Chardei and Allie began their relationship through a dating app. Chardei, originally from Hauula, Hawaii, is 28 years old and is finishing up school as a psychology major. Allie, 23, is in the Navy and from Annapolis, MD. She was stationed in Pearl Harbor when they met in January 2015. When the two finally got off the dating app and made plans to meet face-to-face, they spent an entire weekend together and both knew there was something special going on.
As soon as Chardei left that night Allie told her friend she really liked her, and that she hoped the feeling was mutual so they could see each other again.
Says Allie: “I texted her the next day to join my friends and I for dinner and she agreed. We have been together ever since.”
Chardei: I knew I was going to marry Allie from pretty much our first weekend together. We’d talked about getting married before she would began traveling a lot with the Navy. I had hinted at her that I might be proposing before the new year. For months Allie kept showing me rings she liked, but I had already found the one. I wasn’t sure how my family would take the news, not because they didn’t support the relationship, but because they’re a little old fashioned about how long a couple should be together and we didn’t quite meet that time line. So I waited until the day I was proposing to bring my family in on it.
Allie: I knew from our first weekend together that Chardei was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. My ship was in dry dock when we first met so we were lucky enough to spend a lot of time together. We knew we wanted to get married but decided to wait for a while since we knew her family wouldn’t approve of how fast we were moving. My family was coming out in March so we figured that would be the best time to have our wedding. Chardei knew I had always wanted a big proposal so I kept shopping for rings and showing her ones I liked. Little did I know she already had one. I felt like we were running out of time to plan a March wedding so I was putting some pressure on her and asking her when she was gonna propose. Christmas came around and I was really hoping she would propose then.
Chardei: It was Christmas day and I knew Allie would have expected me to throw the ring in with her gifts that morning, so I didn’t do that. I waited. I told my parents and my sister and they jumped on it instantly. My mom even came up with the idea of putting it in the dessert. My sister made signs and I kept Allie distracted while everyone was working. At dessert time I brought her out a cupcake with the ring in it. We told her there was a filling and she had to eat it with a fork.
Allie: I opened all my gifts and there was no ring so I figured, maybe another day. Dessert came around and Chardei told me that the cupcake had a special filling so I had to eat it with a fork. I was expecting a cream filling so I didn’t think anything of it. When I first came across the ring I had no idea what it was, so I was scraping it with my fork as to not offend her mom.
Chardei: She dug in and after a few bites I saw her make a funny face. She found something hard in her food and didn’t know what to do with it. It was great. While she was digging it out, my sister and parents held up ‘Will you marry me?’ signs. She finally discovered it was a ring and looked up to see me kneeling and my family holding signs. She started crying. We pulled off the surprise.
Allie: When I realized what it was I started crying. I was finally going to marry the love of my life.
The brides were married March 12th 2016 in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Photos by Edge Photography.
The brides to be had an engagement shoot with photographer Rob of Edge Photography.
The natural beauty of their surroundings provided the perfect backdrop for Allie and Chardei.
Case in point.
They had limited time to plan their March wedding so these two got straight to work!
“Kiss me out of the bearded barleyNightly, beside the green, green grass
Swing, swing, swing the spinning step …”