While driving home from a work dinner in downtown Los Angeles in August 2021, Jennifer Lee\u2019s Toyota Prius was suddenly struck in the side by another car that had run a red light. Ms. Lee had suffered whiplash, her car was badly damaged and she was in a state of shock.<\/p>\n
As the police and tow truck arrived, she called Dr. Sachin Jain, whom she had been dating for about three months.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the first person who came to my mind,\u201d Ms. Lee said. And without hesitating, Dr. Jain left the dinner he was attending to drive 40 minutes so he could pick up Ms. Lee, bring her home, and take care of her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in my crisis mode, and he was the rational person saying don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll get this figured out,\u201d Ms. Lee said.<\/p>\n
That weekend, Dr. Jain devoted himself to helping Ms. Lee buy a new car. \u201cI wanted to make sure she got a fair deal,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was a real bonding experience. We spent 48 hours together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several weeks later, at the end of September, Dr. Jain was crossing the street in Los Angeles on a walk signal when a distracted driver in a Toyota Prius ran into him. Dr. Jain flew onto the car, and rolled off its windshield. He suffered a concussion, and fractured one of his ribs and his tibial plateau, the flat portion of the bone that runs from the knee to the ankle.<\/p>\n
At the time, Ms. Lee was driving on the freeway to pick up an embroidered jacket, a gift for Dr. Jain\u2019s upcoming birthday. \u201cHe called me and he wasn\u2019t making any sense,\u201d she said. \u201cMy heart sunk. Someone had to take the phone from him and say, \u2018He\u2019s been hit by a car.\u2019 It was so scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
She turned around and drove straight to the scene of the accident, then followed the ambulance as it took Dr. Jain to the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy closest family members were 3,000 miles away,\u201d Dr. Jain said. His immediate family members live on the East Coast. \u201cBut in many ways I felt like I had the comfort of family by my side when she was with me in that emergency room,\u201d he added. After being released the same day, Dr. Jain was in physical therapy for five months.<\/p>\n
Dr. Jain and Ms. Lee first met at Alibi Room, a bar and restaurant in Los Angeles, in May 2021 after matching on Hinge. They connected over their shared love of Costco and the TV series \u201cLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit.\u201d They also discovered commonalities in their upbringings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re from different cultures,\u201d Dr. Jain said. \u201cBut we both had these immigrant stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like, \u2018What did you do on the weekends when you were young\u2019,\u201d Ms. Lee said. \u201cI drove to art class six hours away in San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to Korean SAT classes every weekend,\u201d Dr. Jain answered.<\/p>\n
Ms. Lee, 33, was born in Seoul. When she was about 3, her family moved to Irvine, Calif., because of her father\u2019s job with Kia Motors. In 2013, she received a bachelor\u2019s degree in fashion design and marketing from Central Saint Martins in London before relocating to Seoul in 2014 to work at Coupang, a Korean e-commerce company. In 2015, she moved back to Los Angeles, and in 2021, began her current job as a color and material designer at Skechers.<\/p>\n
Dr. Jain, 42, grew up in different parts of Bergen county in New Jersey; his parents immigrated from Rajasthan, India, in the 1970s. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in government from Harvard, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School.<\/p>\n
In the middle of his residency at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital in Boston, from 2009 to 2011, Dr. Jain took a leave to work in President Obama\u2019s administration in several roles related to health care reform. He completed the residency in 2012.<\/p>\n
In 2014, he joined CareMore Health, a health plan and care delivery system for Medicare and Medicaid patients, as a chief medical officer. He became the chief executive of the company in 2016. Since July 2020, he has been the chief executive of SCAN Health Plan, a nonprofit organization focused on care of older adults.<\/p>\n
After their first date, Ms. Lee and Dr. Jain continued seeing each other, but neither was ready to commit. \u201cWe wanted our next relationship to be a serious one so we decided we\u2019d take our time to get to know each other,\u201d Ms. Lee said.<\/p>\n
