Ever wondered how members of the Tatler community met their significant others?

Read how Tatler community members including Inna Rodchenko-Highfield and Michael Lau fell in love

This Valentine's Day, you're in for a treat. Members of the Tatler community are laying it bare about how they met their significant others. From meeting at the gym and locking eyes across a catwalk, to enduring long-distance relationships, and romantic proposals with a Coca-Cola ring tab, these stories will have even the biggest sceptics believing in love. Find out who said, "I didn’t [think] he was ‘the one’ at all. In fact, you could say it was ‘hate at first sight", and take a trip down memory lane with Kayla Wong, Elaine Chen-Fernandez, Elva Ni and Mira Yeh.

Mira and V-Nee Yeh

Above Mira and V-Nee Yeh on their wedding day in 1994 (Photo: Supplied)

“I first met V-Nee at a friend’s New Year’s party in 1992 in Hong Kong. He was holding a bucket in the garden and wearing a bowler hat. I thought he was a gardener and I didn’t pay attention to him. In the summer of that same year, I wanted to learn waterskiing. Our mutual friends knew he was interested in me, so they staged a boating party and recommended him to me as a waterskiing coach. But that day I bailed at the last minute to go shopping with my best friend.

The same year, I organised a Halloween party at China Tea Club with my friends, and he showed up. This was the first time I noticed him and we were introduced. Later, one of my friends had a fake birthday party [just to set us up again]. I sat next to V-Nee and he dropped me home. He said he lived close to me, but I lived on Hong Kong Island and he lived in Kowloon. He started asking me out from that night on.

V-Nee would write poems for me almost daily back then. After three months, he proposed while we were on a boat trip. Instead of a ring, he used a tab from a Diet Coke can. I refused. In April 1993, while in Paris celebrating my mum’s birthday, he staged another proposal with both sides of our families present. Instead of giving my mum a birthday present, he gave me a big box. I opened the box, and there was another box, and inside that box was another. After the tenth box, I found a diamond ring. He knelt down, holding a bouquet of my favourite Casablanca flowers, and asked for my hand in marriage. I said ‘yes’ this time.” — Mira Yeh

Elva Ni and Vincent Ng

Above Elva Ni and Vincent Ng in 2015 (Photo: Supplied)

“We met through a TRX training session organised by a mutual friend in 2013. We were just friends at first. We’d practise yoga and have dinners together. He asked me out a year later. We have very different personalities. I’m very passionate and impulsive. He’s very calm and considerate. I like the contrast between us, as it balances us out. Our relationship is like a puzzle—we complete each other.” — Elva Ni

Florance Yip and Michael Lau

Above Michael Lau and Florance Yip in the Maldives in 2019 (Photo: Supplied)

“Michael and I met in 2004, when I was still working for Nike Hong Kong as its marketing director. Mark Parker, Nike’s CEO back then, was a fan of Michael’s art—so he asked us to approach Michael for a project. I didn’t know him personally, so I got his phone number through a friend and cold-called him. I didn’t [think] he was ‘the one’ at all. In fact, you could say it was ‘hate at first sight’, because he turned down my Nike proposal. I thought, ‘Who on Earth would turn down an opportunity to collaborate with Nike?’ But after some persuasion, he decided to join the project. As we worked together, we both discovered some good points about each other, and it gradually developed from there.” — Florance Yip

Kayla Wong and Elaine Chen-Fernandez

Above Kayla Wong and Elaine Chen- Fernandez tied the knot in September 2022 at Joshua Tree National Park in California (Photo: Supplied)

“Our story began at the Redress Design Awards in 2019. We were sitting on opposite sides of the runway and Elaine caught my eye with her [now signature] hat style. I reached out to her and we just started chatting as friends. We met during one of Hong Kong’s most turbulent times. Protests were happening and Covid-19 just hit. We would sit on the rooftop of her Soho pad and talk about everything and anything. Our conversations would flow from sunset to sunrise. We dug deep into each other’s vulnerabilities and came out holding each other stronger than ever. That was when I knew she was the one.” — Kayla Wong

Inna Rodchenko-Highfield and Tucker Highfield

Above Tucker Highfield and Inna Rodchenko-Highfield in South Africa (Photo: Supplied)

“Tucker and I had an office romance. We used to work for the same investment bank and got staffed on a deal together. This was in 2008—I was based in Singapore and he was living in Hong Kong. We joke now, but if not for the global financial crisis that year, we would not have been married. It was such an unstable time for the financial sector and we barely had anything to do, which gave us an opportunity to see each other every weekend.

I found him to be arrogant when we first met at the bank’s offsite in Vietnam. Then when we started working together I realised how smart, hardworking and sweet a person he truly was. It was so easy and fun to be with him. We had our first date in April and by September he proposed. I knew from his mother that he had already started to shop for a ring in July, but I was comfortable with the idea. I think when you know, you know, and you should trust your heart. When we would say goodbye at the airport at the end of the weekends, I remember how hard it was to not see him for the next five days—it really hurt. I think that was a pretty good indication that he was the one. And here we are, almost 15 years later.”— Inna Rodchenko-Highfield

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Valentine's Day Vday 2023 Love stories Tatler couples