When Nancy Chen and Patrick Sheridan McFawn first met in September 2008, neither one was thinking much about romance. They were at trade talks between the United States and China, in Yorba Linda, Calif. Ms. Chen was a student journalist at the University of Southern California, and she had asked Mr. McFawn, a recent graduate of U.S.C. who was helping to recruit student volunteers for the event, for a press pass.

Ms. Chen and Mr. McFawn met and exchanged business cards. “We were all very professional,” Ms. Chen, now 35, said, though “I obviously thought he was very cute.”

Afterward, the two became friends on Facebook, where they stayed in touch. Mr. McFawn was working as a financial analyst at Arch Bay Capital in Irvine, Calif., and Ms. Chen was with KABC-TV in Los Angeles, where she interned and worked as a freelance web producer while in college. They would sometimes run into each other. When he saw the KABC news van, he would send her a note. Ms. Chen laughed recalling this, saying she wasn’t “in every news van that’s in Southern California.”

“It was an excuse to send a message,” Mr. McFawn, 38, admitted.

In her senior year of college, she had returned from a semester abroad in Beijing, and Mr. McFawn reached out and suggested they meet up sometime. In February 2010, they met at a wine bar in Los Angeles, where they caught up casually. For their first official date, in April 2010, they went out to dinner in Los Angeles.

Back then, Ms. Chen said, “I would almost pre-script a date, because I just wanted to make sure that conversation never lagged.” With Mr. McFawn, she didn’t need her talking points.

But there was one complication: Ms. Chen was about to graduate. She was pursuing a career in broadcast journalism, and knew she would be moving around a lot. “It was just one of those daunting things, of: ‘This is probably not the best time to get into a relationship,’” Ms. Chen said. “But it was: ‘I really like this guy. And let’s see what happens.’ We had no idea that it would be this.”

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They were in a long-distance relationship for the next seven years, as Ms. Chen’s career took her to San Luis Obispo, Calif., and Boston. While he was in California and she was in Boston, the time difference was a challenge, but the two found ways to stay connected. Ms. Chen would wake up around 2 a.m. for her early shift at WHDH-TV, where she was a reporter and anchor.

If Mr. McFawn went to bed before she woke up, he would leave her “night notes” in her email inbox, little messages to let her know he was thinking of her.

In 2017, they finally landed in the same place. They moved in together in Rosslyn, Va., just outside of Washington. Mr. McFawn was in graduate school and Ms. Chen was a news anchor at WJLA-TV. In February 2020, Ms. Chen moved to New York City for a job as a correspondent at CBS Newspath, and they lived apart again. When the pandemic began and work went remote, he moved to New York to be with her in April 2020.

In January 2023, the couple took a trip to Montauk, N.Y., and Mr. McFawn suggested they get up to watch the sunrise at the beach. At first there was a morning haze, but then came an orange glow. Mr. McFawn got down on one knee and proposed.

“I always wanted to have a very private moment, and sunrise on the beach, in the middle of the winter, was definitely it,” Ms. Chen said.

Ms. Chen is a correspondent with CBS News, based in New York. She graduated from U.S.C. as a trustee scholar with a bachelor’s degree in international relations. Mr. McFawn is a freelance strategy consultant and runs his own business, Vexillum Global Advisors, a practice that advises clients on claiming dual citizenship by descent. He has a bachelor’s degree from U.S.C. in business administration and political science, as well as a master’s degree in foreign service and an M.B.A. from Georgetown.

The two were married Sept. 30 at Croad Vineyards, a winery in Paso Robles, Calif., before 33 guests. Ariel Wesler, a friend of the couple who was ordained by the Universal Life Church for this event, officiated. A reception followed at the winery. In celebration of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and in honor of Ms. Chen’s heritage, the Cal Poly Lion Dance team performed.

The couple chose the California setting because it brought them back to 13 years ago, when they were first dating. “After all these years and all these places,” Ms. Chen said, “This is still our happy spot and where we fell in love.”