HOW WE MET

The early years... Left: Al's apartment. Right: Cindy's place 1996.       

Al and Cindy first met in November 1995 through Cindy's brother Jeffrey, who was Al's friend and co-worker. Jeff brought Al along with him to help him move and carry Cindy's washer and dryer to their new apartment in Daly City. Al was more than willing to help so he accompanied Jeff to their old house, riding a red pick-up truck that Jeff had borrowed from a friend. From a distance, Al could already see Cindy standing outside the house waiting, and asked Jeff who she was. She wasn't supposed to be there, but she forgot to tell her brother to turn off the gas first before disconnecting the dryer. They parked, got off the truck, and Jeff introduced Al to his sister for the first time. Cindy tried to help load the washer in the truck by carrying this tube connected to it and some water dripped from the tube on Al's pants (now he claims that Cindy did it on purpose to get his attention). Cindy apologized after her brother told her to 'get out of the way'. Then after loading it, they all rested, hanging out in the backyard which had an awesome elevated view of the city and San Bruno mountains. Al said something about the amazing view and looked at Cindy. Sparks flew, their eyes connected, and this is the day the unbelievers started to believe in love at first sight.

It wasn't until after four months when Al got the guts to ask her out. Although she was on his mind after they initially met, he didn't ask her out right away because he didn't think it was right to ask out his friend's sister. He also thought that she would turn him down too, but what he didn't know was that Cindy already had a secret crush on him, although after meeting him for the first time, she could not remember his name. He called her up, and asked her out. They also chatted for a while over the phone and clicked instantly.

The next day, he drove from San Mateo where he lived, and set forth with his date mission at an indie bar called the Heart of Europe in San Francisco. After driving around, he could not find the place, so the couple ended up at Planet Hollywood near Union Square. After the date, he still wanted to hang out with Cindy, so he invited her to Hard Rock Cafe on Van Ness. They spent the whole night chatting, and after the date, he still wanted to hang out with her, so he invited her to eat a late night dinner at Toppings. But Cindy had to say no since it was getting too late. Al called her up that night, met up again on other consecutive dates. They got to know each other better and found out that they had a lot of things in common. A month later, on March 23, 1996, Cindy finally agreed to be in a relationship with Al and the rest is history.

They got married at a small chapel in Reno, Nevada on August 1, 1998. After ten years of togetherness, and eight years of being married, they finally decided to renew their vows at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph in San Jose, California on September 3, 2006.

Thanks to everyone who attended the wedding. To view more pictures, please visit the gallery section of this site. Enjoy!