“Why should it always be the guy who asks the girl? So I decided to ask him back! Marriage is a two-way thing.”
Li-Wei & Weng
Love is full of traditions, but what happens when a couple knows that their next milestone moment would be all the more meaningful if they made it their own?
That’s what happened with Weng and Li-Wei, who found themselves proposing to each other at the same time—both down on one knee, ring in hand, doubling over with laughter.
Both journalists, they met on assignment and began dating shortly thereafter. After a few years together they knew they wanted to get married, so it was only a matter of deciding when Weng would pop the question. He hinted that he was going to ask during a trip to the UK they had planned for the coming winter, which worked for Li-Wei as the only thing she wanted was to be proposed to in the snow.
‘Snow is a big request’, Weng admits, ‘But I wasn’t worried because I used to live in Durham. It always snowed in Durham, it was always freezing! But in the days leading up to the planned proposal, there was no snow. I panicked. There was one day that forecasted snow, but it kept on moving around!’
They pushed it back until the very last day of their holiday, when snow was forecasted but not until that evening. They pushed ahead and went out to the river in Durham. Even though the snow was still on its way, Weng got down on one knee. But as he got ready to launch into his pre-rehearsed speech, he found he couldn’t remember a word he’d prepared. While he was trying to remember, Li-Wei got down on her knee as well. ‘She was counter proposing!’
‘I came up with the idea that I should propose back’, she says, ‘If he’s going to ask me, I should ask him back as well!’
Weng said he cried more of the two. ‘I was sobbing and shrieking then burst into tears’. They went back into town and were greeted by a picture-perfect snowfall.
They designed the ring together before their trip. After emailing with their consultant for a week, they’d created a design that Weng found and Li-Wei perfected. ‘Li-Wei would offer her input, and I would offer my input. It was all very seamless.’ They wanted something that would be practical and comfortable for everyday wear, so decided on a sleek finish. But Weng was also drawn to the intricacy of traditional designs, so incorporated a custom band on the green sapphire engagement ring.
Li-Wei said she was a part of the design process because she’s admittedly ‘impatient as hell.’ She says she wanted to see the design come to life and when ‘I tried it on and it was love at first sight’.
‘Li-Wei has always been mischievous, but also an advocate of women’s equality and equal rights’, Weng says.
Li-Wei has always wondered, ‘why should it always be the guy who asks the girl? So I decided to ask him back! Marriage is a two-way thing’.