About That Halo Couple From The Best Buy Ad…

I saw two movies at two movie theaters this weekend and the same Best Buy commercial aired before both of them. I usually tune out the commercials at the movies (strange that we can avoid commercials on TV but get smacked with them in theaters, no?). This big-screen commercial did get my attention since…. wow! I know those people in the commercial. I’d been to their Halo-themed wedding!

The couple in the commercial are John Henry and Desirai Labrada, who met and fell in love while playing Halo 2 online. I heard about them when I was covering games for MTV and wound up taping a segment on them at their Halo-themed wedding in January of 2009.

Here’s that segment:

Cute couple, right? They had plasma grenades as wedding favors. Still the best wedding favors I’ve ever seen.

I’ve heard from John and Desirai a little bit since then. The day I visited Halo founders’ Bungie in Seattle—the day the cops were called on the studio—they walked in as I was walking out. Just visiting, pre-PAX.

A year after the wedding, I checked in with John and Desirai. They were still doing well.

And now they’re in a Christmas commercial. How in the world do you get in a Christmas commercial? That’s damn near as exotic as being married by Master Chief.

How does that happen?

Desirai explains in a new blog post on the couple’s A Match Made in Halo. Short version: you get contacted out of the blue, you wait, you get flown to L.A. and treated like royalty. Voila! You are in a Christmas commercial that is airing before Skyfall and Cloud Atlas.

Congratulations to the happy couple, once again!

Best Buy ‘Gifts That Do: What Will Your Gift Do?’ [A Match Made in Halo]

Originally written and published by Stephen Totilo at Kotaku. Click here to read the original story.