Romantic double proposal

Ipolani and I met back in 2014 at a small Christian university. We never thought that we would get married, because we came to terms that being gay would be an upward battle that neither of us were willing to fight. After four years we decided to choose love and stand in the light.

I knew that I wanted to marry Ipolani and I really wanted to propose to her to show her how much she meant to me. About a year before I proposed, her father passed away and I bought a star dedicated to him. I knew that Ipo always wanted her father a part of the proposal so I decided to pop the question under all of the stars at Griffith Observatory. She said yes (phew) and I followed the proposal with a surprise engagement party with our friends who flew in from all over. She was shocked to say the least. The final surprise was a trip to home to Hawaii (she had not been home since her dad passed away). It was the perfect day.

I was about 2 pages into my wedding checklist, literally not expecting to be proposed to at all. I told my fiance to hand me off the ring at my favorite restaurant and we would call it a day. Little did I know that she had a whole plan set up and I had just beat her to the punch.

About 2 weeks after proposing to her, Ipolani took me to Disneyland for what I thought was just another date. When Ipo asked me to be her girlfriend we were drunk (on cheap tequila) and I thought she was kidding when she asked. Four years later, she took me to the same place and asked me to be her wife. I thought she was kidding again, but I realized she was serious when my best friend from Hawaii (who is now my best woman) handed her the ring. She followed the proposal with a surprise engagement party too at my favorite restaurant (which she rented out for all my friends!!!) Needless to say, I am truly lucky.

I never thought in a million years that I would be engaged, let alone be getting married! We went home to Hawaii shortly after, took engagement photos and got our venue. I am beyond excited to share our love story. Through this whole experience, I decided to start my own wedding and event planning business specifically for queer folk. I want to change the way we look at weddings and make everyone’s love story important.

From the marrier, Zabrina