Dave was 2 years out of school (GO BLUE), in his fast paced gig as a “glamorous” consultant for a leading IT consulting firm, glamorous meaning he got to spend 3 life changing (and paid) months in Italy to “work” but then at the same time he also had to sleep in a conference room one time to pull an all-nighter for an other project (whole other story). So pretty much nothing of real note actually happened at this “fateful” snow trip really, other than the fact that Dave noticed that there was this cute new girl, and that Irene didn’t notice anybody but did sleep on the ground next to a coffee table for two nights. On the way back from the trip, Irene and Dave went their separate ways. Dave stopped to have dinner in Davis and asked his friend Brandon who “that girl” was. Coincidentally, Brandon went to school and the same bible study group as Irene. At the end of dinner, Dave jokingly (seriously, I was totally joking) said to put in a good word for him. Brandon took that as his cue to play matchmaker. Little did Dave know that Brandon has a great gift of persistence, which would pay off in the form of his own relationship/marriage, but also bear fruit in the form of setting up Irene and Dave.

Brandon took pretty much every opportunity to put in a plug for Dave. Even when Irene was on a double date with another guy, while the guy was in the bathroom, Brandon would still put in a good word for Dave. So after a good two months, and a handful of so-so suitors, Irene was feeling pretty full of herself one day at work, Brandon was sending Irene links to Dave’s xanga page (b/c that’s when everyone still actually used xanga) and she was feeling pretty bold enough to act on Brandon’s invitation to talk to Dave online, so she IM’ed Dave on AIM, and they hit it off pretty quickly with all the small talk, Irene liked playing mind games with Dave. But Dave wasn’t fooled. He got right to the point. He asked her why she was even talking to him in the first place, Irene was so amused by this, because she felt that she had the upper hand the whole time, she already knew Dave had the hots for her. So she played dumb, but Dave just outted himself, “yeah, so what I think you’re cute…” Irene was dumbfounded by this, but she also liked how Dave just cut through all the nonsense. This was the very beginning of how Dave has continuously caught her attention over and over again. After that, things started to get more real, no more mind games.

[We love this picture because we both have absolutely no idea that someone of such huge importance is here in the same picture]

The proposal:
So our engagement was really no shocker. Let’s just put that out there. First of all, we had started our pre-engagement counseling with the pastor at our church about a year before we got engaged. We already had a pretty good idea that we wanted to head into that direction, but it was also nice to feel some validation by taking a course that gave us a sobering idea of what marriage would really be like, and to come out of that still wanting to spend the rest of your life with the other person. Secondly, Dave had the opportunity to speak in front of the church congregation about his testimony, and also told everyone that he was in the market for buying an engagement ring, GASP! (Irene was so embarrassed when everyone started looking for her in the congregation… kind of like a roll up and die embarrassment.) Thirdly, Dave and Irene went ring shopping and got a custom mold made for her engagement ring. Dave really liked the idea of being able to propose with the ring that would be the ring Irene would be wearing forever. So there really was no element of surprise other than when and how Dave would be proposing, but that was good enough for Irene.

So after approving the custom mold for the ring, Irene was very eager for the ring to be made, she was so sure it was going to happen in November, before Thanksgiving. She was REALLY hoping for the proposal to happen before her trip to LA (mid-Nov) so she could show off her ring to her friends. Dave crushed all these hopes when he said that the jeweler told him that the ring would be ready in 6 agonizing weeks. Irene immediately went to her calendar and counted out 6 weeks from the date they approved the mold. That would be November 28th. Now Irene’s predictions shifted from a November to an early December proposal. So with that in mind, she went to LA and had fun, explained her early December proposal theory to her friends when they were disappointed to not see a ring on that finger! She had a little too much fun in LA when she MISSED HER FLIGHT BACK on Sunday!!!

Meanwhile, while Irene was in LA, Dave was meeting with Greg, the jeweler, who luckily was able to get the ring completed before the 6 week deadline. Greg was in on the shenanigans too. While Dave and Irene were ring shopping, Irene had no idea that Dave had already found the diamond earlier, so when they found the perfect setting for her ring, Greg suggested that Irene try on the diamond-less setting with a “random” diamond so she could get a better idea of what her ring would look like when a diamond was set into the ring. When Greg put it together, it was all soooooooooooooooo perfect. Greg had actually put the diamond that Dave had picked earlier into the ring (Dave and Greg were exchanging silent fist pumps and thumbs up to each other behind Irene’s back as she was mesmerized by the diamond). Of course Irene didn’t know this because when they walked into the store, since Dave and Greg pretended it was like the first time they had ever met, despite their earlier meeting that same day. So once Dave had the fully completed ring, he decided that he was going to propose to Irene the next day when she got back from LA. He was so nervous the first night that he had to sleep with the ring box because he was so scared to lose it. Then, Sunday morning he woke up, opened up the ring box to check if the ring was still there. To Dave’s glee, the ring was still there.

