Samantha Rubin Katz and Alan Mark Paukman might have crossed paths several times before meeting in 2023. They both grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan; both own SoHo apartments three blocks from one another; both studied at Columbia at the same time; and both moved to New Orleans in the spring of 2023, just four blocks apart.
But they never met.
That changed at a mutual friend’s birthday pool party in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans on May 27, 2023. The two say the only explanation is b’shert, a Yiddish word meaning destiny.
They only exchanged a few words at the pool party, but later that evening, Ms. Katz, 39, said, “I felt so comfortable. I just went up to him and started dancing.” She recalled him saying, “Hey, we should probably exchange numbers,” which they did.
The next day, both were headed to New York — she by plane, he by car. “I told her to wave to me from the plane while I was driving,” Mr. Paukman, 38, said.
The two spent all of June in Manhattan, busy but keeping in touch via text. On June 20, 2023, they went on their first date: a sunset stroll through Central Park; a bike ride to see the Met Opera at SummerStage; dinner at Blue Ribbon Sushi, Ms. Katz’s favorite sushi spot; and a first kiss under the disco ball at Lincoln Center.
“It all sounds dreamy and magical,” Mr. Paukman said. “I did spend a week planning and charting that.”
But three days later, Ms. Katz left for a Paris vacation on a one-way ticket.
Mr. Paukman tried to be patient. He recalled texting her, “Are you ever coming back?” She responded, “Why? Are you planning an adventure?”
He texted back, “Always. Are you interested?”
“All I need is art and seafood,” she replied.
On July 13, Ms. Katz returned to Manhattan, and the two left the next day for a five-day road trip to Maine. “We mapped our days around museum stops, seaside galleries, and lobster shacks,” Ms. Katz said. “We figured if it was a disaster, we would simply go our separate ways.”
But it ended up being anything but. When they returned to Manhattan, Ms. Katz recalled telling her friends, “I think I just met the guy I’m going to marry.” And Mr. Paukman recalled telling his friends the same.
By August, Ms. Katz wasn’t quite ready to say “I love you.” Mr. Paukman recalled asking her if they could come up with something “a little less emotionally charged,” but that still represented their intense feelings.
“Without missing a beat, Samantha replied, ‘I monster you,’” Mr. Paukman said.
The two made their relationship official the following month.
Ms. Katz is an independent arts curator and the vice president for programming and experience at Summit Series, a global events company with its corporate office in Austin, Texas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communications design from Pratt Institute. Ms. Katz was born in New Haven, Conn.
Mr. Paukman is an architect and the owner of Alan Paukman Architecture, as well as a founder of Swelter House, which designs and builds saunas and wellness spaces for private homes. He has a bachelor’s degree in arts from N.Y.U., Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia. Mr. Paukman was born in Brooklyn.
Five months later, in February 2024, the two moved into an industrial loft in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans. “We turned the living room into a creative space called 1 to 1 Gallery, where we began hosting bimonthly art salons and exhibitions,” Ms. Katz said.
One year later, on Feb. 16, 2025, Mr. Paukman proposed in Audubon Park in New Orleans at the Tree of Life on a very auspicious day, Ms. Katz said, “In Jewish numerology, 2+16 equals 18, which is chai, meaning life.”
“Everything carries me to you” was engraved inside the ring he gave her, which he designed using a diamond from his great-grandmother’s ring. Mr. Paukman then read Ms. Katz the poem from which those words come, “If You Forget Me” by Pablo Neruda.
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In March 2025, the two bought their first house together, “complete with a dedicated space to continue 1 to 1 Gallery and a disco ball hanging from the highest ceiling so we can recreate our first kiss every single day,” Ms. Katz said. They both still have their apartments in Manhattan.
The two were wed June 20 before 20 guests in Central Park at the Ladies Pavilion by Joette Katz, the bride’s mother, who was ordained through American Marriage Ministries for this event.
That night, the couple celebrated with their guests over a candlelit dinner at Dowling’s at the Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side.
The next day, the couple hosted “a bagels and schmear luncheon” for 100 guests at his parents’ Upper West Side penthouse overlooking Lincoln Center. The day included music performed by Eric Robert Lewis, known as Elew, a Grammy-nominated jazz pianist and composer.
“She is the color to his monochrome, and he is the calm eye at the center of her tornado of energy and passion,” Ms. Katz recalled her older brother, Jason Rubin, saying at the wedding.
In March 2026, the couple will host a large wedding celebration in New Orleans, which they are calling “Becoming Together,” Ms. Katz said. “Our love letter to New Orleans — a citywide celebration of love, art, and the creative community we call ours.”
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