Magic was in the air the first time Michelle Navarro and Christopher Zegunis met. It was 10 a.m. on a Saturday in November 2016, and the two were the first to arrive for a class at the Magic Castle, a private club for magicians in Los Angeles.
“We started talking and I thought he’s a cute guy,” Ms Navarro said.
Their instant connection developed over the next six weeks as they learned and practiced magic tricks together. “The crashes developed,” Ms. Navarro said.
On the last day of class, Mr. Zegounis made his move. “I like this girl,” he said. “I should just ask her out.” He invited her to dinner at a gastropub called Public School 310 in Culver City, California.
The date lasted all night, as they went from the restaurant to a bar. “He was a lot of fun,” she said. “I was laughing all the time.”
Ms. Navarro, 39, senior director of media services at Fox Corporation, was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in industrial and systems engineering. Mr. Zegunis, 53, a logistics coordinator at Toms Shoes, grew up in Rockford, Ill., and moved to Los Angeles 25 years ago.
They moved to Los Angeles together in August 2019, a few months before the coronavirus pandemic began. “It was a big test,” said Mr. Zegounis. “I was never tired. It was never like, “Who did I get myself into?” Maybe then I realized that this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
Ms. Navarro said her commitment to Mr. Zegunis became clear to her when she realized how much she relied on Mr. Zegunis’s support through daily struggles, such as work stress, but also during long periods of grief, such as the death of her mother in 2019. “He was really there for me,” she said. “There was no hesitation. He was all in.”
Early on, the two bonded over their shared love of Disneyland. “It seems trivial, but it’s a microcosm of our whole relationship and how aligned we are on so many things,” Mr. Zegounis said.
He described one of their first visits to the theme park, in June 2019, as one of the “best times of my life”. Ms. Navarro called it “euphoric.”
“If you go to Disneyland with the wrong person, it can be a mess,” Mr. Zegunis said. “There’s a certain mindset that you have to have to get it right. There’s a certain hustle to make sure you take certain rides, there’s a strategy. We’re both so much in that mindset.”
The two are regulars at the park now, visiting once or twice each year. It has become an even more special place since the proposal of Mr. Zegounis.
In April 2022, when she was at a magic show with Ms. Navarro, all the audience members were asked to write down a secret. All secrets were then read aloud anonymously.
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“His was, ‘I’m going to propose to my girlfriend on her birthday,'” Ms. Navarro said. A month earlier, Mr. Zegounis had drafted a proposal and written the secret as a way to commit to the schedule, without expecting it to be revealed. “It almost blew up in my face,” he said of his plan.
Fortunately, he convinced Ms. Navarro that he had written a different secret: “I’m Batman.”
A few days before Ms. Navarro turned 38 in August, her grandmother died. Mr Zegounis had already planned an elaborate series of events, including a surprise party and magic show, to celebrate her birthday and propose, but decided to hold off on the second part.
“I was calling our friends and asking if I should go ahead with it and my maid of honor said, ‘Do you want to be the first place where she tells her friends and family she got engaged at her grandmother’s funeral?’
Instead, wait until they visit Disneyland two weeks later. During a photo shoot planned by Ms. Navarro, Mr. Zegounis pulled out a diamond ring that belonged to her mother and with which he wanted to propose. He got down on one knee and asked Ms. Navarro to marry him. Afterwards, they had a steak dinner at Napa Rose at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa, followed by drinks at the poolside bar with some friends.
When it came time to choose the wedding location, there was no debate. “He told me out of the blue that we were getting married in Hawaii and I had no complaints,” Mr Zegunis said.
Ms. Navarro’s love for the island dates back more than a decade. “In 2011, I traveled to Hawaii for work and fell in love with this village,” she said, referring to the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island. “I ate alone and thought that one day it would be nice to come here with someone I love.”
Her wish came true as 49 guests joined her and Mr. Zegunis for their wedding at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on June 23. The couple was married by Michaela Lehuanani Larson, a licensed minister in the state of Hawaii. Mr. Zegounis will take Ms. Navarro’s last name.
The daughter of close friends, Grace Corbett, sang Bruno Mars’ “Rest of My Life” as Ms Navarro walked down the aisle in the resort’s gardens. “I love Bruno Mars and my mom loved him too,” Ms Navarro said.
Ms. Navarro incorporated various local elements into the celebrations. The welcome party included a hula dancer and a ukulele performer, and during the ceremony, the bride and groom exchanged leis. At the reception, the buffet included kalua pig and poke, and performers included Polynesian drummers and fire knife dancers.
“My mom passed away five years ago and Hawaii was where we went on vacation,” Ms Navarro said. “She will always have a special place in my heart.”