First Class Marshal Nworah B. Ayogu ’10 grabbed the microphone. Before a crowd of more than 1000 at the Senior Soirée last Saturday, he announced the 3-hour-old engagement of Michael Y. Wu ’10 and Y. Jenny Cao ’10. The crowd erupted into cheers and applause.

Caught completely off-guard by the announcement, Cao described her reaction. “I was so grateful that we have so many amazing, supportive friends,” she said. “It reminded me of how special everyone here is and how much I will miss Harvard when I leave.”

Wu echoed her sentiments, saying, “I didn’t expect the cheering to be so loud. It really touched my heart. We have a really great class.”

Wu and Cao’s relationship stretches back to freshman year, when the two were introduced by a mutual friend, Geoffrey L. Oberhofer ’10, who was Wu’s bunkmate and one of the first people Cao met at prefrosh weekend.

Though Cao remembers their first meeting vividly—“I remember because he was wearing this collared shirt with a flower pattern, so I thought he was a little weird”—Wu’s memory is a bit hazier. “I remember seeing her in Annenberg, but I may or may not remember the first time I met her,” he said.

But Wu does remember their first date: a trip to the ice cream shop on March 22, 2007. “We went to Herrell’s and ended up talking for a long time,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘I don’t know if I will be able to impress this girl.’ I didn’t know if I could get a girl like her, but I tried it anyway.”

The night of the Soirée, the two went to Top of the Hub for dinner, and for dessert, the two had the chef’s special crème brulée. The dessert was in what Cao described as a “duck bowl thing,” and when she opened it, she found the engagement ring. The top diamond was the first diamond Wu’s father gave his mother.

“I got teary-eyed,” Cao said. “I was really touched; I was really happy, deeply content.”

Though no definite plans have been set for the wedding, Cao and Wu said they plan to get married in one or two years at a chapel in Hawaii, Wu’s native state.

Next year, the two will move into an apartment on the waterfront in Boston. Wu, a Molecular and Cellular Biology concentrator and current Winthrop resident, will be working in healthcare consulting, and Cao, an Economics concentrator in Leverett, will be in corporate strategy for Capital One. Wu said he is looking forward to starting their life together. “She is my best friend and the person I am comfortable and happy to spend the rest of my life with,” he said.