They met for the first time in early 2023 during an outing with a bunch of friends in HCMC. At that time, she did not make much of an impression on him due to her very young looks.

The two unexpectedly crossed paths again at a club in HCMC two years later. Though he was wearing a hat, she recognized him and came over to greet him, while he could not recall where they had met before.

A day later, they bumped into each other again at a party hosted by Thanh’s company. Only when he saw the mutual friend arrive with her did he realize who she was.

“On our third meeting, I found her remarkably more mature and captivating,” Thanh recalls.

The two began messaging each other every day after the party. He had made a good impression on her at their very first meeting, and his sense of humor gradually won over her. They began to date a month later.

When they were dating, Thanh would send her photos of designer items for her to pick from as a gift, but she would kept turning them down saying she “already had them.” But when he once gave her a bouquet of flowers, she burst into tears.

“Kristina is as down-to-earth as a country girl. Seeing her tear up over such a small gift, I thought to myself: This is my future wife,” he says.

Kristina started modeling at a young age and first came to Vietnam to model when she was 14. At 18, she left Russia to work in various Asian countries, staying in each place for three months, while completing her university degree online.

When her Vietnam visa was about to expire and she was preparing to leave for China, Thanh told her to move in with him and took her home to Hanoi to meet his family. His seriousness convinced her to cancel her plans and stay in Vietnam.

The couple’s 10-year age gap and cultural differences initially caused some conflict between them. Kristina loved romance and wanted to spend plenty of time with her boyfriend, whereas he was quiet and pragmatic.

When they worked together, his clear-cut, strict approach as a business owner occasionally left Kristina, who was used to working freelance, feeling frustrated.

To solve the conflict, he started attending fewer social gatherings to spend evenings at home with her. She in turn began to listen to his professional advice, which helped her achieve excellent results in her work.

In late 2025, the two went to Russia for family visits and a holiday. A week after they landed, she fell and broke her leg while skiing.

However, the couple had planned to visit four more cities and scheduled family gatherings. If her leg were put in a cast there, she would not be allowed on a flight back to Vietnam due to safety concerns.

“We felt horrible back then. I was terrified he would leave me behind in Russia and return to Vietnam first,” she recalls.

He consulted a doctor about using a splint to immobilize the leg, which would enable her to fly back to Vietnam and get a surgery done.

“Our itinerary will go ahead as planned. I will push you in a wheelchair to go meet my future in-laws,” Thanh told his girlfriend.

Since he did not speak Russian, he relied on a translation tool during her doctor’s appointments. In the middle of winter, he carried her in and out of cars, assembled and folded the wheelchair, and pushed her around cities they visited. After returning to Vietnam, he continued to care for her through months of physical therapy.

The couple at their engagement ceremony. Photo courtesy of Thanh

During New Year’s Eve in 2026, at a high-rise restaurant in Moscow, as the song “Happy New Year” came to an end, he got down on one knee to propose. Despite her injured leg, Kristina stood up to accept the ring.

“After everything we went through in my home country, he made me feel safe enough to trust him with the rest of my life,” she says.

Their wedding took place from Oct. 21 to 24 in Hanoi after 10 months of preparation. Images of the Russian bride wearing a traditional Vietnamese attire, ao dai, in red during the engagement ceremony attracted millions of views on social media.

After seeing his daughter’s wedding showered with online blessings by many Vietnamese, Denis, Kristina’s father, created a TikTok account to comment under various posts, writing “This is my daughter” and “This is my son-in-law.”

The young couple now live and work in HCMC. Thanh says his in-laws are spending a month traveling to coastal cities in Vietnam to look for a house, and plan to settle down in the country to be closer to their daughter and son-in-law.