The third time was the charm.
Aaron Jason Feinberg was set to go on a first date with Allison Indie Parsons in November 2022, but she canceled hours beforehand, saying she was busy at work. She was not.
The second time she canceled, she claimed she had Covid. “A lie,” said Parsons, who goes by Ali. “I had moved to New York eight months earlier, and I was just enjoying being new to the city. I was happy with my life and my friends and I decided I didn’t need to be dating.”
By the third invitation, Parsons reconsidered. After all, “he looked really nice online.” Plus, “he was understanding and persistent.” Besides, she thought, “I can’t cancel on him again; it will be bad dating karma. I’ll just go and then take a break from dating afterward.”
She kept that promise. After their first meeting, she stopped seeing anyone else.
Parsons, 31, and Feinberg, 32, met on the dating app Hinge. He was drawn to a photo of her hiking. “To me that meant she was open to adventures.”
Her two cancellations only piqued his interest. Finally, they had their first date at the Porchlight bar, two blocks from her Chelsea apartment. Neither was looking for anything serious. Still, he remembered seeing her walk in and thinking, “Aaron, put your game face on; she’s beautiful.”
Parsons ordered a ranch water, a cocktail made with blanco tequila, fresh lime juice and sparkling mineral water, “which I felt was a bold choice and, for some reason, an attractive order,” Mr. Feinberg said. Conversation flowed easily. “I really loved the sound of her voice,” he said, describing it as “warm and inviting” as well as “confident and empathetic.”
“It all just felt comfortable, and it made me feel like the best version of myself right off the bat,” he added. “She also laughed a lot at my jokes and when I had opinions on things I remember her deeply acknowledging them, thinking through them and appreciating stances I had on small life subjects.”
That Wednesday night date stretched to three hours. “Time flew,” Parsons said. He walked her home, and they hugged.
Feinberg texted the next morning, and they squeezed in a second date the following Monday at Mel’s pizzeria in Chelsea before she left for a planned two-week family trip to Tahiti. That date ended with a street corner kiss.
“I expected him to text the next morning, but he waited three days,” she said. During that time, she thought he might have lost interest.
Then on Thanksgiving she heard from him and they texted every day while she was away. Soon after she returned, they became exclusive.
Parsons, who was raised in Seattle, graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and communication. After working in tech sales in Seattle and Los Angeles, she moved to New York and became a senior customer success manager at Monday.com, a cloud-based work operating system.
Feinberg was born on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and raised in Port Washington, N.Y. He graduated from Binghamton University with a bachelor’s degree in business, concentrating in finance. He began his career in sales at an education consulting company.
Three months into their relationship, he started a new side venture, Meet Cutes NYC, with two childhood buddies, Victor Lee and Jeremy Bernstein. The trio approaches random couples on New York City streets and asks about their love stories, sharing the videos on social media.
The concept quickly gained traction. Today the brand has more than seven million followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, with some videos surpassing 100 million views. Those featured have included high-profile interviewees, such as then-President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden and the actor Keegan-Michael Key and his wife, Elle Key.
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The team has since expanded its Meet Cutes interviews to London and recently introduced a spinoff, Besties NYC, in which they ask platonic friends how they met and bonded. In July, they installed a “Missed Connections” photo booth in Times Square.
Within a year and a half of launching the venture, Feinberg left his job at the time at a tech-enabled table tennis company to help run Meet Cutes full time. The three partners film on the streets three to five times a week.
Parsons was an early champion of the idea. Now she jokes that she has an “influencer husband.”
She was drawn to his interest in human emotions. “I thought it was so sweet that Aaron wanted to share the stories of how people fall in love and what they love about each other,” she said. “It’s a fun, positive, joyful thing he’s contributing to the world.”
Through his interviews with more than 10,000 couples, Feinberg has gleaned lots of helpful relationship advice that he has put into practice.
One piece stands out: “One couple said they compete to see who can do more for the other person each day,” he said. “I really like that.”
Another recurring theme is “the importance of prioritizing your relationship over everything else.” Parsons, he said, is great at that. “She reminds me every day that relationships are the deepest and most important parts of life.”
