Our Story
One summer day in London, Friday 31st of August 2018 to be exact, Ryan and Rachel were about to be interviewed at their church in hopes of becoming youth leaders.
Rachel walks into the waiting room to find a tall bloke wearing a bright fluorescent T-shirt. This is where Ryan and Rachel meet.
Interviewer 1: Pastor Ollie Knight
Interviewer 2: Charis
A few weeks later, Ryan joined the student fellowship at their church, where he and Rachel crossed paths again. By chance, they were placed in the same small group.
Over the next few months, they analysed each other's answers in Bible study and got to know each other a bit better.
During the small group’s Christmas social at Rachel’s flat, they discovered they would both be in Hong Kong over the holidays. They agreed to meet up while they were there.
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..and during one of their walks around Hong Kong, a stray "L" balloon flew towards them—a perfectly timed moment that became an inside joke about their mutual talent for mishaps.
*L is slang for loss, failure or setback.
They quickly discovered they had quite a bit in common, including their ability to not take life too seriously...
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...though this meant that several minor mishaps happened on their first few dates in Hong Kong which we will not get into the details of....
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Right before Rachel was about to fly back to the UK, Ryan asked her to be his girlfriend and she said yes!
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And back to London they went.
Ryan continued his gap year making Banh Mi's in a Vietnamese restaurant whilst Rachel finished her university degree.
We were both broke students but loved food, so cooking for each other became one of our love languages in our relationship.
After all the delicious meals, Rachel graduated from university and started her corporate job, while Ryan embarked on his medical school journey.
It has taken many years of growth, grace, and patience to learn how to truly love each other with all the challenges life has brought us.
Over the past 7 years, life has thrown a lot of curveballs our way and it has challenged our relationship in many different ways.
Through every challenge and season, our love for each other has somehow deepened over time, and even more, our love for God has grown as we’ve seen how faithfully He carried us through it all.
Macau, December 2025
On Christmas morning, they had breakfast at a local café with Rachel’s family. Shortly after, Rachel abandoned Ryan to get a haircut in China.
She returned from China with her brother, carrying back Hainanese chicken rice and Mango HeyTea to make up for the abandonment. Ryan then sent Rachel her Christmas present via WhatsApp: a six-minute video. Ryan insisted that it was too cringe to play the video in front of her brother, and so they moved to another room.
The video revealed Ryan singing a song he had written and filmed for her back in London. What Rachel first thought was a sweet little Christmas gift quickly became something more, as the lyrics hinted at a lifetime together. That’s when it all clicked.
Ryan got down on one knee and proposed—and she said yes!
"Ryan starts singing about marriage in the song*
in disbelief he had managed to get a ring in the past 2 weeks of us being away from each other
how did I not notice he had a ring?!!?
We are deeply thankful for all our friends and family who have supported us, prayed for us, and lifted up our relationship along the way. Above all, we are grateful to God, who has faithfully held two imperfect people together and made it all work.
We’re so excited to get married and can’t wait to celebrate with you—and share many more adventures together in the years to come.