That summer, on a flight back from Houston, where they had gone for the weekend to visit one of Dr. Jain\u2019s friends, the two of them chatted the entire time. \u201cWe were talking like best friends talk,\u201d Dr. Jain said. \u201cThat was the first point it registered that it could be something more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Binge more Vows columns here<\/em><\/strong> and <\/em><\/strong>read all our wedding, relationship and divorce coverage here<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The day after Dr. Jain\u2019s accident, the couple went on a planned trip to Canc\u00fan, Mexico, where Ms. Lee surprised Dr. Jain with a Cameo video of the actor Mr. T wishing him a happy birthday and a strong recovery. \u201cI was a huge fan of Mr. T as a kid,\u201d Dr. Jain said. \u201cI loved \u2018Rocky III\u2019 and \u2018The A-Team.\u2019 The present was super sweet and thoughtful and kind of hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n In February 2022, at his friend\u2019s wedding, Dr. Jain decided he was ready to fully immerse himself in the relationship, so he told Ms. Lee that he loved her. But she didn\u2019t say it back. He feared the relationship was over. \u201cI thought maybe this is it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ms. Lee had never told a partner \u201cI love you\u201d before. \u201cI built it up in my head,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I say I love you, that means you\u2019re the person I want to marry.\u201d She had spoken to friends and to her older sister, Carol Kim, and they were convinced she did love Dr. Jain. But she was afraid to vocalize her feelings too hastily. \u201cI wanted to be intentional about it,\u201d she said. Finally, some weeks later, she realized she was overthinking and reciprocated.<\/p>\n A little less than a year later, on Feb. 13, 2023, Ms. Lee and Dr. Jain were staying at the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort in Waimea, Hawaii, when Dr. Jain suggested they do a free photo shoot on the beach for their 2023 holiday card.<\/p>\n Ms. Lee thought it was odd to take photos 10 months in advance, but she agreed that it would be a fun activity.<\/p>\n As they posed for photos, Dr. Jain dropped to one knee. \u201cMy first instinct was like, \u2018Did you drop something? You\u2019re going to ruin your suit,\u2019\u201d Ms. Lee said. \u201cSuddenly he got the box out. Time stopped. I blacked out.\u201d The diamond ring Dr. Jain presented was one he had chosen with the help of his brother Roopam Jain, a jeweler.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was amazing,\u201d Ms. Lee said. \u201cAnd everyone says I\u2019m really picky.\u201d<\/p>\n Afterward, they had dinner at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and spent the evening calling their friends and family to tell them the news. \u201cAs soon as we announced we\u2019re getting married, everybody immediately started asking about the date of the wedding,\u201d Dr. Jain said. \u201cThey had been waiting 20-some-odd years for this news,\u201d he added, in reference to his family.<\/p>\n So Dr. Jain and Ms. Lee did not hesitate. During the next five months, with the help of eager family members and friends, they planned six days of wedding celebrations that combined influences from both of their cultures.<\/p>\n On July 28, they had a wedding ceremony in front of 400 people at the Rockleigh, an events space in Northern New Jersey.<\/p>\n The day before, on a Thursday, during a traditional Korean paebaek tea ceremony at the venue, the family\u2019s elders offered words of wisdom and blessings.<\/p>\n On Thursday evening, they held a sangeet, an Indian wedding tradition, during which friends and family can put on performances. \u201cWe had a choreographer work with all these different groups of people,\u201d Ms. Lee said. Her family members performed to \u201cGangnam Style,\u201d a popular 2012 Korean song by the musician Psy, and her friends danced to \u201cIt\u2019s Gonna Be Me\u201d by \u2019N Sync.<\/p>\n Dr. Jain surprised Ms. Lee with a piano performance of \u201cHome\u201d by Michael Bubl\u00e9, accompanied by his friend and his nephew on vocals. \u201cThe time everybody spent practicing was the beauty of it,\u201d Ms. Lee said. \u201cThe celebrations started before the actual ceremony.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, after the ceremony, there was a cocktail hour and an entirely vegetarian dinner prepared by chef Vipul Gupta from Moghul Catering that fused Korean and Indian food. A live band, Blue Avenue Groove, performed at the reception. The next day, Narpat Jain, one of Dr. Jain\u2019s brothers, and his wife, Archana Jain, hosted a lunch \u2014 with a pizza truck and a dosa station \u2014 during which the newlyweds played traditional Indian wedding games, like searching for a ring in a bowl filled with milk and flowers.<\/p>\n About two weeks later, on Aug. 12, Dr. Jain and Ms. Lee were legally married by their friend and neighbor, Kristen Byrdsong, a superior court judge, in her backyard in Playa del Rey, Los Angeles. \u201cShe came out in her judge\u2019s robe and wrote a speech,\u201d Dr. Jain said. \u201cShe and her husband popped Dom P\u00e9rignon for us.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all been a complete blur,\u201d Dr. Jain said. \u201cWhat we always wanted was our families to really come together as one. It was something we were anxious about, coming from two different cultures. But in the end, there was so much obvious connection and love.\u201d<\/p>\n Where<\/strong> The Rockleigh, Rockleigh, N.J.<\/p>\n When<\/strong> July 28, 2023<\/p>\n Icy Treats <\/strong>Ms. Lee\u2019s family loves cold sweet treats, so the bride and groom provided Italian gelato, Indian kulfi and shaved ice, and American ice cream. \u201cWe made sure they had ice cream at every meal,\u201d Dr. Jain said.<\/p>\n Last-Minute Zoom <\/strong>About two weeks before the wedding, Dr. Jain\u2019s brother Roopam and his wife, Sapna Jain, sounded the alarm that Dr. Jain\u2019s parents, Dr. Subhash Jain and Sarla Jain, had never met Ms. Lee\u2019s parents, Dong Kyung Lee and Myung Hee Lee. A video call was quickly organized and the parents connected despite the language barrier \u2014 one set speaks Hindi at home in Alpine, N.J., and the other set lives in Seoul and speaks primarily Korean.<\/p>\nOn This Day<\/span><\/h3>\n