On a Saturday morning hike in July 2020, Terri Nicole Wade’s friends staged a gentle intervention. The time had come, they told her, to make a decision about her on-again, off-again boyfriend of six years.
Wade already knew what she wanted to do, but her friends’ words provided the nudge she needed. Later that day, she walked into a barbecue at a friend’s home in Belmont, Calif., her arms full of groceries. Christopher KS Fung, a stranger, approached and offered to help carry them.
“Once I made this clear decision, I’m moving on, all of a sudden, Chris came in,” Wade said.
A speaker and life coach whose book “A-Z Happy,” which was published in 2023, offers strategies for adopting attitudes that cultivate positivity and resilience, Wade strongly believes in manifestation and mind-set. Fung, a deputy sheriff with the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, picked up on her upbeat outlook right away.
He had recently gotten out of a short-term relationship. “Terri was a breath of fresh air,” he said.
The pair, both 38, made plans for a hike the following Sunday, but eager to see Wade sooner, Fung messaged her that Friday evening inviting her to watch the sunset with him. As the sun went down along the San Francisco Bay, they talked about family, spirituality, travel and the San Francisco Giants, and when Fung walked Wade back to her car, they shared their first kiss. Less than two weeks later, on her birthday, he asked her to be his girlfriend.
The next month, fresh into their heady early days as a couple, Wade’s mother, who was also her best friend and roommate, died suddenly at 60. Fung was the first person to arrive at Wade’s house to comfort her and he remained by her side throughout the grieving process, even accompanying her to a beach in Santa Cruz, Calif., to spread her mother’s ashes in the Pacific Ocean.
“For him to really lean in was special,” Wade said. “I thought it was so beautiful and so telling of who he is.”
During her vows at the couple’s Aug. 16 wedding, an emotional Wade told Fung, “Before you, I didn’t know romantic love could feel this light, this playful, this comfortable and this safe. You are my safe space when the world feels chaotic.”
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Wade grew up in Foster City, Calif., and received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Riverside. She earned an M.B.A. from Notre Dame de Namur University, where until June, she worked in the admissions department. She left to focus on her coaching business and write a memoir about embodying the positive-psychology concepts she’s trained in, even through life’s most daunting challenges.
Fung grew up in San Francisco, the son of Chinese immigrants who came to the United States in their twenties. After arriving, his mother worked as a janitor and then studied to become a civil engineer. His father, a mechanic in China, opened his own auto repair shop.
“They did the American dream,” Fung said, adding that his parents taught him to set goals and work patiently toward them. Fung studied law enforcement at the College of San Mateo through the South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium, and during the pandemic, he got his bachelor’s degree in applied arts and sciences online from the University of North Texas. In addition to working as a deputy sheriff, he runs an online business selling Pokémon cards and merchandise.
The couple got engaged in May 2025 during a trip to Paris with Wade’s father and stepmother. After dinner, with the Eiffel Tower’s shimmering night lights as a backdrop, Fung knelt down and asked Wade to be his wife.
Their wedding took place at San Ramon Waters, a San Francisco Bay Area wedding venue. The couple chose to marry on Aug. 16 because of the date’s significance in Chinese numerology: The number 8 is associated with wealth, prosperity and good fortune and the number 16 with a smooth, flowing life path.
Steve Siglin, a professional officiant ordained through World Christianship Ministries, led the ceremony. Toward the end, he invited Fung’s three children from previous relationships, who range in age from 10 to 16, to join the newlyweds at the outdoor altar. As 140 guests looked on, Fung, Wade and the children each lit a slender candle, then touched the individual flames to the wick of one larger candle to symbolize their unity as a family.
In another gesture reflecting the couple’s shared commitment to family, they honored deceased relatives by displaying photos of them on a mantel in the reception room.
Wade said her mother hadn’t always been fond of her daughter’s partners, but she took to Fung in the brief time she knew him. The night before she died, she texted Wade: “I’m so happy you let love in.”
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