Madeline Brooke Richter had spent several years moving between New York and Miami before settling back in Manhattan in the spring of 2023. Newly single, she met with a close friend for drinks in mid-April and spoke about her love life. During the conversation, her friend asked, “Are you willing to meet your husband? Because I have the perfect person.”
Jesse Michael Dimitro, the person the friend had in mind, had been focused on his legal career in the early years. “My career was my priority,” he said, “and I hadn’t met anyone I wanted to be with.”
Neither was actively dating, but both were open to meeting. Days later, the mutual friend introduced them in a group text, and shortly after, Mr. Dimitro asked Ms. Richter to meet for Sunday brunch at Yves, a French restaurant in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood.
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The meal lasted three hours. “We couldn’t stop talking, and we didn’t even touch our food,” Mr. Dimitro said. They continued the date with drinks at the SoHo rooftop bar Jimmy. “There, he said, ‘Cancel your dinner plans, I don’t want this day to end,’” she said.
They ended the evening at Mr. Dimitro’s apartment, where they ordered pizza, continued getting to know each other, and discovered a coincidence. “Maddie’s birthday is on Sept. 5, and mine is the 6th,” Mr. Dimitro said. “Once that came up, we thought we should do something meaningful to mark our birthdays.”
They decided to spin a globe in his apartment, and it landed on Africa. “Wherever our finger landed, that’s where we’d go — if we were still together,” Ms. Richter said.
Ms. Richter, 28, is a senior digital manager at Infinity Creative Agency, a creative public relations agency based in Los Angeles and New York. She grew up in Minnetonka, Minn., and earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Missouri.
Mr. Dimitro, 29, is a senior associate lawyer at Scarinci Hollenbeck, a law firm based in New York and New Jersey. He grew up in Long Branch, N.J., and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Binghamton University and a law degree from New York Law School.
A second date was planned for days later, and they continued talking between dates, soon seeing each other nearly every day. By Memorial Day weekend 2023, they had become exclusive. Later that year, they followed through on their travel plans, taking their first trip together to Morocco. In March 2024, they moved in together in Manhattan’s Financial District, where they continue to live.
That December, Mr. Dimitro proposed to Ms. Richter with a brilliant-cut diamond ring at Yves, the restaurant where they had gone on their first date. Afterward, Ms. Richter spoke to her paternal grandmother, Marilyn Richter, on FaceTime to share the news. “I was the first grandchild to get engaged, and all she ever wanted was to see one of her grandkids get married,” she said.
A month after their engagement and days before their engagement party, Ms. Richter was unexpectedly laid off from a talent agency job. “Up until the proposal, everything felt like a dream,” she said.
Around that time, she spoke again with her grandmother on FaceTime to show her wedding dress options, and ultimately chose the gown her grandmother favored.
On Feb. 3, 2025, Marilyn Richter died, and Ms. Richter said wearing the princess-style ball gown felt like a way to honor her. While navigating grief, she found another job at a public relations agency, but was laid off again a few months later as clients cut back on spending.
“At that point, I didn’t believe in myself at all,” Ms. Richter said. “Having Jesse remind me who I was and what I was capable of gave me the confidence to keep going.”
“I have her back, no matter what,” Mr. Dimitro said.
The two were married Feb. 14 at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla. Rabbi Alan E. Litwak, the senior rabbi of Temple Sinai of North Dade in Miami, led the ceremony, with 147 guests in attendance. A memorial table near the cocktail hour displayed framed photographs of their grandparents who had died, a quiet tribute woven into the celebration.
During the hora, Ms. Richter was lifted into the air on a chair — and slipped out. She landed on her feet and returned straight to the dance floor.
“That moment really sums her up,” Mr. Dimitro said. “That’s the woman I’ve been in love with since the second I saw her.”
The post They Spun a Globe on Their First Date, and Kept Their Promise appeared first on New York Times.
