Tricky strategy, but it worked.

Tran, a 1994 Punahou grad, first met McCauley, a 1994 McKinley grad, back when they had mutual friends in high school. By the time she returned to Hawai'i after college on the Mainland, she barely recognized him.

When he asked for a date, he suddenly had her attention.

She tried to play it cool at first, explaining that she had plans to move to Florida and start a business.

It didn't take long, though, before he was all she could think about.

"He's really laid back, and he has a really good heart," she said. "and I find that really rare nowadays."

He was equally smitten.

Her beauty and independence captivated him, he said, and he had a feeling early on that he wanted to spend forever with her.

"Your whole life, you wonder who you're going to marry," he said. "I just had this feeling from the first time we met."

Then the guy who had never lived anywhere but Hawai'i volunteered to move to Orlando with her and help her with her souvenir business.

First, though, he wanted to make sure they were engaged.

He was into Michael Jordan at the time, and he asked Tran to watch a taped Chicago Bulls game with him. She was bored and having trouble keeping her eyes open.

The surprise came at the end of the game. There, at the end of the same video, McCauley had recorded himself getting down on one knee and proposing. She said yes.

It was a long engagement that spanned two years in Florida, nearly two more years here, and what seemed like an eternity of tests of their compatibility. That went hand-in-hand with moving in together and spending most of their time trying to make their business succeed.

"It really taught us a lot about marriage before we even got married," Tran said. They had to learn patience and compromise and how to give in.

The turning point came when Sept. 11 happened. McCauley and Tran decided they wanted their life together to begin at home, so they moved back to Hawai'i.

They married Aug. 29 at the Kahala Mandarin before about 200 guests and flowers and centerpieces they had made themselves.

The 28-year-old McCauley newlyweds say marriage is better than dating because it gives you a partner to share life with, day in and day out, even when things aren't easy.

"I never had any doubts," the groom said. "I think it's all about mindset. You make up your mind to work things out. My friends all say: 'You're lucky.' I say you make up your mind to make things work."

He says that's what love and marriage are all about.