She has defined her life both with achievements and bumps in the road.

And she credits 38-year-old cameraman and editor Mike Yasutake for being there to help her ride it out.

They met in a typical network TV way. She was networking at a party.

It was 1996, and Richardson had just started her reporting career for KGMB-9. Yasutake, whose business card defined him as a freelance television workaholic, was at the party shooting video of guests. Richardson went up and introduced herself, hoping to make a contact in the business.

Yasutake's first impression had little to do with work.

"I was floored," he said. "She was the prettiest woman I had ever seen, and she just had this energy. I was drawn to her right away."

He said he tried to sneak video of her, but he never got the courage to ask her out — that night.

About a month later, they ran into each other again at a nightclub. He asked for her phone number, but he didn't call right away because he went away on a trip. The waiting almost turned her off.

"She tells me to this day I almost blew it," he said.

But a lunch date turned into plans for a dinner date, and while they both said they weren't looking for anything serious, they knew they had something special going on. They quickly fell into a deep relationship.

Then in 2000, Richardson, a Kamehameha Schools and University of Pennsylvania grad, got a job at NBC, station KGW in Portland, Ore. She had been sending résumé tapes to the Mainland because she wanted to advance her career.

But moving was not an option for Yasutake because of his freelance business and his contacts in Hawai'i. They decided to embark on a long-distance relationship. Richardson packed her bags and said goodbye, with lots of tears, and friends and family asking why she would leave behind a wonderful relationship.

They spent the next two years flying back and forth between Honolulu and Portland. The reunions were always full of tears and happiness, Richardson said, but the goodbyes were extremely painful.

"I always had this numb feeling," she said. Once, Yasutake visited her and they spent a great day snowboarding at Mount Hood. On the way home, he started singing, and she broke into tears because she missed those moments so much.

The turning point came when Richardson's dad, Robert Richardson, died of cancer in 2001 and she came home for the funeral.

"Mike was right there by my side," she said, and she knew they were meant to be together. "I saw Mike was part of my family."

Eventually, she was offered a reporting job in Seattle, but for the first time, she chose her boyfriend over her career. She came home in 2002 to anchor and report for KITV, and she says things finally came together professionally and personally for both of them.

When she turned 30 in March 2003, she asked for a wok for her birthday. Instead, Yasutake gave her a package of children's jewelry. Richardson didn't realize at first that he had hidden an antique engagement ring inside. She accepted, and he took her to a dinner where friends and family were waiting. Then they turned it into a surprise for the guests when they announced their engagement.

They married Aug. 7, on what may have been the most humid day of the year, at the Kahalu'u Fishpond on the Windward side of the island.

Former state Chief Justice William S. Richardson, the bride's uncle, officiated, and the pair read love letters to each other. Even when she got to the part in her letter about her father's death, the bride didn't cry. But the groom did.

He lightened the moment at the reception, when he and his old bandmates surprised Richardson with a rendition of the Cheap Trick song, "I Want You to Want Me."

Their wedding had a TV theme, from the invitations to the cake decorated to look like a loop of film. They also documented the event on high-definition television.

But the part that made their relationship work wasn't scripted at all. It was something that grew out of finding themselves and coming back to each other.

"Some people can be in the same house and be farther apart than we were," the groom said. "It ended up just making our relationship even stronger. Our love got us through it."