From the moment Marc Julius Reyes laid eyes on Elaiza Joyce Ramos, he was smitten. “Elaiza was the only girl at school that caught my interest on Day 1,” Mr. Reyes said.
But this love-at-first-sight tale, which began on June 13, 2011, with two high school sophomores at a school in Quezon City, Philippines, didn’t truly begin until January 2013.
“We became seatmates as assigned by our teacher,” Ms. Ramos said. “For almost all classroom activities we were partners.”
The two had messaged regularly about assignments. But several weeks later, there was a shift and their messages became more personal.
“Marc is the mysterious type, so when he finally opened up to me, I learned a different side of Marc, and that’s when I started to fall for him,” Ms. Ramos, now 26, said.
Mr. Reyes, also 26, was taken, too. “I admired her for being goal driven even at a young age,” he said. “It was like she already knew what she wanted to achieve in the future. She made me want to come to school every day.”
Because Ms. Ramos’s parents were strict, it was hard for the two of them to spend much time together. But on July 7, 2013, the day after Mr. Reyes’s 16th birthday, he told her that spending a few hours with her would be the best birthday gift.
“I liked him already but I still hadn’t told him,” Ms. Ramos said. “I wasn’t sure if he felt the same way about me. But I immediately said yes to having a street food date with him. We had fishball, kikiam and kwek-kwek with vinegar sauce. The date cost around $2.”
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Ten days later, the pair became an official couple. “I popped the question during class break,” Mr. Reyes said. “I sneakily gave her snacks and asked her to be my girl. When she said yes, I could not contain my feelings, but I had to. We exchanged secret looks as no one in our class knew about our relationship.”
The two happily dated — in secret — for two years. But in December 2014, as college freshmen, they made a tough call.
“We decided to end our relationship as we were at different universities at that time,” Ms. Ramos said. She also did not want to disappoint her parents who expected her to solely focus on her studies.
Ms. Ramos, an accounts receivable analyst on the finance team at IBM Business Services in Quezon City, Philippines, has a bachelor’s degree in finance and financial management from Far Eastern University in Quezon City, Philippines. She grew up in Bulacan, a province in the Philippines.
Mr. Reyes, who works in information technology at PLDT, formerly known as Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, has a bachelor’s degree from STI College, formerly known as Systems Technology Institute in Quezon City, Philippines. Mr. Reyes grew up in Caloocan City in the Philippines, where the couple now lives.
Mr. Reyes said that although it was incredibly challenging, he “still tried to understand that maybe this was the best thing for us.” Every birthday and holiday, though, he would send her a short message.
He feared she might become the one who got away. But, Mr. Reyes said, “I decided to risk it and wait for Elaiza,” without dating anyone else.
In June 2021, some high school classmates planned a small reunion. As soon as the two saw one another, Ms. Ramos said, “I felt the butterflies again.” Weeks went by, and they realized they were talking on the phone or messaging every day. On Sept. 26, 2021, Ms. Ramos agreed once again to be Mr. Reyes’s girlfriend.
“He immediately brought me to his family’s house to formally introduce me,” Ms. Ramos said.
Ms. Ramos introduced him to her family the next day. “Our relationship was now approved on both sides,” Ms. Ramos said. “So, no more sneaky dates for us.”
Mr. Reyes proposed to Ms. Ramos on July 9, 2023, while on vacation, in the perfect place for a true Disney princess fan like Ms. Ramos — Hong Kong Disneyland. Ms. Ramos had told Mr. Reyes how much she loved Aurora from Sleeping Beauty when they were still in high school.
“When I proposed she kept telling me how amused she was that I still remembered those details she told me years ago,” Mr. Reyes said.
The two were wed April 17 by the Rev. Jun Meneses, a Roman Catholic priest with the Parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Antipolo, Philippines, with 150 guests in attendance.
A reception followed at the nearby Jamesville Resort and Hotel, at which Ms. Ramos said, “We decided to have food carts of our favorite date snacks from high school, such as Potato Corner Fries and pizza from Pizzaderia.”
“Our love story took longer than usual, but I am happy that it has a happy ending,” Mr. Reyes said. “Every time Elaiza asks me why I waited for her instead of looking for someone else, I always tell her that I could not picture myself marrying and building a future with any girl other than her. She is my first love.”
