While surveying a pizza slice with sweet Italian sausage, Blake Song sensed tension. It was a steamy, Southern Californian evening in the summer of 2016, one of many enjoyed in the long friendship of Mr. Song and Bailey Kinsolving. Somehow, though, that night felt different. In the line of the Orange Plaza Pizza Press in Orange, Calif., Mr. Song posed a question to Ms. Kinsolving: “You like me, right?”

The pizzeria would symbolize a crossroad for the pair — something Ms. Kinsolving could never have imagined upon meeting Mr. Song a few years earlier. Ms. Kinsolving, who was a sophomore studying environmental science, was in a serious relationship when she was first introduced to Mr. Song at a dorm room party at the University of California, Irvine in January 2014. Although the surrounding drunken debauchery made for a chaotic meet cute, the two found solace in fast friendship.

Over the next several years, they would continue to support each other through early adulthood. While Mr. Song navigated “unhealthy” flings, Ms. Kinsolving’s own relationship had fizzled. She and Mr. Song bonded over dating misfortune while watching hours of music videos. Mr. Song, then balancing his psychology studies with a burgeoning D.J. career, consistently impressed Ms. Kinsolving with extensive knowledge of pop culture.

“He was so engaging,” said Ms. Kinsolving, 27, who works in Los Angeles as a marketing specialist and sustainability consultant for the waste and recycling management company, Athens Services. “It was so refreshing because I rarely found people in college that had any real passion. It was the cornerstone of where this all started.”

Despite now undertaking a doctoral degree in psychology at Pepperdine University, Mr. Song, 26, continued to land D.J. gigs. In the summer of 2016 after Ms. Kinsolving’s graduation, while watching their favorite D.J. in a Las Vegas club, the duo became an “official” couple.

Within weeks, the two would “unofficially” move in together. While working 16-hour days to help support his family in Surprise, Ariz., after his father’s double-knee surgery, Mr. Song was forced to forfeit his place in student housing. In one summer, he and Ms. Kinsolving had gone from friends to lovers living under the same roof. Just over six months later, they would sign their first lease together in Los Angeles.

“I never thought about what I should be doing in my 20s,” Mr. Song said. “I realized there would never be another opportunity to be with somebody as unbelievable as Bailey. I got the home run ball at age 21. I loved loving her.”

On July 31, 2020, he proposed at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa near Palm Springs, Calif., after completing his master’s degree earlier that month from Pepperdine University. Ms. Kinsolving was instructed to dress up for Mr. Song’s “graduation pictures,” and led to a table in the middle of the golf course laden with champagne, roses and a note to distract her while Mr. Song dropped to one knee. Last month, ahead of the August 2021 ceremony planned at Ms. Kinsolving’s family home in Marin County, Calif., the couple married in Las Vegas in an ode to the relationship’s origins.

While the impending wedding will be attended by 100 guests, only their best man and maid-of-honor, and partners, bore witness as Mr. Song and Ms. Kinsolving said “I do” at the Little White Wedding Chapel on June 19, 2021. Pastor Eugene P. Lewis, ordained by the Lion of Judah Ministries in Nevada, officiated. For the first time since Mr. Song fatefully affirmed the pair’s mutual attraction at the Pizza Press, the couple could catch their breath.

“I can’t say there have been many moments in my life where everything goes quiet,” says Ms. Kinsolving, “Everything was out of focus other than Blake.”