They are also inspired by the 33-year marriages of both sets of their parents.
One lesson they’ve learned from them is that each partner needs individual interests as well as shared ones. “That’s a key element of the success of their marriages,” he said.
Feinberg said he knew early on that Parsons was “his person.”
“A lot of the ways our humor connected and the bits we would do together made me feel like I could be myself around her instantly and she appreciated and wanted to share in laughter over the same things,” he said.
“There were also simple moments where we would be sitting on the floor of her apartment eating dinner together (she didn’t have a dining room table) and watching TV, where her head would rest on my shoulder and I just felt the most comfortable feelings with someone that I’d ever felt. I remember telling Ali early on that our shapes fit together like a perfect puzzle.”
Parsons realized that she had found her soul mate on their first New Year’s Eve together, as she nestled into Feinberg while they drove home through Central Park after a party.
After 10 months of dating, they moved into the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, apartment where they still live. On April 20, 2025, Feinberg proposed to Parsons on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, in the neighborhood where they hope to someday get a dog and raise a family. “It was symbolic of our shared dreams,” he said.
Parsons suspected a proposal was coming, but expected it later in the summer. She had already visited a jewelry store with her sister and best friend to explore ring styles.
That day, Feinberg told her they were heading to a photo shoot with his partners for their upcoming book, “Meet Cutes NYC,” which was published by Artisan in October 2025. When they arrived and no one else was there, she realized what was happening.
Feinberg got down on one knee along the waterfront and gave her a gold ring with a solitaire diamond. They celebrated with an intimate brunch at Sailor in Fort Greene, FaceTimed family and friends and spent the night at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge in Dumbo with a view of the Manhattan skyline.
On Aug. 8, the two were married at Bella Luna Farms, in Snohomish, Wash., outside of Seattle. Grant Ogulnick, a childhood friend of the groom who was ordained through the American Marriage Ministries for this event, officiated. They exchanged vows beside a pond and under a huppah wrapped in wildflowers. Guests sipped Aperol spritzes while meandering through the lush hydrangea and fruit-filled grounds.
Seasonal produce is a part of any event there. When Parsons was getting dressed in her Sareh Nouri bridal gown, she asked for lemon water. Bella Luna’s owner, Pam Thompson, went outside and plucked a Meyer lemon right from a tree.
A farm-to-table dinner followed beneath a white sailcloth tent. The 130 guests danced late into the night, and the couple jumped onstage to sing several songs with a nine-piece band, including “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus.
They honeymooned on the Big Island of Hawaii and are planning an African safari next spring.
When asked a question familiar to viewers of Meet Cutes: “What’s your favorite thing about your partner,” Parsons said, “He loves connecting with others. He always wants to know about other people and is so curious, talking to anyone. He’s driven and fearless and has the confidence to try anything and not be afraid to fail.”
And what is Feinberg’s favorite thing about his new bride? “She’s easy to love. She’s just someone you feel like you can open up to and release your soul into and she won’t judge. Rather, she’ll relate and understand and offer warmth. I noticed this from our first date on and it didn’t take long to watch it evolve into love and knowing I wanted her by my side.”
A wedding video, posted on their personal social media accounts, starts with an on-brand Meet Cutes moment. Off camera, Bernstein asks in his distinctive deep baritone voice, “Are you two a couple?”
The newlyweds throw up their arms in celebration and announce, “We just got married!”
On This Day
When Aug. 8, 2026
Where Bella Luna Farms, Snohomish, Wash.
Local Touches At the rehearsal dinner at Salty’s on Alki Beach, place cards were set on oyster shells as a nod to Puget Sound. Welcome bags were filled with some of Parsons’s Seattle favorites, including Fran’s dark salted caramels, Beecher’s artisan crackers and a map of Pike Place Marketplace, a public farmer’s market near the hotel.
Sweets In place of a traditional wedding cake, guests chose from a dessert buffet filled with coconut, peanut butter and chocolate cakes from Deru Market and cookies and ice cream from Hello Robin.
Something Old Parsons wore her grandmother’s diamond studs, which her mother had also worn at her own wedding.
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