Valentines speak of love, marriage and e-mail letters
Absence made the hearts grow fonder
They met while working in Washington, D. C. in 1998 on the Jim Lehrer News Hour, dated, and a year later, went separate ways.
WHEN IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES e-mail kept them together.
Laura first socialized with Michael Million at a party the staff attended. Several weeks later “we had our first date—going to a sushi restaurant in a D. C. snowstorm.”
When Mike picked her up for that first date, Laura recalls, he brought a bone for her dog.
Several months later, Laura Million went to Mexico where she worked as a reporter, and Michael moved to Los Angeles to attend the American Film Institute.
“E-mails kept us together,” says the Wilton Dr. resident. They both returned to Washington after a year’s absence.
It was in 2005 that the pair decided to wed, planning a “destination” wedding at Laura’s family’s cabin in Oregon.
They moved to Los Angeles in 2008 where they are raising daughter Chloe, 5 and son Mason, 2. Laura is the producer of KCRW’s “Left, Right and Center” radio show; Mike is a writer/director.
Matchmaker waits seven years
LONG-DISTANCE phone calls kept the romance flourishing.
Halloween is David Riberi’s favorite holiday. That’s because it was the day he and Gina went on their first date. It took seven years to make it happen.
David’s college friend Phillip met Gina while they were both in law school at Boston University. Phillip thought the two should get together. They managed to have one date in New York.
It wasn’t until David came to New York City for his brother’s debut with the Metropolitan Opera that the two met again. “When I first met David, I felt like I had known him all my life,” said Gina.
David invited her to a family brunch where 60 members of the Riberi family were in attendance. “Fortunately, I sat with the immediate family,” she said.
Seven years later, David was in California and Gina remained in New York. Friend Phillip invited them to his engagement party in Chicago, giving them another chance to get acquainted.
As Gina went to fly back to New York, David asked her out again, saying he would go to New York to see her “on his way back to California.”
After that New York dinner, the pair began bicoastal phone calls, and cemented the relationship with their wedding in May, 1995. David and Gina are founders/partners in CCS Systems and parents of four-year-old Marielle.
Flirtation at wedding led to their nuptials
FORMER CO-WORKERS, the Platos have been married for 36 years.
Marion Plato recalls flirting a little with future husband George at the wedding of mutual friends in 1975. The pair met again six months later at the Marina del Rey branch of Bank of America, where she worked as an operations manager and he as a courier. George asked Marion out twice, but she said no, “not because I didn’t want to, but because I had other plans,” she insists.
George thought about the “three strikes and you’re out” rule, and decided against another try. But when Marion stepped up to the plate and asked him out, he said yes. Fittingly, their first date was at Dodgers’ Stadium.
The couple married in October of 1978 at All Saint Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. Later, they danced the night away at a reception at the Wilshire Ebell that featured a beautiful buffet and a seven-piece band, recalls Marion.
Thirty-six years later, the Platos still live in the home they bought on Beachwood Dr. shortly after their wedding.
George worked in management at the bank until 1987, when he took over his father’s real estate business. Marion volunteered at St. Brendan’s school and church and other local charities and was a stay-at-home mom to Andrea, Christopher and Jennifer.
The siblings threw their parents a party at Maggianos for their 30th wedding anniversary.
Category: People
