THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2020 ST 15Vows
WEDDINGS
Drs. Sarah Y. Siu and David X. Yang
were on what they call their “negative-
fifth date” when they first broached
the subject of marriage.
It was 2018, and the two had been friends for
nearly a decade. They were having dinner and
began reminiscing about an awkward moment
that they had shared early in their friendship, in
2011, when Dr. Yang asked Dr. Siu whether she
would date him. At the time, Dr. Siu had declined
— she had just started dating one of Dr. Yang’s
classmates, and she wanted to give that relation-
ship a shot. (It didn’t pan out.) Dr. Yang wanted to
know where Dr. Siu thought their lives would be if
she had said yes when he had asked her out seven
years earlier.
“I think we would be married,” she responded,
“with kids.”
It was, you may detect, a decent indication that
Dr. Yang had another shot.
The first time Dr. Siu saw Dr. Yang was in 2010,
when both were in Hong Kong as part of the China
Synergy Programme for Outstanding Youth, a
multicity tour of China for students. (Dr. Siu likens
the trip to a Chinese version of Birthright Israel.)
Dr. Siu and Dr. Yang were having dinner with a
group of their peers at a long table in a restaurant
in Lan Kwai Fong, a district known for its nightlife.
Dr. Siu introduced herself to a fellow student,
explaining that she was pre-med and that she
lived in New York. The student gestured to a
young man seated several seats away.
“That guy over there, David, is also in med
school in New York,” Dr. Siu was told.
Dr. Siu and Dr. Yang didn’t say much, if any-
thing, to each other that night. But as the trip
progressed, the two fell into the same social group.
By the time they returned to New York, they were
friends. Dr. Yang’s foiled attempt to ask Dr. Siu out
happened the following year. They remained
friends afterward.
Shortly after their what-if chat about marriage
in 2018, the two finally started dating. There was
no precise “date zero” after that “negative-fifth
date” — the transition was gradual — though they
do recall a pivotal discussion at a sushi restaurant
where they agreed to give dating a shot.
In 2019, they moved in together in Manhattan.
And then this year, on Jan. 25, Dr. Siu and Dr.
Yang stepped into their apartment drenched. It
was Chinese New Year, the sky was open, and
they had just trudged through the rain to and from
a family dim sum lunch. After replacing their wet
clothes, Dr. Yang asked Dr. Siu to sit down on the
living room couch. He had something to ask her.
His proposal didn’t come as a surprise; the
couple had gone ring shopping together. Dr. Siu
said yes. They spent chunks of February cooking
up grand plans for a wedding, which was to take
place in 2021.
The next month, of course, the coronavirus
swept away the couple’s wedding plans. In late
March, Dr. Yang was enlisted to be part of the
coronavirus intubation team at NYU Langone
Health. A week later, he was infected with the
virus.
For two weeks, Dr. Yang was quarantined in the
couple’s bedroom. Dr. Siu slept on the couch — the
same one where Dr. Yang had proposed a couple
months earlier. After Dr. Yang recovered, he and
Dr. Siu agreed to get married sooner rather than
later. “I don’t want to sound morbid, but if some-
thing happens,” he said, trailing off the words.
Dr. Siu, 30, a chief resident in dermatology at
SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn,
and Dr. Yang, 33, an anesthesiologist at NYU
Langone, were married in Manhattan on Nov. 3 by
Peter Boruchowitz, a Universal Life minister, who
performed the ceremony over video chat. The
ceremony was preceded by a small outdoor family
gathering in Manhattan on Sept. 26.
The couple plans to host a full wedding ceremo-
ny “whenever it’s safe,” Dr. Yang said.
Call it their negative-first year (or two) of mar-
riage.GABE COHNJAYLIM STUDIOSarah Siu,
David Yang
................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Making Up for Lost Time. Seven Years, to Be Exact.
Billy Pitman, a relative newcomer to
online dating, posted a picture of
himself on his Hinge profile in 2017
that showed him running the mostrecent Boston Marathon. This caught the atten-
tion of Jessica Jeffrey, who is also a runner.
The two didn’t spend much time chatting on-
line before agreeing to meet at a place on Boyls-
ton Street in Boston, near where Ms. Jeffrey
lived. It was the just after the Fourth of July.
“We got drinks, Samuel Adams Summer Ale,”
Ms. Jeffrey said. “We talked for I want to say
about three hours.”
