The majority of Hopkins graduates plan to get married at some point in their lives. And eventually they do, whether they meet their spouse in college, graduate school, the office, or maybe a chance meeting in the street. For Marc Coumeri, a 1997 graduate of the Whiting School of Engineering, things happened a little bit differently. Little did he know that the woman he started dancing with one night at a Manhattan club would end up being both a Princess of Cambodia and his future wife.
It all began around Thanksgiving of 2000, late one night at 4 a.m. in the Twilo dance club in New York, where Mr. Coumeri, who works for American Express in the Risk Management Department, was hanging out with fellow Hopkins graduate and friend Noel Thomas (Eng '97).
"I was not up to going to a club that night, but my friend Noel really wanted to, so I went with him anyway," said Coumeri over a telephone interview from New York.
After they sat down and had a few drinks at the bar, Coumeri recounted, Thomas put his drink down and said "Follow me" as he made his way onto the dance floor.
As they walked across the dance floor, Coumeri's future wife Princess Pekina Norodom and her friend Divina Kwok happened to be walking right by them.
"While we passed them, my friend randomly grabbed Divina's hand and started dancing with her. That left me stranded there with Pekina so we started dancing too," said Coumeri.
They danced way into the late morning when the club finally closed. Afterwards they all went out for Dim Sum in Chinatown, where the chemistry between Coumeri and Norodom was already starting to emerge.
A full 24 hours after they had first met, Norodom called up her future husband and asked him out on their first date. However, it was hardly the romantic candlelight dinner one might imagine. Coumeri was actually invited to accompany Norodom to an Ikea Furniture store, where she said she was looking for some furniture. Later, Norodom would reveal to Coumeri that she just wanted to spend some time with him in a public place where they could get to know each other better. The date ended up a success, though it wasn't until much later that she eventually revealed her royal origins.
A few weeks passed and one day Norodom finally told her husband-to-be over the phone that she was the granddaughter of the King of Cambodia. She asked Coumeri if he recognized her last name. "I said, ONo, should I?'" Coumeri was taken aback at first, but knew she was telling the truth.
"After she told me, the first person I called was my best friend Noel. I told him OSit down, you're not going to believe this one. My girlfriend is kind of the princess of Cambodia.'"
Norodom is a granddaughter of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, who was forced into exile by a coup in 1970 that opened the door to the Khmer Rouge. Her family settled in Beijing, where she was born in that year. When she was 10, her family moved to Connecticut. Today, she works as a product manager at Timex.
Before Coumeri proposed to his bride-to-be, he formally called up her parents and out of courtesy, asked them for their daughter's hand in marriage.
"I didn't realize it at the time, but when you ask for permission in Cambodian culture, it's supposed to be accompanied by a big ceremony," said Coumeri. "I just asked for permission over the phone and they said OYes, we accept you as our son.'"
The couple were married in a Buddhist ceremony at Phnom Penh's royal palace in Cambodia on May 30 of this year. "It was definitely the most extraordinary event of my life," said Coumeri. The wedding was a whole day affair that began at 8 a.m. and was conducted in Cambodian, which was translated to Coumeri by his wife.
"The fact that she is a princess doesn't affect our relationship. She has a very normal lifestyle here, no servants or anything like that."
Looking back on the whole thing, Coumeri is still a little surprised how quickly it all transpired.
"I wasn't really looking for someone at the time, I was just enjoying myself and it just sort of happened. So if your friend suggests doing something, go even if you don't want to."
The marriage will be profiled on The Learning Channel show A Wedding Story. The episode premieres on Monday, October 14 at 2:30 p.m., and will be repeated on Tuesday, December 24.
