LOVE STORIES
Persistence pays off for suitor turned husband

By Tanya Bricking Leach
Advertiser Staff Writer

Lisa Miyashiro, a Windward district resource teacher in physical education and health, married Don Ynigues, a candy broker, on Feb. 28. But that was only after repeatedly resisting his advances. The two met seven years ago playing soccer, where they ran into each other both on and off the field. Photo by Sri Maiava

Don Ynigues and Lisa Miyashiro met seven years ago playing soccer. They were on coed teams that traveled from island to island to compete. So on Kaua'i, Maui, the Big Island and O'ahu, they kept running into each other on the field and off. They'd say hi and talk story.

But the gym teacher resisted the candy man's advances. He told her how much he liked her, and she told him she wanted to be friends. He persisted.

"I did kind of give up" after the second time he asked her out, he said. "But the more I saw her, playing soccer with her, the more I wanted to be with her."

So, after a soccer game on Maui, after the players went out for drinks at Moose McGillycuddy's in Lahaina, they had their first kiss on Front Street. That was about four years ago. They dated ever since.

"Don always told me we were going to be together," Miyashiro said. "But it took me a while to figure it out."

He proposed last summer on Miyashiro's 34th birthday at what he told her was a birthday party for someone else at Rumour's nightclub in the Ala Moana Hotel. The music stopped, the proposal flashed up on a screen in the club, and Ynigues interrupted Miyashiro from talking to her friends. He got down on his knees and asked her to marry him.

"After three times asking her, she finally said yes after coming down from the shock," he said.

Friends say Ynigues, 45, a divorced father who's a food broker, and Miyashiro, 34, a Windward district resource teacher in physical education and health, are a good match.

"They're cute together," said Keri Shepherd, who has known Miyashiro for about 15 years and was her wedding planner. "Nothing upsets Donny. Lisa's very organized. They're opposites, but they complement each other."

They married Feb. 28 at Shriners Waimanalo Beach Club at the end of a rainy week that left Waimanalo practically flooded. The weather helped tie up traffic, and two days before the wedding, the groom was two hours late for the rehearsal.

"I felt like I was right in the middle of a 'Sex and the City' episode where Charlotte was getting married and everything was going wrong," the bride said.

But the groom showed up on time on the wedding day, and the only memorable near-mishap was when someone handed his son, 14-year-old best man Travis Ynigues, an umbrella, and he held it over himself until someone nudged him and mouthed that it was supposed to be held over the bride and groom.

Right after the couple said their vows, the skies opened with a downpour over the wedding party, and everyone told them it was a blessing and ran inside to a rose-filled reception.

The bride is now Lisa Ynigues. They plan to honeymoon in Europe this summer.

Tanya Bricking Leach writes about relationships for The Advertiser. If you'd like her to tell your love story next, send the details to tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or call her at 525-8026.