On paper, a Marine Corps MV-22 instructor pilot and a producer and second unit director on a Netflix series might not seem like a match made in heaven. But in the case of Virginia Wallace Cutler and Thomas Maksymilian Glinkowski, that’s exactly what it was.
The two connected on Hinge on Oct. 19, 2021, and arranged to go on a date five days later at Satellite Bar & Lounge in Wilmington, N.C.
Ms. Cutler, who goes by Ginger, was in her final months of active duty, serving at Marine Corps Air Station New River, north of Wilmington. She had spent 10 years as an active-duty pilot flying MV-22 Ospreys.
Mr. Glinkowski, who worked in film and television production, was living in Los Angeles but staying in Wilmington working on the Netflix series “Echoes,” starring Michelle Monaghan.
Both were anxious about re-entering the dating pool after ending long-term relationships (Ms. Cutler had finalized a divorce in March of that year.) In addition, Mr. Glinkowski knew he’d be leaving North Carolina at the end of the series’ production. “So, I thought it was a safe way to gain some confidence dating again,” he said.
Ms. Cutler was in the same boat. “I was really only dating him for practice,” she said. She planned on having one drink, but things went so well that she not only stayed for a second drink, but soon planned a second date.
At the time, Ms. Cutler had a weekly tennis clinic, so their second and fourth dates were casual dinners afterward, with a third date in between at Earnest Money & Sons, a tiny members-only cocktail bar in Wilmington.
After that date, “we had our first kiss in the rain after walking 10 blocks to Tom’s house so I could meet his cat, Harvey,” said Ms. Cutler, who was not a fan of cats and leery of men who were.
By that December, Ms. Cutler asked Mr. Glinkowski if he was game to be exclusive, even though she wanted to take it slow. “I didn’t want us dating other people,” Ms. Cutler said. “But I wasn’t ready to tell other people I had a boyfriend.”
Her active duty was scheduled to end in June 2022. But before then, she left North Carolina that January to do a SkillBridge internship in New York City to jump-start her new civilian life. Mr. Glinkowski, by then, was staying in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., trying out the digital nomad life.
The following month, Mr. Glinkowski visited Ms. Cutler and the two became an official couple. By July, they began discussing marriage while escaping the rain at a coffee shop in Warsaw, while on vacation.
Mr. Glinkowski had moved to New York City in June 2022. When he arrived at his sublet, he said, “I remember walking into the studio, seeing how small it was, and immediately turning to Ginger and saying, ‘I must really like you.’”
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When the writers and actors guild strikes hit in 2023, Mr. Glinkowski decided it was time for a change. “I started thinking deeply about how I could transition my part-storyteller, part-organizational leadership experience,” Mr. Glinkowski said.
After consulting for some early start-ups and spending time door knocking for the Kamala Harris presidential campaign in Pennsylvania, Mr. Glinkowski said, “I wanted to find a path toward using my storytelling skills to help the Democratic Party.”
His first political gig was running the campaign of Benjamin Chou, a 34-year-old firefighter with the New York City Fire Department, for City Council in District 19 in Queens. (Mr. Chou ultimately lost the election.)
Ms. Cutler and Mr. Glinkowski moved into a sublet in Midtown Manhattan together in September 2022 before finding their current apartment on the Upper West Side shortly thereafter. They have been living there together since January 2023.
On July 19, 2025, Mr. Glinkowski proposed to Ms. Cutler on Fishers Island, N.Y., where she spent many family summers. He then surprised her with the arrival of 12 of their best friends to join in the celebration.
Ms. Cutler, 37, is a sales director for Voltus, a distributed energy resources company. She is also an officer in the Marine Corps Reserves, serving in a defense attaché billet through the Defense Intelligence Agency. She earned a bachelor’s degree in international politics from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown and an M.B.A. online from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mr. Glinkowski, 40, is the campaign manager for Chuck Park, a Democrat running for Congress in New York’s sixth Congressional District. Mr. Glinkowski’s production credits include all four seasons of “13 Reasons Why” for Netflix. He earned a bachelor’s degree in radio, television and film from the University of Texas at Austin.
The two were wed Dec. 19 on the riverfront in downtown Wilmington. In attendance were Mr. Glinkowski’s mother, Wieslawa Glinkowski, and Ms. Cutler’s parents, Anne Fox Cutler and Stewart Lee Cutler, along with two friends. (Mr. Glinkowski’s father, Dr. Tadeusz Glinkowski, died in 2016.) LeeAnn Politis, who was ordained by the nondenominational Sandhills Community Church, officiated.
A reception followed at the Penthouse, a venue in Wilmington, with 60 guests. The couple held a ceremonial wedding for 117 two days later at Bakery 105 in Wilmington.
Both say their differences served to deepen their relationship. And as it turns out, Ms. Cutler said, “a straight man with a cat is a really strong green flag.”
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