When Emily Rose Kelly matched with Jordan Michael Bargas on Raya in November 2021, she was dating with intention. “I’ve been looking for my husband since I was 5,” she said.
Mr. Bargas’s profile showed him in Ironman triathlon cycling gear and included a hard-hat photo from New York’s Hudson Yards, a project he helped develop. “He was so genuinely himself,” Ms. Kelly said. “I showed it to my mom, and she said, ‘Match with him right now.’”
But Mr. Bargas was in a different head space. “I was traveling constantly, and at a transitional point in my career where I was likely moving to another state,” he said. “So I wasn’t expecting anything serious.”
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Because of their travel schedules, they didn’t meet until their first date in February 2022 at Dear Irving Gramercy, a cocktail bar in Manhattan. Ms. Kelly mistakenly went to an uptown location of the same bar and arrived 30 minutes late. Wasting no time, they conversed over cocktails for hours.
“There was definitely an immediate spark,” Mr. Bargas said.
“I remember just feeling so comfortable and safe in his presence,” Ms. Kelly said.
Mr. Bargas, 35, grew up in Boca Raton, Fla., and graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He is an executive vice president at Related Ross, a real estate development firm based in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Ms. Kelly, 28, was raised in Floral Park, N.Y., and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. She is a founder and chief executive of ClutchKit, a nonprofit organization supporting women’s reproductive health.
A month after they met, Mr. Bargas moved to South Florida for work. “Our relationship wasn’t exactly a straight line by most standards,” he said. His role kept bringing him back to Manhattan on quick trips, and Ms. Kelly often visited him in Miami. “We always made the time to see each other whenever our schedules overlapped,” he added.
“There were definitely a few false starts,” Ms. Kelly said of navigating long distance. “We kept finding our way back, and it made us realize we didn’t want to be without each other.”
They became exclusive on New Year’s Eve 2023, and shortly after, she moved into his apartment in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. In February 2024, they moved to West Palm Beach, where they currently reside.
On Aug. 20, 2024, Mr. Bargas proposed to Ms. Kelly during a trip to Borgo San Felice Resort in Tuscany, Italy, with a custom oval diamond ring from Retrouvai. Knowing she might anticipate a proposal on the trip, he told her on their first night in Florence that an engagement was “coming soon,” but not during this vacation — a comment that left her disappointed but convinced.
After a bike ride, they stopped for a private picnic. “I always film little Instagram Reels, so I turn the camera on, and in the corner of the screen, I saw him get down on one knee,” Ms. Kelly said.
Mr. Bargas added, “I wanted it to be a real surprise. No production, just the two of us.”
They married Nov. 22 at the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Fla., a Gilded Age landmark. Ron Book, a Florida notary and family friend, officiated the ceremony inside the museum’s pavilion. Eighteen children — many of them Ms. Kelly’s relatives — walked down the aisle ahead of the couple.
A reception at the Lake Room followed, attended by 209 guests. Their first dance was to “Islands in the Stream.” Midway through the evening, Mr. Bargas, who said his bride is “completely in her element” with her family, helped Ms. Kelly’s grandmother, Marie Kennedy, to the dance floor as “Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” played. The three of them danced, a moment that left much of the room in tears.
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