00:00We were getting married in June, and we were like, it's Pride Month.
00:03It was also the month when, you know, we talked about a legalized marriage.
00:08And so we're like, we have to celebrate Pride and celebrate us and have Pride in us.
00:13So it was just like a whole theme.
00:18We met through mutual friends.
00:20One of my best friends and one of her best friends were trying to set us up, apparently, for years.
00:26But we like to contest that.
00:28And so we actually met at a mutual friend's birthday dinner.
00:33Yes.
00:34Right?
00:34And during the dinner, our friends had us sit next to each other, and they wanted us to get to
00:39know each other.
00:39But the whole dinner, we didn't say anything to each other except, how's your dinner?
00:45I was total friends with Suli's roommate at the time.
00:48So I gave him my business card.
00:50I was like, let's keep in touch.
00:51Let's hang out.
00:52And then my friend encouraged me to give Suli my business card as well.
00:56And then from there, we actually started talking more and then went out on our first date.
01:02The second date, I was already sold because she picked, I'm a foodie, so is she.
01:07And she picked a Cuban restaurant.
01:09We're both coming off of old relationships, old experiences.
01:13Whatever we're doing in the first couple of dates is really all of that baggage that we're carrying with us.
01:18So I think by us just saying, hey, what's up, are you into me, are you not, really just helped
01:24us just relax a little bit and just have fun and really enjoy each other's company.
01:29And yeah, we are foodies.
01:30And with food and drinks, you can't go wrong with that.
01:32The kicker of the second date was when we were done, Suli asked me, she was like, so do you
01:38want to go for a walk or do you want to come back to my house?
01:41And I was like, oh, I'll come back to your house.
01:43And that's when I knew that, okay, we're going to, you know, we're going to like see what happens here
01:48because I'm actually interested in continuing to get to learn and know her more.
01:52We lived in the same area, so it wasn't far.
01:54We had mutual friends.
01:55I felt comfortable.
01:56I actually didn't, crazy because I'm actually someone who like is very cautious and I would never go to someone's
02:03home.
02:03But I felt comfortable with her.
02:06I learned that whenever she orders water from any restaurant, she needs to ask for lemon in the water.
02:11So when she got to my house, I brought her water with lemon.
02:15Luckily, I had lemon in the house because if I didn't have lemon, I would feel some type of way.
02:18But I had lemon and I put lemon in the water and she's like, oh, that was a sweet gesture.
02:23So I feel like she was noticing that I was paying attention to the details.
02:26Yeah, she checked the box.
02:29We've been together for nine years before we even decided to propose.
02:33And I think because once you're in sync for nine years, you kind of get a sense of like, I
02:38think this is the next step.
02:40We did a lot of different milestones in between, such as like domestic partnerships and moving in together and all
02:46these little like stepping stones for our relationship.
02:49And we kind of left it up to each other who would propose first because we're in an interesting, we're
02:53in a different situation, right?
02:54We're not in that heteronormative situation where it's like the guy's supposed to propose, right?
02:58So it's like, who gets to do that?
03:00We get to decide.
03:01So it was like, oh, maybe I can do it first and surprise her because no one's ever done that,
03:06right?
03:06Like you've never, we've never been proposed to.
03:08So that was my idea.
03:10I wanted to do it first to kind of give her that experience.
03:13But then she ended up beating me to it because we're just very in sync.
03:17And we knew that because this was a decade of us being together, March is a very significant month.
03:22That's when we met.
03:23So we were like, oh, of course March would be the month that we would go propose.
03:27And then it just turned out that she did it on the 7th.
03:30I had already planned for the 13th.
03:32And we had the same group of people involved because it was just like close family and friends.
03:36And both of them held a surprise from us, which is weird and crazy that they never said anything.
03:43The whole concept of marriage in the United States can have, we can have a whole discussion on that, right?
03:50But thinking about the history of, you know, LGBTQ queer communities across the nation, across the world,
03:58like fighting for those rights for marriage, just to be able to have that equality, you know,
04:04like just to be able to be seen the same.
04:06I think Ayan and I want to start a family.
04:08Like the idea that either one of us would be denied rights over our children or even like if God
04:14forbid something happens to us in the hospital
04:15because we're not legally married, it's just absurd, right?
04:19And so like people fought so hard to get this, you know, legalized, not only just in the state of
04:24New York,
04:25but like federally and then even now, like a lot of like fights are just to help maintain that.
