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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Sunday, March 20, 2005

LOVE STORIES
Jacqueline Chong and Michael Rodrigues Jr.

Couple knew from the start lasting love was in the air

By Tanya Bricking Leach
Advertiser Staff Writer

Four years ago, when Michael Rodrigues Jr. was in his last quarter at Heald College and Jacqueline Chong was in her first, their paths crossed in the lunch room.

Michael Rodrigues Jr. and Jacqueline Chong

Bianca Photography

Rodrigues was talking to one of Chong's friends from high school, and the two caught each other's eye.

Chong remembers the words she uttered to a girlfriend: "That's going to be my baby's dad."

She could picture herself ending up with him.

So it seemed natural when they exchanged phone numbers.

Rodrigues, from Waialua, picked Chong, of Waipahu, up for their first date in his mom's car. He had driven shirtless to her house and was just putting on his shirt to go greet her when her parents pulled up to the house. It impressed Chong's mother enough that he introduced himself immediately and didn't keep her daughter out late.

"He took me right home, and I didn't think he liked me," Chong said. "But the next day we went to the carnival. And then we became a couple."

About three weeks into the relationship, Rodrigues told her he loved her. She was reluctant to say it back and wanted to save the words for his birthday. But she was falling in love with the little things, like the way he stood by her when she was sick and attentive when she needed it.

For Rodrigues, everything happened quickly.

"I pretty much just wanted to spend all my time with her," he said. "I fell in love with her pretty fast."

She was his first real girlfriend. He liked her looks, her figure, her big smile, her long hair and the way they could share jokes.

She liked his appearance (even the long sideburns he had at the time), his personality (a practical joker) and the way they always had each other laughing.

"To this day, I feel that it was fate that I met him that day," she said.

They discovered they even shared the same hobby: an interest in Volkswagens. (She has a silver 2003 Jetta. He has a matchstick-red 2002 GTI. Sometimes they each drive in club car cruises. On dates, they take turns driving.)

But yesterday, their transportation was a Navigator limousine.

It was their wedding day.

Nearly two years after he proposed via a computer slide show (that ended with a picture of an engagement ring in a box and the real-life Rodrigues down on one knee), they wed at the Hawaii Okinawa Center.

The bride planned a garden theme, complete with butterflies being released before their 360 guests. She said a long engagement gave her time to plan all the details, from the spaghetti straps on her A-line dress to the indigo dresses for her seven bridesmaids and their rhinestone butterfly hairpins.

"It's my big wedding, one that everyone dreams of when they're little," she said.

The bride, a bank loan processor, and the groom, who services garage doors, are both 23. They will live with her parents in Waipahu.

And the part about Rodrigues becoming her baby's daddy — she hopes that comes next.

"He sees it as making it legal," the bride said of the wedding. "But I see it as a big step. It's a big stepping stone for us to say, 'Now it's OK to start a family.' "