In February 2020, when Krystle-Jayne Mei-Ying Ng first saw the dating app profile of Hanna Sophia Rinderknecht-Mahaffy, one crucial detail struck her: her listed height.
Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy’s profile on Her, a dating app for L.G.B.T.Q. women and nonbinary people, said that she was 6-foot-6. For Ms. Ng, who is 5-foot-2, the height difference was a deal-breaker. So after connecting on the app, she messaged her to find out: Was she really that tall?
Turns out, it was a typo. Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy, who is actually 5-foot-6, was new to the online dating scene and still getting the swing of things. With her height fears assuaged, Ms. Ng asked Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy out on a date.
The next day, they met at Victrola Coffee Roasters in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. At the time, Ms. Ng called herself a “serial dater.” Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy had never met up with a match from a dating app before.
At the coffee shop, Ms. Ng, 30, said she found herself “blown away by Hanna’s beauty.”
Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy, 27, a self-described introvert, was surprised by how easy it was to talk to Ms. Ng. They chatted for more than three hours. On their second date, they got tacos and went to the Wildrose, a lesbian bar in Capitol Hill, where they shared their first kiss on the dance floor.
Then, after just three dates, coronavirus lockdowns began. They pivoted to video dates, playing get-to-know-you games and finding that they shared many of the same core values in life.
Around May, they reunited in person after quarantining for two weeks. Eventually, they spent more and more time together, and in June 2020, Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy asked Ms. Ng to be exclusive. “Usually when people ask me to be exclusive with them, I emotionally blackout,” Ms. Ng said. “But when Hanna brought it up, it just felt safe.” By August, they were officially in a relationship.
The following month, while river tubing with friends in the Snoqualmie River in Washington State, Ms. Ng realized she wanted to marry Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy. About three quarters of the way down, the river was slow to flow. The sun was setting, it was getting cold and morale was low. Ms. Ng and Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy tried to paddle and get the group moving.
“Everyone was miserable but Hanna and I,” Ms. Ng said. “Even though we weren’t having the best time, we weren’t sad or angry. We were just like, ‘We’re getting through this together.’”
In April 2021, they moved in together in Seattle. Then, in March 2022, they decided to relocate to New York, where Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy had lived in college. Over time, they talked about their future. Each set about planning a proposal, suffusing efforts with creativity — and a bit of trickery.
In September 2022, Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy took Ms. Ng on a surprise trip to East Hampton, N.Y., where she proposed, in a romantic moment overlooking a water view.
A few days later, Ms. Ng took her on a surprise trip of her own. She packed Ms. Rinderknect-Mahaffy’s bags and put them in an Uber, told her they were going to dinner, and instead went to Kennedy Airport. They then embarked on a two-week trip to London, Venice, Paris and Santorini, Greece. Through many scenic locales and photo-worthy engagement spots, Ms. Ng did not propose. It was all an elaborate misdirection.
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When they got home, Ms. Ng proposed on the balcony of their Manhattan apartment, with their cat in tow. “We can have so many adventures together,” she recalled saying. “But really, our home is with you, and me, and our fur baby, Junior.”
Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy, who grew up in Spokane, Wash., has a bachelor’s degree in physics from N.Y.U., where she studied at the New York and Shanghai campuses. She is a customer success account manager at Microsoft, working mostly remotely.
Ms. Ng is a director of cloud solution architecture at Microsoft, also remotely, and is from Ryde, Australia, a suburb of Sydney. She has a bachelor’s degree in information technology from the University of Technology Sydney and a master’s degree in technology management from Columbia. She is pursuing an executive M.B.A. at Yale.
They were married March 23 at Cornwallis House, a venue in Cornwallis, Australia, by Angela Blattman, a Commonwealth-appointed celebrant. Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy’s brother, Sylvan Long, led the personal elements of the ceremony. They also had a traditional Chinese tea ceremony, a “yum seng” toast (or “drink to success,” Ms. Ng said, where each word “yum” and “seng” is shouted as long and loud as possible) and a lion dance, as a nod to Ms. Ng’s Singaporean heritage.
For their first dance, the couple swayed to a rendition of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” sung live by many of their 60 wedding guests. Ms. Ng’s vows included a PowerPoint presentation, printed out, detailing her love for Ms. Rinderknecht-Mahaffy.
Ms. Ng said they had considered eloping, but decided against it. “Our gay ancestors really fought hard for our rights,” she said. “We wanted to really make it loud and proud.”
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