When Hanna Choi decided to run her her first half marathon in January 2012, Darrin Domingo, the head trainer at her gym in Santa Clara, offered to help her train. Hanna, a personal trainer herself, took him up on the offer. The first time they hung out outside the gym, Darrin led Hanna on a trail run up the steep Los Gatos Creek Trail and then prepared her a gourmet breakfast. “I was so shocked and impressed,” recalls Hanna. “I thought, maybe I’ll give this guy a shot.” Eleven months later, while on vacation together on Hawaii’s Kauai Island, Darrin dropped to one knee and asked Hanna to marry him. The two decided to wed the following June near Portland, where Darrin went to college.
Misty Damico at Luxe Event Productions, a friend of Darrin’s, took over the wedding planning for the California-based couple. “We felt so comfortable with her leading the way—it was priceless,” recalls Darrin. “She understood the vision and executed it perfectly.” At the rehearsal dinner, held at the Northeast Portland deli/meat shop Old Salt Marketplace, they celebrated his Hawaiian and her Korean heritage, wearing traditional Korean ensembles with Hawaiian crowns and adorning guests with leis of plumeria flowers.
For their wedding ceremony at the Oregon Olive Mill at Red Ridge Farms, the couple said “I do” in the middle of a field of lavender under a pergola covered by wisteria. “We wanted a more intimate feel, and Red Ridge Farms was perfect for that,” Hanna said. Bouquets of pink and cream peonies by Blüm Floral Design decorated large farm tables where guests dined on paella prepared by Crown Paella, then danced into the night.
The two honeymooned at Kauai before returning home to Santa Clara, California, to start their next adventure: a gym called Organic Fitness in a repurposed barn that offers its members both personal training and organic farm-grown food. “We are so passionate about health and fitness,” Hanna said. “We love what we do, and we work very well together.”