Kyle Gardner Torrence made a dramatic entrance to the dock in Cherry Grove on Fire Island, N.Y., when he first met Jove Appollon Meyer in person in May 2020.
Mr. Torrence had missed an 11 a.m. ferry, and the next one wouldn’t depart until 5 p.m. Determined to make it to his date with Mr. Meyer, he begged employees at the station to let him charter his own boat, paying hundreds of dollars to do so.
“I felt like Barbra Streisand,” Mr. Torrence said. “No one was going to rain on my parade.”
As the chartered boat approached the island, onlookers whispered about which celebrity might be arriving. “Everyone there thought it was Liza Minnelli or Alan Cumming,” Mr. Torrence, 35, said. “And it was me.”
Mr. Meyer, 40, was waiting for him, his dogs Sadie and Sausage in his arms, shaking his head as Mr. Torrence exited the boat.
“And I’ve been shaking it ever since,” Mr. Meyer said, with a laugh.
The two had met a few weeks earlier on Tinder. Mr. Torrence had never been in a serious relationship before, and early on during the pandemic, he had an epiphany about his approach to dating.
“I wasn’t saying what I really want,” he said. “And I want a monogamous relationship. I want a family. I was just trying to play it cool.” He decided that he would be upfront about what he was looking for.
“I was looking for the same thing, and I had been looking for three years since my last relationship,” Mr. Meyer said. “And in the dating world, as you know, there are a lot of games.” With Mr. Torrence, though, “there was no nonsense,” he added.
Mr. Meyer, who had just bought a home in Cherry Grove, invited Mr. Torrence to the island for their first date. After disembarking the chartered boat, they made their way to the Sunken Forest, where Mr. Meyer had planned a romantic walk. His hope was that at the highest point of the trail, with stunning views of the ocean, they could share their first kiss if all goes well.
“I’m a hopeless romantic,” Mr. Meyer said.
But two eager park rangers struck up a conversation with them. “Can we tell you about the deer population of Fire Island?” one asked.
“I was about to politely say, ‘No, thank you so much,’” Mr. Meyer said. Instead, Mr. Torrence, who called himself a “people pleaser,” responded: “Yes, let’s hear about it.”
Mr. Torrence indulged the park rangers as they showed them deer fossils, food and fecal matter. Mr. Meyer made several attempts to politely hint that he wanted to be alone with Mr. Torrence. After an hour and a half of rambling, the park rangers finally left, and the couple shared their first kiss. (They now regularly walk the trail and see the two park rangers often.)
Mr. Torrence ended up staying in Cherry Grove for a week. A month later, they were official.
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In December 2022, they moved into an apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Mr. Meyer, the owner of Jove Meyer Events, graduated from Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Mr. Torrence, an assistant to the actor and model Patti Hansen, graduated from the Hartt School with a bachelor’s degree in music.
On June 21, the couple had “a big gay wedding,” Mr. Meyer said. They were married at the Bowery Hotel, surrounded by pink, blue, yellow and purple stained glass windows, that cast a colorful glow on Mr. Meyer’s custom white Wiederhoeft suit. Megan Southerland, a friend of the couple who was ordained by American Marriage Ministries, officiated the wedding before 132 guests.
“Every decision we have is ‘make it gayer,’” Mr. Torrence said.
This included adding as much color as possible to their celebration. “The rainbow flag is being removed from schools and federal buildings, and it’s now being turned into this horrible thing,” Mr. Meyer said. “So we are celebrating rainbow and color in a way that’s big and bold.”
Two of their friends sang “Grow as We Go” by Ben Platt as they walked down the aisle together. The ceremony opened with a reading of “American Wedding,” a poem by Essex Hemphill, a Black L.G.B.T.Q. activist.
As Mr. Meyer and Mr. Torrence read their vows to each other, guests laughed and cried. “Can you hold me? I’m shaking so much,” Mr. Torrence said.
In his vows, Mr. Torrence said, “You know I’m a dreamer — there’s always something I want to do, somewhere I want to go. My mind is constantly spinning with possibilities. But even with all my dreaming, I could never have imagined meeting someone as incredible as you.”
Mr. Meyer, who has planned and designed more than 200 weddings, planned his own wedding as well. “Sometimes I forget that my planner is my future husband,” Mr. Torrence said. “I’m the client with no boundaries,” he said, jokingly.
Mr. Meyer, in jest, shook his head.
Sadiba Hasan reports on love and culture for the Styles section of The Times.
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