Maya Buzinovskaya and Ron Costales

When asked how a guy from the Philippines fell in love with a girl from the Ukraine, Ron Costales said it was simply, “Destiny.”

From the moment he met Maya Buzinovskaya, he was smitten. That was in 2004, when Costales, a physical therapist, began treating her aunt. Professional ethics prevented him from asking Buzinovskaya out at the time, so he worked like a demon and soon got her aunt up and walking for the first time in a year.

Then he wasted no time. For Buzinovskaya, then 19, it was her first date ever. And right before he picked her up, she came down with a four-Advil headache. She couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen after dinner — the first kiss of her life.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking,” she said. “Then I just let it flow and it worked out fine.”

Costales, 31, now works as a physical therapist for Hallmark Rehabilitation at Brier Oak on Sunset in Los Angeles. Buzinovskaya, 26, just graduated from College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita with a registered nursing degree.

The couple wed June 5 at the Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens in downtown L.A. Costales tried to toughen himself by listening to the song that would play as his bride made her entrance, “Marry Me,” by Train. But when he saw her walk down the aisle in her Maggie Sottero gown, he could not hold back his tears.

During their first dance, Costales whirled her off the ground, and with her arms spread like wings she seemed to be flying.

“It was incredible,” said their wedding planner Beverly Harris, “a feeling of freedom and the start of a new life.”

—Maxine Nunes, Custom Publishing Writer