After Several ‘Unofficial Dates,’ the Real Romance Began

The first time Isabella Delgado Reyes realized that Andrew Charles Sublett really liked her was when the two were having lunch together on Feb. 17, 2010 at the University of California, Berkeley. He brought her a tube of mini M&M’s, her favorite candy.

She immediately gave it back to him, though not because she didn’t appreciate the gesture.

It was Lent and Ms. Reyes had given up candy. “I thought he was just pranking me,” she said, “and tossed the M&M’s back at him, much to his confusion.”

The two, both now 32, had met on Aug. 26, 2009 in Ms. Reyes’s dorm room. “It was a little bit of a twist of fate,” Mr. Sublett said. “A few other people from my high school went to U.C. Berkeley and one happened to be Isabella’s roommate.”

Ms. Reyes and Mr. Sublett hit it off right away, and soon began spending time together, sitting with each other at lunch at the university’s cafeteria and going out for frozen yogurt.

“I think they were unofficial dates,” Mr. Sublett said. “We were occasionally arm in arm. She would meet me after choir practice and we would walk to Yogurt Park.”

Finally, during the fall semester of their senior year of college, they went on a real date. “I kind of asked Isabella, ‘Do you want to go to dinner with me and see a show?’ We both got kind of dressed up. It felt like a real date.” After dinner, they saw “The Normal Heart” at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

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That real date led to a real romance. “After our first official date, in my mind, we were already a couple,” Ms. Reyes said. “But Andrew didn’t officially ask me to be his girlfriend until a few months later on March 18, 2013.”

Ms. Reyes, from Benicia, Calif., is an associate at the law firm Seyfarth Shaw in the San Francisco office. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and media studies from U.C. Berkeley and a law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.

Mr. Sublett is a vice president at Eastdil Secured, a real estate investment banking firm, in the San Francisco office. He has a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from U.C. Berkeley and an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Mr. Sublett grew up in Pacific Grove, Calif.

On their eight-year anniversary of being officially boyfriend and girlfriend, Mr. Sublett told Ms. Reyes they would be engaged by their nine-year anniversary. But the day before that date, Ms. Reyes said, “My friends were concerned because he hadn’t said anything and they were sure they would be involved.”

Mr. Sublett said he didn’t trust that his secret would be kept. “I told my closest friends,” he said, “but none of her friends.”

On March 18, 2022, as they walked to their anniversary dinner from their Pacific Heights neighborhood in San Francisco, they passed Mr. Sublett’s favorite spot in San Francisco, which has an expansive view of the city and bay. “I said, ‘Hey, it’s your favorite spot,’ and when I turned around, he was on one knee,” Ms. Reyes said.

The couple married June 10 at the Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with 130 guests in attendance. Matthew Capbarat, ordained by American Marriage Ministries, officiated, with Brandon Cepress participating in the ceremony; both men are college friends.

The recommended attire for the wedding was “Met Gala inspired,” or as Mr. Sublett put it, “something you always wanted to wear but thought it was a little too much.”

Ms. Reyes’s father, Peter Reyes, and brother, also Peter Reyes, wore barongs, an embroidered shirt popular in the Philippines.

Pork belly baos and popular Filipino ice cream flavors ube and mango were served to honor of Ms. Reyes’s Filipino heritage.

For their vows, Ms. Reyes sang “For Good” from the musical “Wicked.”

“I originally wanted to sing our vows,” she said. “He did not want to do that.”

The compromise was to speak the lyrics to “This I Promise You” from ’N Sync in the group’s “repeat after me” style. “But then I just started singing it,” Ms. Reyes said. “He joined me and we continued. Nothing like that will ever happen again.”