“But through the years, we both stayed faithful to each other,” she added.
Following her high-school graduation, Ms. Giles shortened the distance between them when she started attending the University of Pennsylvania. “We spent a lot of time and money on Megabuses,” Ms. Giles said. In 2017, after graduating from college, she eliminated it entirely by moving into Mr. Luo’s apartment in Lower Manhattan, where they still live.
Ms. Giles, now 27, holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and is pursuing a master’s degree in adult-gerontology primary care nursing at N.Y.U. A registered nurse, she works in home hospice at Cavalry Hospital in the Bronx and in oncology and palliative care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.
Mr. Luo, 28, holds a bachelor’s degree in business from N.Y.U. and works in production at Jono Pandolfi Designs, a pottery maker in Union City, N.J.
They became engaged in June 2020, after Mr. Luo proposed at a cabin in the Poconos owned by Ms. Giles’s parents. During his proposal, Mr. Luo said to Ms. Giles, “You are the one.” Unbeknown to him, Ms. Giles, who wanted their engagement “to be more of a mutual exchange,” as she put it, had those same exact words engraved on a watch that she gave to Mr. Luo after he gave her a ring.
On March 19, the couple were married at the home of Ms. Giles’s parents in Carpinteria. Alexx Temeña, who was ordained a Universal Life minister for the occasion, officiated before 76 guests, all of whom were vaccinated.
“Our commitment to love ourselves and each other has been our greatest accomplishment,” the bride said two days after the wedding. “It has not always been easy, but it has always been a labor of love and right for both of us to be partners in life.”
