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 of the “Fast” movie franchise. & Furious.” The discovery occurred in January 2018 while they were at a party at their friend's house in San Francisco, where they both lived.
“I loved that the story was about friends and family,” Kiyota, 38, said. “Elliott had a very different vision. He said, 'I love cars,'” she said, laughing.
“I've never met anyone, especially a girl, who had the same interest,” Lin, 34, said. She knew she had to act. “This could be my chance,” she said. “This could be the one.”
After the party, Mr. Lin texted Ms. Kiyota to ask her out. She said yes, but she wasn't clear if their friendship was really taking a romantic turn. “She was a little confused because she had known him for six years,” she said. “I wasn't sure if it was a real date or a hangout.”
In March of that year, they gathered to enjoy 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 dining out. At the end of the night, Mr. Lin accompanied Ms. Kiyota home and gave her a gift she had brought: a box of macarons. These gestures made Mr. Lin's intentions clear, Ms. Kiyota 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. Kiyota's house and, before falling asleep, asked her to be her girlfriend. She said she did.
Kiyota knew things were going well when he introduced Lin, who comes from a “polite and quiet” family, to his “very loud and very unruly” family in Colorado that fall. “He already knew how important my family was to me,” Kiyota said. “Seeing him make that effort was the best,” he said. “He fit right in.”
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In late 2018, Ms. Kiyota told Mr. Lin that she was in love and he said he was too. Ms. Kiyota moved into Mr. Lin's condominium 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 a yellow diamond engagement ring would be cute. “I like bright colors,” she said. Mr. Lin took note.
The couple moved to Erie, Colorado, in December 2021. Ms. Kiyota grew up in Niwot, Colorado. She received a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Colorado Boulder and is now a global learning program manager at Fivetran. an automated data movement 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. They both work remotely from their home in Erie.
Mr. Lin chose a yellow diamond engagement ring and then recruited Ms. Kiyota's photographer cousin to help plan a surprise proposal on January 15, 2023. Ms. Kiyota thought her cousin wanted her help to trying out some new locations in Boulder for future photo shoots, until Mr. Lin asked her to marry him.
“I was very surprised,” he said.
The couple began planning the wedding immediately. They knew they wanted to get married in a year, but it would be cold in Colorado then, so they set their sights on Hawaii. Ms. Kiyota also had a family connection 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 locals who live there,” Ms. Kiyota said. They finally called her providers, some of whom live near Lahaina, and she said they encouraged her to continue as planned. Her florist was excited to see visitors and tourists returning, Kiyota said.
After signing their marriage licenses at home on Christmas Day 2023 (Colorado allows self-solemnization), the couple headed to Maui.
Mr. Lin and Ms. Kiyota celebrated their wedding on January 5 at the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua, Maui, with about 100 guests. King Alamshahi, a friend of San Francisco, led the ceremony, which took place on a lawn overlooking the beach.
Many were still thinking about the wildfire, including his uncle, who lost a friend in the fire. But Kiyota said the difficulty was balanced by joy.
Shortly 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 little, and take it all in,” Kiyota said. At this moment, there was no sound except the crash of ocean waves.
