Kelsey Masako Fumiko Kiyota and Elliott Lin met through a mutual friend in 2012, but it wasn’t until six years into their friendship that they realized they had something important in common – a love for the “Fast & Furious” movie franchise. The discovery was made in January 2018 at a party at a friend’s house in San Francisco, where they both lived.
“I loved the story about friends and family,” said Ms. Kiyota, 38. “Elliot had such a different take on it. It was like, ‘I just like cars,’” he said with a laugh.
“I had never met anyone, especially a girl, who had the same interest,” said Mr. Lin, 34. He knew he had to act. “This could be my shot,” he said. “This could be the one.”
After the party, Mr. Lin texted Ms. Quijota to ask her out. He said yes, but it wasn’t clear if their friendship was really taking a romantic turn. “I was a little confused because I had known him for six years,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if it was a real date or a hangout.”
That March, they met for Korean barbecue at a restaurant called Han Il Kwan in San Francisco. They discovered a few other things they had in common, including a shared interest in food and eating out. At the end of the evening, Mr. Lin took Ms. Quijota home and gave her a gift he had brought — a box of macarons. Those gestures made Mr. Lin’s intentions clear, Ms. Quijota said.
After more dates, the new couple went to Lake Tahoe a few weeks later. They went on hikes and continued to enjoy going out to eat. That August, Mr. Lin stayed at Ms. Quijota’s house and, before falling asleep, asked her to be his girlfriend. She said yes.
Ms. Quijota knew things were going well when she introduced Mr. Lin – who comes from a “gentle and quiet” family – to her “very loud, very boisterous” family in Colorado that fall. “He already knew how important my family was to me,” Ms Quijota said. “Seeing him make that effort was the best,” he said. “It was just a perfect fit.”
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By the end of 2018, Ms. Quijota told Mr. Lin that she was in love and he said that he was too. Ms. Kiyota moved into Mr. Lin’s apartment in Hayward, California in 2019. Marriage was not something the couple talked about much, but, in the summer of 2020, Ms. Kiyota mentioned that she thought it would be a yellow diamond engagement ring beautiful. “I like bright colors,” she said. Mr. Lin noted.
The couple moved to Erie, Colo., in December 2021. Ms. Kiyota grew up in Niwot, Colo. She received a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Colorado Boulder and is now director of global learning at Fivetran, an automated data handling company based in Oakland, California.
Mr. Lin grew up in Fremont, California. He received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from San Francisco State University and is a project manager at Intuitive Surgical, based in Sunnyvale, California. Both work remotely from their home in Erie.
Mr. Lin chose an engagement ring with a yellow diamond and then enlisted Ms. Kiyota’s photographer cousin to help him plan a surprise proposal on January 15, 2023. Ms. Kiyota thought that her cousin wanted their help to try on some new locations in Boulder for future shoots — until Mr. Lin asked her to marry him.
“I was very surprised,” she said.
The couple immediately began planning the wedding. They knew they wanted to get married in a year, but Colorado would be cold then, so they set their sights on Hawaii. Ms. Kiyota also had a family relationship with her uncle, who had grown up in Lahaina before moving to Colorado. But when wildfires hit Maui in August 2023, the couple wasn’t sure how or if they should proceed.
“We wanted to make sure we were sensitive to the local people who live there,” Ms Kiyota said. They eventually called their vendors, some of whom live near Lahaina, and she said they encouraged her to go ahead as planned. Their florist was delighted to have visitors and tourists coming back, Ms Quijota said.
After signing their marriage licenses at home on Christmas Day 2023 (Colorado allows self-officiating), the couple headed to Maui.
Mr. Lin and Ms. Kiyota celebrated their wedding on Jan. 5 at the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua, Maui, with about 100 guests. King Alamshahi, a friend from San Francisco, led the ceremony, which took place on a lawn overlooking the beach.
Thoughts of the fire were still present for many, including her uncle who lost a friend in the fire. But Ms Quijota said the difficulty was balanced with joy.
Just before the reception the sun was setting and the couple was photographed on a cliff overlooking the ocean. “We were able to take a deep breath, relax a bit and soak it all in,” Ms Quijota said. At that moment, there was no sound except the crashing of the ocean waves.