Thomas Ryan Ranzweiler and Thomas Caesar Lind almost didn’t meet — both were ready to back out of their first date in October 2023.
Ranzweiler, a senior producer in New York for “Hallie Jackson Now,” a two-hour news show that airs weekdays on NBC News Now, had been working around the clock ever since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. He was exhausted after an especially long day on the job and wanted to go home.
Lind, who goes by T.C. and is prone to stomach parasites, was almost certain he had another one and didn’t feel his best. (A few days later, he found out he did.)
Still, the two, who had matched on Tinder a few weeks earlier, decided to stick to their plan and met at MiGarba, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood.
Lind, a talent manager for MJ Management in New York, described himself as a “romantic at heart” and said he had been in a series of relationships and was “so ready to find someone to share my life with.” At the time, he was renting a studio on the Upper East Side.
Ranzweiler, then living in an apartment in Old Bridge, N.J., was devoted to his career. At the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, 2023, he had resolved to go on one date with a man each month until he found the “perfect partner.” He met men through dating apps like Tinder and Hinge, at bars and through friends. “I called it the Man of the Month club,” Ranzweiler said. “T.C. was Mr. October.”
When Ranzweiler walked into MiGarba and saw Lind sitting at a table, he said he felt “the walls drop.”
“When he got up to hug me hello, I knew that this man was the love of my life, and there would be no one else,” Ranzweiler said.
“The minute I saw him, I thought, ‘Yep. That’s the one,’” Lind said. “He wore a black turtleneck and looked like he came out of a Nora Ephron or Nancy Meyers movie — the ones I loved watching as a kid.”
Their conversation flowed for more than four hours, with the two connecting on topics ranging from family to politics. They also discovered what both called “eerie coincidences.” Their birthdays are a day apart — Ranzweiler’s on May 26, Lind’s on May 27.
Another overlap: Lind was a “huge fan” of “Hallie Jackson Now” and watched the show whenever it aired. And most unlikely of all, he was conceived in Stratford Apartments, the same apartment complex in Old Bridge where Ranzweiler lived.
“It felt like the plot of a movie,” Ranzweiler said. “We just couldn’t shut up or stop laughing at all the coincidences.”
They left MiGarba when it closed and took the subway uptown to 42nd Street, so Ranzweiler could catch a bus home. Before they parted underground, Lind kissed him. “I wanted more immediately after I let go and asked him for another date as soon as I could,” Lind said.
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Ranzweiler, 36, grew up in Jackson, N.J. He has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J.
Lind, 33, who is from Mahwah, N.J., earned a bachelor’s degree in theater from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, which has since closed.
Their second date took place the following night, at Lady Blue, a cocktail bar in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen. The pair picked up their conversation from the previous evening.
When they saw each other two days later, for dinner at Bua Thai Ramen & Robata Grill on the Upper East Side, they ended up slow-dancing in Lind’s apartment kitchen without any music.
“From then on, we started making conscious efforts to plan our lives around each other,” Lind said. “We couldn’t stand being apart for more than a few days at most.”
They exchanged good morning and good night texts daily and soon started spending every night together, alternating weeks at each other’s apartments. They made a pact to never go to bed without kissing on the forehead, a gesture they’ve maintained.
By October 2024, the couple had decided to stop commuting between New Jersey and New York and moved into a rental apartment in Jersey City, where they still live.
Their engagement came in November 2025, when they headed to Angel’s Share, a West Village bar, for drinks. Lind purposely picked the spot because of its proximity to MiGarba.
Their wedding on Oct. 23 at South House, a restaurant in Jersey City, serving Southern and Tex Mex-inspired cuisine, was attended by 70 guests. Troy Bentley, a close friend of the couple who was ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion, officiated.
The grooms made their ceremony entrance together, along with their Cavapoo, Apollo. During the ceremony, Ranzweiler’s grandfather, William Doyle, gave him away; for Lind, his father, Thomas Lind, played the role.
“Three years later, we’ve come full circle,” Ranzweiler said. “T.C. was my Mr. October. Now, he’s my Mr. Forever.”
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