Magic was within the air the primary time Michelle Navarro and Christopher Zegunis met. It was 10 a.m. on a Saturday in November 2016, and the 2 had been the primary arrivals for a category on the Magic Citadel, a personal membership for magicians in Los Angeles.
“We began speaking and I assumed, he’s a cute man,” Ms. Navarro mentioned.
Their quick connection developed in the course of the subsequent six weeks as they realized and practiced magic methods collectively. “Crushes developed,” Ms. Navarro mentioned.
On the final day of the course, Mr. Zegunis made his transfer. “I like this lady,” he mentioned. “I ought to simply ask her out.” He invited her for dinner at a gastro pub known as Public Faculty 310 in Culver Metropolis, Calif.
The date lasted all night, as they moved on from the restaurant to a bar. “He was a lot enjoyable,” she mentioned. “I used to be continuously laughing.”
Ms. Navarro, 39, a senior director of media companies on the Fox Company, was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from the College of Southern California with a bachelor’s diploma in industrial and programs engineering. Mr. Zegunis, 53, a logistics coordinator at Toms Footwear, grew up in Rockford, Unwell., and moved to Los Angeles 25 years in the past.
They moved in collectively in Los Angeles, in August 2019, just a few months earlier than the coronavirus pandemic started. “That was a giant take a look at,” Mr. Zegunis mentioned. “I by no means acquired drained. It was by no means like, ‘What did I get myself into?’ That’s most likely once I realized that is the particular person I wish to spend the remainder of my life with.”
Ms. Navarro mentioned her dedication to Mr. Zegunis turned clear to her when she realized how a lot she relied on Mr. Zegunis’s assist in each day struggles, like work anxiousness, but additionally throughout main intervals of grief, just like the loss of life of her mom in 2019. “He was actually there for me,” she mentioned. “There was no hesitation. He was all in.”
Early on, the 2 bonded over their shared love of Disneyland. “It appears frivolous, however it’s a microcosm of our complete relationship and the way aligned we’re on so many issues,” Mr. Zegunis mentioned.
He described considered one of their early visits to the theme park, in June 2019, as considered one of “the only greatest occasions of my life.” Ms. Navarro known as it “euphoric.”
“For those who go to Disneyland with the mistaken particular person, it may possibly suck,” Mr. Zegunis mentioned. “There’s a sure mind-set it’s a must to need to do it proper. There’s a sure hustle concerned to be sure to’re getting on sure rides, there’s a method. We’re each a lot in that mind-set.”
The 2 are regulars on the park now, visiting a couple of times yearly. It has turn out to be an much more particular place since Mr. Zegunis’s proposal.
In April 2022, when he was at a magic present with Ms. Navarro, everyone within the viewers was requested to put in writing down a secret. Afterward, all of the secrets and techniques had been learn aloud anonymously.
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“His was, ‘I’m going to suggest to my girlfriend on her birthday,’ ” Ms. Navarro mentioned. A month earlier, Mr. Zegunis had concocted a proposal plan and had written the key down as a means of committing himself to the timeline, not anticipating that it might be revealed. “It nearly blew up in my face,” he mentioned of his plan.
Fortunately, he satisfied Ms. Navarro that he’d written down a unique secret: “I’m Batman.”
A number of days earlier than Ms. Navarro turned 38 that August, her grandmother died. Mr. Zegunis had already deliberate an elaborate collection of occasions, together with a shock get together and a magic present, to rejoice her birthday and to suggest, however determined to carry off on the second half.
“I used to be calling our mates asking if I ought to go forward with it, and my greatest man mentioned to me, ‘Would you like the primary place the place she tells her family and friends she was engaged to be at her grandmother’s funeral?’”
As a substitute, he waited till they visited Disneyland two weeks later. Throughout a photograph shoot that Ms. Navarro had scheduled, Mr. Zegunis pulled out a diamond ring that had belonged to her mom, and with which she had wished him to suggest. He descended to at least one knee and requested Ms. Navarro to marry him. Afterward, that they had a steak dinner at Napa Rose at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort and Spa, adopted by drinks on the poolside bar with just a few mates.
When it got here time to decide on the marriage location, there was no debate. “She informed me authoritatively we’re getting married in Hawaii, and I used to be like, zero complaints,” Mr. Zegunis mentioned.
Ms. Navarro’s love of the island goes again greater than a decade. “In 2011, I traveled to Hawaii for work and fell in love with this village,” she mentioned, referring to Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Massive Island. “I used to be having dinners on my own and I assumed at some point it might be good to come back right here with somebody I really like.”
Her want got here true, as 49 visitors joined her and Mr. Zegunis for his or her wedding ceremony on the Hilton Waikoloa Village on June 23. The couple had been married by Michaela Lehuanani Larson, an officiant licensed within the state of Hawaii. Mr. Zegunis will take Ms. Navarro’s final title.
The daughter of shut mates, Grace Corbett, sang “Remainder of My Life” by Bruno Mars as Ms. Navarro walked down the aisle within the resort’s gardens. “I really like Bruno Mars, and my mother additionally cherished him,” Ms. Navarro mentioned.
Ms. Navarro integrated varied native parts into the celebrations. The welcome get together featured a hula dancer and a ukulele performer, and in the course of the ceremony, the bride and groom exchanged leis. On the reception, the buffet included kalua pig and poke, and the performers included Polynesian drummers and hearth knife dancers.
“My mother handed away 5 years in the past, and Hawaii was the place the place we went for trip,” Ms. Navarro mentioned. “It’ll all the time have a particular place in my coronary heart.”
