our story

“You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess; It’s a love story baby just say yes” – Taylor Swift

How we met…

We first met the week that Caitlin moved down to San Luis Obispo to attend Cal Poly as a freshman. Tuan was a fourth year, and a WOW leader. For those of you who don’t know, WOW (Week of Welcome) is a week-long freshman orientation. Upperclassmen volunteer to show the young, naive freshman around campus and town the week before classes start. Our paths crossed when multitudes of WOW groups attended the 18 and over dance club, The Grad. It was there on the dance floor that Tuan (the WOW leader) put the moves on Caitlin (the WOWie). This is where there is some discrepancy as to how the story unfolds…

Tuan thought he was being polite and trying to make Caitlin feel comfortable by dancing with her and starting innocent conversation. Caitlin was unsure why this creepy upperclassman was flirting with her and wondering what his intentions were. Even though Caitlin thought there was something a little “off” about him, there was still a spark there, and definitely intrigue. However, we went our separate ways not long after the introduction.

After classes began, we continued to run into each other on campus and at a few parties over the next several months. When Caitlin’s friends from the dorms convinced her to attend a party at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house, we finally hit it off (Caitlin realized he wasn’t a creep after all…) and we’ve been inseparable ever since!

After dating in college, and two years of a long distance relationship, we moved in together in 2004. We share our condo in Walnut Creek with our cat, Mischa.

Our engagement…

We celebrated our eight year anniversary on May 28, 2009 over dinner at the Claremont Resort in Oakland. The next day, we left on a road-trip to our old stomping grounds. We arrived in SLO mid-afternoon and grabbed sandwiches to go at our favorite deli, Gus’. We then parked on campus, and hiked up the hill overlooking Cal Poly, known as the “P”. This was one of our favorite spots to spend time at in college. However on this day, it was hot, and we were not in hiking clothes! When we got to the top we were sweaty, hungry, and dehydrated. A few college students were up on the “P” with us as we inhaled our sandwiches and took in the view.

After just a few minutes, Caitlin started complaining that she had forgotten to put on sun block and was sure she would burn. She suggested that we leave and go check into our hotel room, and come back another day (better prepared). Tuan agreed, but suggested we wait out the college students so we had a few minutes to ourselves. As soon as we were alone, Caitlin turned to start hiking back down the hill. Tuan grabbed her hand, and by the time she turned around he was on one knee with the ring. Caitlin’s first words were “stop”… then she quickly took that back and followed it up with “YES!” There were tears and laughter all at the same time. We popped a bottle of bubbly and proceeded to stay up there until Caitlin was thoroughly burned – but it was so worth it!

We later checked into our amazing room at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort, and had the whole weekend to relax and celebrate in our favorite little town on earth.