The story of Juliette Cho and Peter S. Kim’s relationship played out like one of the romantic movies they both love. The two first met through a group of mutual friends and colleagues in New York City, where Peter still lives and where Juliette was visiting for the weekend from Washington. They felt an instant connection and decided on a first date, during which Peter was intent on sweeping Juliette off her feet. After learning that Juliette had always wanted to go to Italy and was a huge Nora Ephron fan, he decided to include her favorite movie, Sleepless in Seattle, and an Italian feast in their date. “It started off with a wonderful tasting dinner and ended with him giving me a personalized tour of New York City from the top of the Empire State Building,” says Juliette, a development manager at Make-a-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic.
As to be expected, when Peter, a senior associate at PWC, decided to propose a little more than a year later, he really decided to go all out. “I wanted to surprise Juliette, bring a little of New York to DC, and take a trip down memory lane,” he says. He enlisted the help of Juliette’s friend Jennifer Roh, a photographer, and the two came up with a plan to set up a fake gallery opening at Ulysses Room to showcase photographs signifying important milestones and memories from the couple’s relationship.
The day before the proposal Juliette got an e-mail from Jennifer inviting her to her “gallery opening.” After she arrived at Ulysses Room, Peter led her to a collection of black-and-white photos displayed on the back wall. “Jennie told me the theme of the collection was ‘moments that matter,’” says Juliette. “After perusing the collection for five minutes or so, I still wasn’t getting it, so Peter had to explain to me that these were actually moments that mattered to us.” There was a picture of an ice cream truck in New York symbolizing the walks the couple took in Central Park; an apple for the first time Peter went to University of Virginia, the bride’s alma mater; and skates as a reminder of the time they went ice-skating at New York’s Wollman Rink.
As John Legend’s “All of Me” filled the room, Peter showed Juliette to a table in the middle of the room. Hidden among the flowers on the table was a small mailbox reminiscent of the one Juliette had made for Peter on Valentine’s Day after being inspired by Disney’s Up. “Peter then got down on one knee and proposed. It was absolutely perfect!” says the bride. “I loved that he picked a venue that reminded us both so much of New York, and that he used the mailbox to tie together our Valentine’s Day memory, his love of the movie Up, and my love of the movie You’ve Got Mail.”
