About her:
Name: Candace J. Lee
Hometown: New York City
Occupation: Professional paper-grader and baby-sitter (English teacher at Ann Arbor's Huron High School)
Family: Older sister to Brandon and Pamela
Most prized possession: Her engagement ring!
What she misses most about NYC: Friends & family, being able to walk to places, Pommes Frites, Veneiro's, cheap Chinese food, the bagels...basically the food...
What she finds amusing about Ann Arbor: The fact that everything revolves around football and how you can explain where you are from by using your right palm because the state of Michigan looks like a mitten

About him:
Name: Clement Y. Chow
Favorite Former hometown: San Diego, CA
Occupation: Gene hunter and mouse tamer (Third-year graduate student at the University of Michigan)
How he spends his evenings: Cooking for Candace
Family: Older brother to Jeremy and Melanie
Most prized possession: Newly purchased 2006 Silver Honda Civic
Things he hates: The cold weather! Digging out a car!
Moment most proud of: In first grade, he threw up on a kid's head during choir practice.

How they met:
Candace and Clement met in a land far, far away called Cornell. Candace distinctly remembers meeting Clement at the CBS (Cornell's Chinese Bible Study, the campus fellowship they attended) Newcomers' Picnic during their freshman year because they sat at the same table. Clement has no recollection of this event and only recalls that Candace "hated" him during that first year of college. In her defense, Candace explains that she did not hate Clement but was simply wary of overly-friendly guys. She, being from the East Coast, had no idea that people from the West Coast could be friendly with the opposite sex without having ulterior motives.

During their sophomore year, Candace noticed that Clement was spending a lot of time at A8, the townhouse in which she lived with five other CBS sophomore girls. Clement claimed he came over to enjoy the quietness of their townhouse so that he could study. Since he was around ALL the time, it was only natural that Candace would start talking to Clement more and to her surprise, she found that Clement provided great company and friendship. When he wasn’t making fun of her many idiosyncrasies, he talked with her about anything from the weather and food at Cornell to many of life’s deeper issues. Thus marked "the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

How he asked her out:
It was senior year of college. Candace was planning on heading back to NYC to pursue a graduate degree in teaching and Clement was waiting to hear from the rest of the graduate school programs to which he had applied. So far, he was planning on moving to Ann Arbor, to attend the University of Michigan. Knowing that he'd be halfway across the country, Candace sometimes wondered if she'd ever see Clement again. She grudgingly admitted to herself that she would miss having him around...

Unbeknownst to Candace, Clement was also wondering if he would ever see her again. He had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that the reason was not only because he would miss teasing her but because he cared about her more deeply. He knew if he didn't say something soon, they would be off on their separate ways after graduation. Thus, one early spring evening, Clement gathered up his courage, loaded up on three cups of coffee, and knocked on Candace's door asking if they "could talk."

After the most awkward conversation of their entire friendship, Clement left, relieved that he hadn't died halfway through his confession of feelings, and Candace did some soul-searching with the aid of her housemates. The next evening, Candace and Clement talked again, and they made their relationship official. Ironically, it was April 1st so they had a hard time convincing their friends that they were not playing a practical joke but were in fact serious.

The proposal:
On November 24, 2004, Clement asked Candace to marry him. And, she said yes!

Clement had planned to propose to Candace on the 24th well in advance. On a previous visit, he stole two of Candace's stuffed animals, a duck and a bear. Clement then embarked on a project that would suck every ounce of creativity out of him. He decided to write a picture book of sorts. Modeled after common children's books, he made a picture book of his relationship with Candace and titled it Chapter One. Using pictures of the duck and bear, which respectively represent Clement and Candace, he told a story that outlined the major events of their relationship.

So, on November 24, Clement surprised Candace when she got home from work. He proceeded to present and read Chapter One. When the story came to the part where Clement proposes, he put the book aside, got on one knee, and asked Candace to be his wife. Thus began Chapter Two.