When Nicholas James Hunt moved to Brooklyn from San Francisco in late 2019, he couldn’t have anticipated that Covid restrictions would become a defining part of his first year in New York.
In December 2020, he posted a recap of his life in the city on Instagram. The focus was not on adventures around the area, but instead on digital content and texts from friends.
“It was literally seven screenshots from seven different people messaging me to say that I reminded them of Cody Rigsby,” he said, referring to the high-profile Peloton instructor and web personality to whom he bears a noticeable resemblance.
Hunt’s roommate at the time, Leticia Perez, known as Letty, added the post to her Instagram feed. She quickly heard from Scott Jeffrey Winston, whom she knew from college at Northwestern University.
“I slid into her DMs, and was like, ‘Hey Letty, how have the last 10 years been? Is your roommate single?’” Winston recalled.
Hunt was indeed single and the pair began texting. They planned to meet in person on Jan. 2, 2021, at the Spaniard, a bar in Manhattan’s West Village. Seating was still limited to outdoors because of the pandemic, and on a busy Saturday night, they sat at the only empty table, nestled under a broken heat lamp.
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It was chilly, but they lingered over glasses of pinot noir until around midnight.
“We spent the whole time laughing,” Winston said.
The next day, he texted a friend to say, “I’ve met a guy and no matter where this goes, always remind me it’s possible to laugh on a first date.”
Hunt, 35, was raised in Kent, Ohio. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English and psychology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a master’s in urban education from Loyola Marymount University and oversees state partnerships at Brightwheel, an educational software company.
Winston, 36, grew up in Rye Brook, N.Y. He graduated from Northwestern — also with a bachelor’s in English and psychology — and he holds a law degree from Harvard. He works as an entertainment lawyer who works with clients like Lucy Liu and Julia Fox.
“Nick doesn’t know any celebrity names and Scott’s an entertainment lawyer,” said Perez, the former roommate who introduced them. Still, she added, “they make so much sense together.”
Hunt and Winston quickly found many shared interests, like a fondness for stand-up comedy, karaoke and reality television (though Hunt prefers “Survivor” and Winston favors the “Real Housewives” franchise).
The relationship steadily grew serious, including discussions about marriage. Not long before Valentine’s Day 2024, they ordered matching engagement rings — beveled gold bands that now serve as wedding rings — from Holden in SoHo.
Hunt planned a surprise proposal. On Oct. 19, 2024, after an afternoon of shopping in the West Village, the couple stopped at St. Luke in the Fields garden on Hudson Street. Hunt got on one knee and asked Winston to marry him.
They headed to the Spaniard, where they’d had their first date, and where Hunt had arranged for about 20 friends and family to help celebrate.
Winston had also prepared his own memorable proposal: A video compiled by a friend with footage of Hunt performing his favorite karaoke number, Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass,” punctuated with the words “Will You Marry Me?” He incorporated the video when he got down on one knee back at their apartment in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, with their friends and family.
On May 22, a sunny Friday that started the Memorial Day weekend, the couple were married at the chapel in the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Municipal Building, the Brooklyn office of the city clerk, by Michael McSweeney, the New York city clerk.
A week later, they held a larger celebration with over 200 guests in Cleveland, about 30 miles from Hunt’s hometown, Kent. The weekend festivities began on May 29 with a pizza dinner — a longstanding Hunt family tradition — and culminated the following evening with a ceremony, dinner and party at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The couple decided against a wedding cake in favor of multiple desserts, including ice cream sandwiches stashed in a cart decorated with a drawing by Caitlyn Crites, a cousin of Hunt’s, depicting “The Real Housewives of New York City” cast member Luann de Lesseps and her de facto motto, “Be cool!! Don’t be all … uncool!”
“Our wedding wouldn’t feel complete without a Housewife in attendance,” Winston said. “Even if it’s just on an ice cream cart.”
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