The original plan was for Dave to have dimsum with Jackie and Al in the morning (Irene told Dave to save her a dan tat, a Chinese egg custard tart, for her when he comes to pick her up), then to pick up Irene and her friend from the airport at 11:30am, drop off Irene’s friend, and drive down to San Jose to go to the Skidazzle (snowboarding convention) and then straight to church. What was not in the plan was Irene calling Dave at 10am saying that she missed her flight, and that she and her friend was on stand-by for a full flight that was at 11:55am. If they did not make this flight, the next available flight would be at 4pm. 4pm was not good news. Irene was pretty pissed at herself, she told Dave that she would know if she got on to the next flight around 11:25am and that she would call him back. This threw a wrench into Dave’s plans, but he remained calm and collected. He didn’t say a peep during dimsum about the pending proposal to his friends (Dave was Al’s best man). When 11:25am came around, Irene came back with the amazing news that she is going to make the 11:55am flight. Utter relief sets in. Dave gets off the phone, and calmly explains to Jackie and Al that he will be proposing in 2 hours. Jackie didn’t believe him, then her expression of disbelief slowly turned into stress when she realized that Dave was for real, and that they only had 2 hours to get everything ready for the proposal.

Irene and her friend arrive at the airport, and Dave doesn’t come out of the car to greet them with a hug like he usually does for in his jacket pocket he had a huge box hidden. Irene didn’t take notice. She just threw her stuff in to the trunk and hopped in to the car. Dave handed her the dan tat that he promised. She happily shared it with her friend as they dropped her off, to go pick up their friends for the convention. Dave has Bluetooth in his car so when people call him, Irene can hear them on speaker. So Al called Dave overly theatrical saying that it was such a gorgeous day, and that his wife of 3 months was CRAVING ice cream, so they are enjoying the nice weather with their ice cream at Leo J. Ryan Park in Foster City . Al kept repeating how great the weather was, and how much Jackie was craving ice cream. Instantly Irene’s spideysenses were going off. Something is up. Al is way too happy about the good weather. JACKIE MUST BE PREGNANT! So the whole way to the park Irene was obsessed with the idea of her friend being knocked up 3 months into their marriage, which pretty much derailed her of any suspicion that the proposal was on the horizon.

Upon arrival to the park, Dave waved to Al and Jackie who were waiting with a camcorder all set up in the bushes as they sat under the waterfront gazebo. Also Dan, another friend was hiding behind the bathroom was ready to pop out to snap pictures with the camera. Jackie greeted Irene by saying that she brought her ice cream because Cold Stone had a buy one get one free coupon, as Irene walked closer to the ice cream cup, it was empty. So she figured that was Jackie’s empty cup and looked around for her cup but noticed that Jackie and Al’s attention was diverted behind her, so she turned around and Dave was walking slowly towards her with two dan tats in his hands. One said YES and the other said NO. The only thing that went through Irene’s mind was maybe a half a second of denial and then “CRAP, its happening.”

What was in Dave’s original plan, was for Irene to walk up to him (into the light, because the gazebo was too shady for pictures) and that would be where the proposal would take place. But in her utter shock, she just ended up planting herself in the gazebo, so Dave had to walk over to her. She took BOTH the dan tats into her hands. She was not sure if she should take “yes” or take both and hand Dave the “yes” but then at the same time, Dave needed both hands to take out the box and put on the ring. So she ended up just putting down the “no” and holding the “yes” in her hands. Dave got down on one knee and said a bunch of stuff that both of them don’t really remember, but what they DO remember is that they both share a guilty pleasure of watching reality garbage. So Dave did what came naturally, he said, “Irene, you still have a shot at love, are you interested?” Irene was so overwhelmed by the beauty of the ring that she immediately replied with “THANK YOU!!” she probably said thank you like 5 times before she said yes. She figured that holding the “yes” dan tat would have sufficed. Dave put the ring on her finger, and asks, “Do you like it? (the ring)” and while she was still holding the “yes” dan tat in her hands Irene replied with yes! “I mean the ring!!!” Dave said in disbelief that an egg tart would take precedence over this ring that caused him to stir all night.

FYI: Dave’s original original plan was to propose in this special place in Italy (he knew this before even meeting Irene). Then that changed to proposing on the top a mountain in Tahoe two weeks after getting the ring, but then Dave nixed that idea the more he thought about it when the thought of losing the ring crossed his mind. Finally, he decided that Leo J. Ryan Park would be the perfect backdrop because of the beautiful waterfront views, and also the significance this park held in the foundation of Dave and Irene’s relationship, for they spent copious nights walking up and down the waterfront talking for hours about their relationship, their future, their pasts, their friends and their families. Also, at one very brief point Irene though about having their wedding ceremony there. In Al’s defense, it really was a perfect day outside, and Jackie was not pregnant after all. BOO!!


[Walking to the gazebo at Leo J. Ryan Park]


[In the Gazebo after the proposal]