By Sundra Hominik

Love conquers all. Well, maybe not all, but when the chemistry is just right, love can overcome lots of obstacles.

We talked with two couples who are proof that love can conquer a great deal including challenges presented by coming from different cultural or racial backgrounds.

These couples share their stories of love, romance and how they keep the spark alive after years of marriage.

Darin and Mercedes Branch
Darin, who is white, was raised in Houston and moved to the south side of Richmond in 1998. Mercedes, who is black, is a native of Richmond. They have been married for almost seven years and now live in Chesterfield County with their two daughters and son. They own Perception Salon and Spa in Carytown and Darin also is president of Whitewood Solutions, a tax resolution business.

How did you meet?
We met when Darin was a sales manager at a local car dealership. I was working there as a temporary receptionist before moving to Bowie, Md.

What first attracted you to each other?
“Obviously, looks played a part for both of us,” Mercedes said as she laughed. She added, “The confidence Darin had while selling cars and handling clients made him very attractive to me.”

Darin said he found Mercedes’ “warm personality extremely attractive.”

“We started out as friends as both of us were recently out of relationships. We became close friends with conversations during work and eventually having a friendly relationship after work, which turned into more after Mercedes moved to Maryland.”

It became a case of absence making the heart grow fonder.

“Once Mercedes moved away, the desire to be close became even stronger,” he recalled.

For about four months, they had a weekend romance. They took turns driving back and forth so they could spend time together. They eventually moved in together here in Virginia.

Along the way, they discovered they each wanted to eventually start and own a business.

“We shared the same dreams of owning a salon and spa. Mercedes did nails and my mother does hair. That dream became reality in 2007 when we opened Perception Salon and Spa.”

Were there any challenges in the early years of your marriage?
“Well, Darin is a Scorpio and he was a little jealous in the early years,” Mercedes said. “He always said that being white and dating a beautiful black woman makes it hard on a white boy since he seemed to always be tested in public.”

What’s the spark that keeps you together and keeps the romance alive?
The couple agree, “We are friends first and that keeps the relationship strong.”

As far as romance goes, they make time to do special things. And Mercedes’ father, a former coach at Armstrong High School, often offers to help.

“We are lucky enough to have Coach Samuels who takes the kids every other weekend, which allows us to have a date night and a couple’s weekend twice a month,” said Darin, age 31.

Mercedes, what’s the most romantic gift Darin has given you?
“Darin has given me lots of gifts over the years and vice versa from trips to jewelry, but our most precious gifts are our children.”

What advice about love, romance and relationship will you give your children?
“I would have to say to be sure that you find someone who is your friend first and then build on that because if someone can’t respect you as a friend they will never respect you as a lover and it will never last,” said Mercedes, age 33.

She added that faith is also important to building a strong relationship. “At the end of the day, ‘The couple that prays together stays together.’”

Carlos and Karla Ramos
Carlos, who is Puerto Rican, and Karla Ramos met in her native Honduras. They traveled extensively when he was in the Army. Now, they live in the Enon community near Hopewell. They have been married 15 years and have a son and a daughter. Carlos is a military analyst for Tapestry Solutions and Karla works for the Virginia Department of Emergency Services.

How did you meet?
They met while Carlos was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Honduras. A mutual friend invited Carlos, then 28, to a party. Karla, who was 26, attended the party too.

What first attracted you to each other?
“She started playing the piano. That’s what did it,” Carlos said. “I don’t know what she was playing but it was this beautiful music coming out of a crowd of people. You couldn’t see her. Everyone was surrounding her. She was playing really nice music, classical music.”

It was three months before they saw each other again. This time they saw each other at a night club.

“I think it was his dancing [that attracted me],” Karla recalls. “We started dancing and we started talking,” she said.

“I’m a good dancer,” Carlos bragged as the couple sat at their kitchen table.

Were there any challenges in the early years of your marriage?
The two words that describe our first five years are “adventurous and challenging,” Carlos said.

Carlos was reassigned to Fort Lewis in Washington and Karla said she felt like a fish out of water when she left Honduras to join him. She saw snow for the first time.

Karla and Carlos had very different childhoods. She was raised by a single mother in a big city and he grew up in a rural area with his grandparents.

“I was independent, a strong willed person,” she said. “[His grandparents gave him a] very conservative concept of marriage. I believe in a more equal, 50/50 marriage.”

What’s the spark that keeps you together and keeps the romance alive?
“He’s a funny, funny person. He makes me laugh. And when I’m stressed out for any reason, he can make a face or tell me something and it makes me laugh.”

“She’s beautiful. She is a wonderful person. She understands me. Everything she is sparks my soul every time I see her.”

Karla, what’s the most romantic gift Carlos has given you?
“I’m not really into fancy material presents. I like something original with more meaning than just the item itself. I like useful things. [He wanted] to buy me a diamond necklace or something and I had to educate him that that’s not really my thing.”

What advice about love, romance and relationship have you given your children?
Carlos calls their 15-year old son, David, into the kitchen to answer this question. “He tells me to be respectful to women. Don’t be pushy. Don’t go beyond the boundaries. Don’t disrespect yourself or your lady.”

Loving Day Project honors Virginia couple
These couples are part of a growing trend: multicultural relationships. A 2010 Pew Research Center study shows that one in seven new U.S. marriages is interracial or interethnic.

A group called the Loving Day Project celebrates these relationships while commemorating Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriages in America.

The case stemmed from the marriage of Richard and Mildred Loving of Caroline County. They were married in 1958 when it was illegal for a white and non-white to marry.

The Loving Day Project’s mission is to fight racial prejudice through education and to build multicultural community. Each year on or near June 12 (the day the Supreme Court issued its ruling) the organization encourages Loving Day celebrations around the country and the world.

For more information about the Loving Day Project and updates on events in our area, visit LovingDay.org .

This story is part of a series, Virginia Tapestry: Reflecting Our Rich Diversity produced by In Your Shoes Media

What’s the most romantic gift you’ve received? Go to urbanviewsweekly.com to watch a video to see what some people rated as the most romantic gift they’ve received.