On June 25, 2021, Caitlin Nicole Shu joined friends for casual drinks at Art Cafe and Bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, unaware that the group would include Daniel Kevin Ciszek, someone mutual friends had suggested she meet.
They spent the next few hours getting to know each other, and as the night wound down and everyone called rides home, Shu and Ciszek found themselves walking to a nearby Citi Bike dock — she heading home to Park Slope, he to Cobble Hill. They rode together for a few minutes before parting ways.
One of those friends was hosting a birthday party the next day. “I kept thinking to myself, should I ask for her number now or no?” Ciszek said. “I decided to wait because I thought I was going to see her again tomorrow.”
When she didn’t show up, “I did feel a little bummed out,” he said. So he asked their friend for her phone number and texted to ask if she wanted to meet for a drink on July 3 at Dirty Precious, a now-closed cocktail bar in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
A self-described “Type A planner,” Shu checked Instagram before the date and realized the bar was closed for the Fourth of July weekend. They pivoted to Givers and Takers across the street, where they talked about their families and love of sports.
Shu, 34, is a senior creative project manager at SeatGeek, a ticketing platform and marketplace based in New York City. She grew up in West Palm Beach, Fla., and has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Ciszek, 39, is a business development manager at Morrison Foerster, an international law firm headquartered in San Francisco. He has a bachelor’s degree in history and religion from the University of Rochester and grew up in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
They went on a second date about a week later, but that summer, Ciszek returned home to Niagara Falls, while his father coped with health issues. “He told me, ‘I have to be out of town for a while,’” Shu said. “I thought it was a bit vague, but OK, I’m going to trust this.”
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They didn’t see each other again until September, but Shu still wanted to provide support from afar. “I don’t want to overstep, but I want you to know that if you want to talk to anyone, you can talk to me,” she recalled telling him.
“There was something incredibly serendipitous about meeting Caitlin when I did,” he said.
In November 2021, they became exclusive, and in June 2023, they moved into an apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where they still reside with Shu’s cat, Khaleesi.
In March 2024, Ciszek joined Shu on a work ski trip to Belleayre Mountain in Highmount, N.Y. While skiing, Shu fell and injured herself, and an M.R.I. revealed she had torn her A.C.L. and partially torn her P.C.L., requiring knee surgery and months of physical therapy. Shu, an avid runner and barre instructor, was devastated by the diagnosis.
“When I woke up from surgery, the doctor said that Danny was worried sick about me and that I was so lucky to have a guy who cared so much,” she said. After her surgery in May, Ciszek tended to her while she recovered at home and accompanied her to physical therapy and doctors’ appointments.
On July 3, 2025, after a summer thunderstorm, Ciszek proposed to Shu at Fort Greene Park with an oval diamond ring. They celebrated afterward at Sailor, a neighborhood bistro in Fort Greene.
They were married on July 2 at the Brooklyn Marriage Bureau. Waldo Ramirez, a city clerk, officiated, with Seth Pompan, the friend who had helped bring them together five years earlier, as their witness. Ciszek’s mother, Donna Ciszek, joined via FaceTime. Afterward, the newlyweds celebrated with Pompan over drinks at Abilene Bar in Carroll Gardens.
“I was wearing this little veil, so that everyone knew that we just got married, and they brought over some tequila shots,” Shu said. The couple then dined, just the two of them, at Popina in Carroll Gardens.
On July 19, the couple will celebrate with 115 guests at Eaton Hall Country Inn and Spa, outside Toronto. The reception tables will be named after Brooklyn neighborhoods.
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