Ms. Jeffrey, 34, is a litigation associate in the
Boston office of the law firm Nelson Mullins
Riley & Scarborough. She graduated summa cum
laude from Boston University and received a law
degree, also summa cum laude, from Suffolk
University in Boston.
Mr. Pitman, 31, is the chief of staff at the Mass-
achusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles in Quincy,
Mass. He graduated cum laude from Lenoir-
Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C.
“She walked up and she was stunning and
beautiful and fun to talk to,” Mr. Pitman said. “I
wanted to see her again.”
Their second date followed soon after their
first, and they shared a first kiss near the bar
where they had first met. On their third date, at
Fenway Park, they went to a Red Sox game
(she’s a fan) that lasted until after 1 a.m.
“He’s very laid back and easy to be with,” she
said.
As she prepared for her own Boston Marathon,
in 2018, their relationship progressed apace.
“That winter we trained together, it was miser-
able,” she said. “That was when we really fell in
love. It evolved, us running together, maybe we
weren’t even talking, but just being together is
really what sealed the deal.”
“For me, it was just for kicks,” he said. “I en-
joyed going out with her and meeting her in the
morning, doing our long runs.”
After completing 16 miles on Saturday morn-
ings, the couple fell into a routine of relaxing all
day and having dinner out. Their commitment
deepened.
“She’s her own person, and has her own ambi-
tions, and keeps me on my toes,” Mr. Pitman
said. “I really appreciate and respect that.”
In 2019, Mr. Pitman moved into Ms. Jeffrey’s
condominium, and last January, he proposed.
On Oct. 24, the couple were married at the
Wequassett Resort and Golf Club in Harwich,
Mass., just a few minutes from where the bride
grew up, in Brewster, on Cape Cod. Donna M.
Cunio, a justice of the peace in Massachusetts,
officiated, and the couple had 21 guests.
Running is still a big part of the couple’s life.
He does about 28 miles a week and she does
about 25, but they run at different speeds and so
now start out together but soon separate —
which makes the recollection of their early ro-
mance runs all the sweeter.
“Those were always fun Saturdays,” Mr. Pit-
man said, “no matter how grueling it sounds.”
NINA REYESJOSH QUALLSJessica Jeffrey,
Billy Pitman
. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................
Miles and Miles Behind Them, and Many Years Ahead
Ron Jacobson recalled the moment
when he knew he would marry Sarah
Miller, whom he met through the
dating app Coffee Meets Bagel in
November 2017 in New York.
“From the very start, I was able to be myself
around her,” said Mr. Jacobson, 33, a founder and
the chief executive of Rockerbox, an online plat-
form in marketing measurement for direct to
consumer brands.
“I had never had that level of comfort in any
previous relationship,” he said.
Ms. Miller, 30, an associate of site merchandis-
ing for Macys.com who graduated from Lehigh
University in Bethlehem, Pa., said that Mr. Jacob-
son was her first date from the app. He said it did
not take her very long to begin doing the kind of
things that made him take notice.
“One day, we were walking into her apartment
building and noticed that a blind man was walk-
ing out,” said Mr. Jacobson, who graduated from
McGill University in Montreal. “We could tell the
guy was struggling. “Then suddenly, Sarah runs
right up to him and asks him where he is going.”
When the blind man told Ms. Miller that he was
heading to the grocery store, she took him by the
hand and said, “Oh great, I’m going that way, and
proceeded to walk him the rest of the way,” Mr.
Jacobson said. “It was such a wonderful gesture.
“It’s not that I’m mean, but I don’t have her in-
stincts when it comes to stuff like that. She’s truly
a warm, wonderful person, and that’s something I
picked up on right away.”
Ms. Miller noticed something about him right
away that almost became “a deal breaker,” as she
put it.
“On our first date, he walks into the restaurant
holding his motorcycle helmet,” she said. “At first
I thought he was a little bit nerdy but now that I
knew he rode a motorcycle, I saw him a bit differ-
ently.”
In the ensuing months, Ms. Miller came to
accept Mr. Jacobson’s motorcycle, but that didn’t
mean she grew to like it. “Those things are horri-fying,” she said, “very, very dangerous.”
Ms. Miller, who lived in New York’s TriBeCa
neighborhood at that time, and Mr. Jacobson, who
lived in the East Village, became engaged on Dec.
