Ryan Dang didn't make the best first impression on Christina Lee.

They met at a housewarming party in August 2002 in San Francisco, where they both live. A mutual friend introduced the two because they were both from Hawai'i.

But Dang, who had been drinking that night, couldn't remember Lee's name — or where on O'ahu she was from, or where she now worked. Lee wasn't impressed. She didn't even want to take his business card.

"I avoided him the whole night," said Lee, 29, an internal audit manager for Alexander & Baldwin Inc. in San Francisco, who grew up in Hawai'i Kai. "I was like, 'Stay away.' "

Three weeks later, Lee was waiting for a bus outside her apartment building in San Francisco's Inner Richmond District one morning — as she had done for more than a year — when she spotted Dang.

He lived just a block away.

Lee recognized him immediately and quickly called a friend on her cell phone, hoping Dang wouldn't come over. But he did anyway.

This time, he remembered her name.

They started talking on the bus ride downtown and, to her surprise, they hit it off. By the end of the ride, they had exchanged numbers.

"He was so funny," Lee said. "I thought, 'He's a nice a guy after all.' "

But Dang broke all four of her cardinal rules for dating: He's an accountant, younger than she is, from Hawai'i, and the youngest sibling in his family.

Just like her.

"I thought he was attractive and very witty," Lee said. "But it was more 'I wonder who I could set him up with?' "

But weeks of instant messages and dinners convinced her otherwise. Within a month, they were officially an item. What really sealed the deal was a trip to Hawai'i that Christmas.

Lee's mother had died in 2001 of liver cancer, an event that prompted her move to San Francisco. On their first trip back home as a couple, Lee took Dang to her mother's grave. She wanted to "introduce" him to her.

"We were ready to go and he asked, 'Can I say something?' " Lee recalled. "That totally caught me off guard."

He promised her mother he would always protect Lee and take care of her, that he would do his best to make her happy.

"I was just bawling," Lee said. "That's when I realized this guy was for real. His heart is so pure."

After returning to San Francisco, Dang moved into Lee's one-bedroom apartment, which wasn't easy at first. They argued a lot, mostly about finances.

"I had to decide that I was going to give him 100 percent," Lee said. "Every time we'd argue, I'd say, 'This isn't working out.' I had to commit. Everything changed once I made that mental decision."

In May 2004, the couple returned to O'ahu to visit family. That's when Dang asked Lee's father for her hand in marriage. He even went to her mother's grave to ask for her blessing.

But Lee's father blew the surprise.

In Korean culture, families plan formal engagement parties where parents come together and the couple exchanges rings, Lee said. An engagement is discussed openly.

"I had to tell him that in American culture it's different, it's a surprise," said Lee, who was born in Seoul. "Then he said, 'Oh, forget what I said.' "

For weeks, Lee anticipated the proposal. She knew from her father it was going to happen in September. And initially, Dang was going to propose during a trip to Las Vegas, in a gondola ride at the Venetian. (Lee had always wanted to get engaged in Italy — but the real one.)

But the weekend went by and nothing happened, at least, not until their their second anniversary, during dinner at the Top of the Mark on Nob Hill.

After an unusually long toast, Dang dropped to one knee and proposed.

"It was such a surprise," Lee said.

The couple tied the knot on Oct. 22 at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in front of 250 guests.

Lee and Dang now live in their own two-bedroom townhouse in the East Bay. When they're not busy unpacking, they love hosting dinner parties and Texas Hold 'Em tournaments.

"The best part of marriage, for me, is to know you have a life partner who loves you no matter what," Lee said. "That is such an unreal feeling ... We always say we're so lucky we found each other."

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.