04:29So for us, we sat hard about whether or not we really wanted to get married, right?
04:35And ultimately the answer was yes.
04:37And it was yes for so many reasons.
04:39The first reason was one, you know, we stand on the shoulders of everyone who fought for this.
04:43And like we are two people who are truly manly in love with each other.
04:46And we should be able to have that same equality and equity in the way that we live our lives.
04:52And then two is like we really wanted to celebrate our love in a deeper and real way, not just
04:57for us,
04:58but for our family and friends who I feel like they are our cheerleaders and they love us and we
05:03love love and we love them.
05:05And also it was like, you know, it was just something that told us like this is the next step.
05:09It felt right for us as a couple, but it also felt right for us as a movement.
05:15If I know that I'm in love with someone to this extent, why not show that to the world?
05:20Why not share our story and why not just have something that means something to us that we can keep
05:26and we can have?
05:27Like this is something that's sacred to us.
05:29And the fact that we're able to do that, I think it's just really important.
05:33You know, if we have kids or when we have kids, you know, who knows what will happen with them.
05:37But to be able to just be like, this is your story.
05:40You get to control your own narrative.
05:41You get to love who you want to love.
05:43You get to celebrate that in any way you want.
05:45I think it's amazing.
05:46We knew we didn't want a long engagement normally, naturally.
05:50And I think because of what we were all experiencing in the pandemic and obviously all of us experiencing loss
05:55and grief and just uncertainty that we were like, oh, we have to do this.
06:00And we're going to plan this like at least within the year, like we're going to get married or however
06:06that looks like.
06:11We knew what we were wearing.
06:13So we wanted both of our outfits to compliment each other, but still really represent us.
06:17I love a pantsuit, a jumpsuit, but I didn't just want a regular pantsuit because my family and friends, they
06:24always see me in like a jumpsuit.
06:25Right.
06:26And I'm like, I wanted something different.
06:27So I realized that I wanted a jumpsuit was like a dramatic effect.
06:31Now we were like going through a lot of different like websites, but I finally ended on ASOS Bridal.
06:36Now, I didn't even know that ASOS, the UK like shop, actually had a bridal department and a bridal section.
06:42And when that one arrived and I put it on, I was like, yes, this is it.
06:47I love the sleeves.
06:49Like my back was out.
06:51It really made me feel like tall and beautiful.
06:54My dress was such a thing.
06:57Like, what do you wear to a park wedding?
06:59That was literally the question I kept asking.
07:01What do you wear?
07:02I don't want things dragging on the floor.
07:04No one's trying to clean that.
07:05Like I was just really trying to figure it out.
07:07So I randomly one day was telling Suli, I was like, you know, I'm just going to like, just book
07:12a sample sale appointment and see what they have.
07:15And I think I tried on like five or six.
07:16And the first, first dress I tried on, I instantly fell in love with.
07:20But because we're so not traditional, Suli came with me when I tried on my dress.
07:25And when she saw it, she was like, this is the dress.
07:29I had them put like strings to kind of cinch it.
07:31That also added to the pricing.
07:34But when it was done, it felt really beautiful.
07:38And it felt like me.
07:39And the kicker of it all was it was a one-of-a-kind dress.
07:43We're about to do this.
07:45It's been a while.
07:46But we're here with our family and friends.
07:49And it is the most amazing journey.
07:51And I can't wait for a decade more.
07:54Salud.
07:55We were able to really kind of create a magical experience with a small number of people in person.
08:02Having people on Zoom was really effective for us as well.
08:06And just still getting kind of like that vibe we wanted.
08:09So to kind of like top off the whole like wedding experience, we were struggling as well with like catering.
08:15And like, do we do a restaurant or what do we do?
08:17And then we ended up just like reaching out to Celestines in Brooklyn.
08:21And they were able to really like shut down the restaurant for us and gave us a beautiful outside patio
08:27experience where we were able to do like a really cute brunch with our intimate 25 people.
08:32And it just really made things just so memorable for us.
08:36It wasn't the experience that we thought we wanted, but it was definitely the experience we needed.
08:42People just felt our love and just the little details were really important to us.
08:46I'm really big on themes and colors and in my past life as a fashion stylist.
08:51So everyone had to come color coordinated in person, even the officiant.
08:56We had like special things at like the reception, like personal cocktails with our names.
09:01Just like little things to make things feel really special.
09:04Everything felt really authentic and sweet.
09:08Right?
09:08And just us.
09:09Just us.
09:10Just us.
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