15, 2019, in her apartment.
“I never saw anyone cry longer than she cried
when I gave her the ring,” Mr. Jacobson said,
laughing.
They were married Nov. 1 at Central Synagogue
in Midtown before Rabbi Ari Lorge and 20 guests.
They had planned to marry on Jan. 30, 2021,
before 250 guests at Liberty Warehouse in Brook-
lyn, but they worried the wedding reception would
have to be postponed because of the coronavirus
and decided to move forward with their ceremony.
They are now planning to have a celebration there
next year.
“At the end of the day, I still got to marry Ron,
who has always been a calming presence for me,”
Ms. Miller said. “Also, we still had our family and
closest friends there, so it was equally as special
with 20 guests as it would have been with 250 of
them.”VINCENT M. MALLOZZIALEXANDER MURADAS/BRETT MATTHEWS GALLERYSarah Miller,
Ron Jacobson................................................................................................................................................................................................................For Better or for Worse, the Motorcycle Didn’t Leave
Susanna Helene Guffey and Ross
Wilson Brady didn’t meet the first
time their crossed paths. Both were
at a bar in Manhattan’s Yorkville
neighborhood in June 2012 with their respective
friend groups, and Ms. Guffey hit it off with one
of Mr. Brady’s friends and eventually started
dating. A few weeks later, they were introduced
at a karaoke bar by Mr. Brady’s friend, and
within a month became good friends.
“We had always gotten along, and I always
thought that Ross was a good guy,” Ms. Guffey,
32, said.
Their friendship continued, even after Ms.
Guffey and Mr. Brady’s friend broke up. Ms.
Guffey was studying for a Master of Laws de-
gree in intellectual property at Benjamin N.
Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan, which just
so happened to be next door to Mr. Brady’s
apartment building. They would meet up for
drinks after Ms. Guffey finished her classes, but
fell out of touch after Mr. Brady moved to
Queens and Ms. Guffey finished her studies.
On a December night in 2015, Ms. Guffey was
on her way home from hanging out with friends
on the Upper East Side when she barely made it
onto a Queens-bound E train. As the train jolted
to a start, she noticed a familiar face: Mr. Brady
was also on the train, on his way home from a
hockey game.
“We did that thing where we were like, Oh, we
should catch up some time,” said Ms. Guffey,
who is a senior director of business and legal
affairs at the Universal Music Group in Manhat-
tan. “That usually leads to nothing.”
But Ms. Guffey was determined to make sure
they actually did meet up, and texted Mr. Brady,
35, “like five minutes later,” he said.
Neither of them knew exactly what to expect
when they met up for drinks a few days later,
and about halfway through the night, after a
little “liquid courage,” Ms. Guffey asked Mr.
Brady if they were on a date. Mr. Brady said yes,
and they kissed.
“Because we had been friends for two or three
years at this point, we just sort of knew, OK,
we’re together now,” said Mr. Brady, who is a
senior marketing specialist for infrastructure
projects at the engineering firm Arup, in Man-
hattan.
Mr. Brady was living in Astoria, Queens, with
Ms. Guffey’s ex-boyfriend, who was supportiveof their new relationship. Ms. Guffey was living
in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and their early
relationship was marked by long interborough
commutes and subway transfers. On their six-
month anniversary they took a trip to the New
York Transit Museum, where they realized that
only a few years ago the Metropolitan Trans-
portation Authority ended service to a subway
stop that would have been a direct route be-
tween their apartments.
“I was like, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Mr.
Brady said. “It was so difficult to go between our
apartments.”
About two years into their relationship the
couple moved in together, first in Brooklyn and
later in Manhattan, where they now live only a
few blocks away from the bar where they first
crossed paths.
The couple had been talking about getting
engaged since they moved in together, and in
December 2019, on the anniversary of their first
date, Mr. Brady asked Ms. Guffey to marry him.
The couple married Oct. 24 at St. James’
Church in Manhattan, where Ms. Guffey is a
member of the vestry. Ten guests watched in
person as the Rev. Brenda Husson, an Episcopal
priest, performed the ceremony, which was
livestreamed to family and friends, and followed
by a Zoom reception.EMMA GRILLOMEGHAN MARINSusanna Guffey,
Ross Brady................................................................................................................................................................................................................Finally Deciding That a First Date Was Underway
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