From Classroom to Altar: Mr. Liang and Ms. Parikh Say 'I Do'

The couple in their wedding attire at The Stone House at Clove Lakes. *Photo: Mr. Liang and Ms. Parikh*

By DORIS CHEN

Four blocks apart. The same middle school. The same neighborhood. Yet somehow, Mr. Jimmy Liang and Ms. Janice Parikh didn't officially meet until they found themselves teaching at Midwood.

Growing up in Sunset Park, the two had more in common than they ever realized. They both attended John J. Pershing I.S. 220, visited many of the same neighborhood spots, and may have even crossed paths without knowing it. But it wasn't until September 2024 that their journeys finally came together.

Perhaps their story is exactly what red string theory is all about. The belief, which comes from an East Asian legend, suggests that people who are destined to meet are connected by an invisible thread, no matter how much time or distance may separate them. For Mr. Liang and Ms. Parikh, that invisible string might have been there all along, quietly connecting two lives that were much closer than either of them realized.

Their story began during an English department meeting at the start of the 2024 school year. As teachers gathered for professional development, they were divided into breakout groups based on their birth months. By coincidence, Mr. Liang and Ms. Parikh shared the same birth month and ended up in the same group.

“She was one of the new faces in the department,” Mr. Liang said. “She sat in the very front of the room and just looked like she was really attentive. And you know, she caught my eye.”

Ms. Parikh was placed in tenth grade, where Mr. Liang served as the grade team lead. If she’d been assigned a different grade, the two might have never worked as closely together.

"It lined up perfectly. I think that there's something meant to be about this. Some sort of divine intervention, perhaps," Mr. Liang said.

“I was getting these emails from him about the meetings that we were going to have, but I didn't really know who he was until I met him, and when I did, I thought he was a very sweet person,” Ms. Parikh said. “He was really helpful with my transition into the school.”

“She was well spoken and had a really fun personality to her; she was always in a great mood, laughing and smiling,” Mr. Liang added. “She brought a bit of levity to the workplace.”

As they worked closely together, their conversations gradually extended beyond lesson plans and curricula. Over time, their growing friendship developed into something more.

"We just connected," Mr. Liang said. "We saw eye to eye on a lot of things."

“I feel like it was fate,” said Ms. Parikh. “It started off as a really strong friendship, which I think is the core of our relationship. But we also had this playful banter between us.”

Their first date took place at an Italian restaurant on Staten Island. For Ms. Parikh, it wasn't necessarily the restaurant that made the evening memorable, but how naturally their conversations flowed.

"One thing I truly remember is how much we connected," Ms. Parikh said, "and how easy it was for our conversations and our values and everything to align."

Not that long after, the two took a trip to California together to get away from the hustle and bustle of New York and enjoy some nice weather. They realized that spending time with each other was “effortless,” Mr. Liang said.

When the couple shared their relationship with their coworkers, it turned out that many had already suspected something was going on.

"We heard so many people say, 'Yeah, we knew it. We had a feeling,'" Ms. Parikh said.

On their one-year anniversary, Mr. Liang planned a surprise proposal in Dumbo, Brooklyn. He arranged dinner at an Italian restaurant, similar to their first date, and arrived to pick up Ms. Parikh with a bouquet of flowers. "I could barely even hold the bouquet, it was so big," Ms. Parikh said.

But keeping the proposal a secret proved more difficult than Mr. Liang had anticipated. During dinner, Ms. Parikh noticed that he was being unusually quiet.

“I was asking him multiple times, like, are you okay?” she said.

"I was a bit of a nervous wreck," Mr. Liang admitted.

The surprise nearly unraveled when Ms. Parikh spotted her sister’s car as they were leaving the restaurant – Mr. Liang had originally planned to involve her but quickly abandoned that part of the plan.

After dinner, Mr. Liang suggested taking a walk along the waterfront to find a good spot for pictures. That was when Ms. Parikh began to suspect something was up, since "he doesn't know anything about pictures," she said.

She was right to be suspicious. As they walked along the cobblestone streets near the Brooklyn Bridge, Mr. Liang suddenly got down on one knee and proposed. A photographer he had secretly arranged was waiting nearby to capture the special moment, including, of course, the most important part: she said “yes.”

“It was such a surprise, such a nice moment,” Ms. Parikh said, adding that what was so memorable wasn't just the proposal itself, but the thought and effort Mr. Liang had put into planning every detail.

Their coworkers were almost as excited as the couple when they learned the two were getting married. Before summer break, the English department threw them a party to celebrate their upcoming wedding.

“It was very nice; everybody was in good spirits,” Mr. Liang said.

Just six months later, the couple exchanged vows on September 4, only days before the beginning of the school year. Their wedding ceremony took place at a church on Staten Island, followed by a reception in New Jersey attended by approximately 400 guests.

With only a few months between their engagement and wedding, much of their summer was spent planning and coordinating the celebration.

"She was under a lot of stress, I was under a lot of stress,” Mr. Liang said. “It did all come together though.”

Throughout the planning process, Ms. Parikh appreciated how supportive Mr. Liang remained, even as they both dealt with the pressure of preparing for their wedding.

"He was always making sure that I was okay," Ms. Parikh said. "He was very supportive in everything."

Among the guests were several Midwood colleagues who had watched the relationship unfold. What began as a meeting organized around birth months had eventually led to an entirely different kind of gathering, one with wedding vows, hundreds of guests, and a cake the newlyweds were too busy to even get a chance to eat. Not a bad result for a professional development!