Madeline Anne Boone, a sophomore transfer from the University of Georgia, was being interviewed to join Bucknell University’s student-run concert committee in September 2015, with the hope of making new friends. Across the table sat Elias Benjamin Strizower, a junior on the committee who was helping with the interviews.
“I probably interviewed 50 people during my time on the committee,” Mr. Strizower said. “But Maddie is the only one I actually remember meeting.”
Ms. Boone joined the group responsible for organizing the school’s annual concert later that fall. Although her early interactions with Mr. Strizower were limited to weekly meetings, their connection quickly deepened.
The two went on a first date that November to a Starbucks in Selinsgrove, Pa., about a half-hour drive from campus. “We planned it as a study session, but ended up sharing our full life stories with our laptops closed the entire time,” Ms. Boone said. When they returned to campus, they sat in her car and talked for another four hours, not wanting to say goodbye.
[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]
Ms. Boone, 29, who grew up in Warren, N.J., graduated from Bucknell with a bachelor’s degree in international affairs. She is the director of brand and integrated marketing at BARK, which sells products and services for dogs.
Mr. Strizower, 30, originally from Manhattan’s Upper West Side, graduated from Bucknell with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering. He is a senior software engineer at T. Rowe Price and also works as an independent D.J. and music producer.
In March 2019, both out of college and living in Boston, they broke up. Both had grown up watching their parents’ divorces and were intent on building independence before committing fully.
“As much as I understood why Maddie wanted to do it, I didn’t want to break up,” Mr. Strizower said. “But in retrospect, it kind of saved our relationship.”
The two remained friends, often seeing each other with mutual friends. Then, in March 2020, they took a trip to London together. The subsequent pandemic lockdown brought them back together for good. By August 2020, after quarantining together, they moved into their first apartment in Chelsea. In January 2022, they bought an apartment together on the Upper West Side, where they currently reside with their dog, Cashew.
Mr. Strizower began planning a proposal in October 2022, and the opportunity came when Ms. Boone organized a joint family weekend at her grandmother’s beach house in Mantoloking, N.J., the following summer.
On July 15, 2023, he led her outside overlooking the bay and, after asking her to pose for a photo against the sunset, retrieved the diamond engagement ring he had hidden in a bush and got down on one knee. Ms. Boone burst into tears. “I was completely caught off guard,” she said. The ring was designed by Mary Ray, Ms. Boone’s aunt and a jewelry designer, who had secretly collaborated with Mr. Strizower for months.
The couple married Aug. 23, at Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, a museum in Manchester, Vt., before 150 guests. The date also happened to be the 85th birthday of Ms. Boone’s maternal grandmother, Barbara Kaimer, whose presence was central to the weekend’s celebrations.
Rabbi Amita Jarmon, who was previously affiliated with the Brattleboro Area Jewish Community, officiated as the couple exchanged vows. Rabbi Jarmon recited the Sheva Brachot, or seven blessings, with English translations read aloud by the couple’s longtime friend, Eric Gowat, who closed with a personal reflection about their relationship.
The couple had entered the ceremony to “Soul Bossa Nova” by Quincy Jones from “Austin Powers,” which drew laughter from their guests, and recessed to “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees.
Later in the evening, a live band played classics from the 1940s through the 1970s. Ms. Boone wore a Vera Wang wedding gown with Mrs. Kaimer’s 1920s Art Deco earrings. Mr. Strizower wore a Tom Ford tuxedo with cuff links gifted by Ms. Boone. He later changed into a white Armani dinner jacket as a nod to his father, who wore Armani on his wedding day.
“Our wedding day was not necessarily a culmination of anything, but a formalized celebration of the love we already have and the relationship we’ve built,” Ms. Boone said. “A celebration of all the things that brought us here to be the couple we are today.”
The post Looking for Community, She Found Love Instead appeared first on New York Times.
