Our Love Story — Bassett & Hopper
June 2025
People often ask where our story began.
The truth is… it began on the open ocean.
I’m Bassett, a marine biologist. My work focuses on... whales and marine mammals — studying their behavior, migration, and the incredible intelligence of the creatures that move through the deep sea. The ocean has always been where I feel most at home.
Hopper is an oceanographer. While I study the animals of the sea, Hopper studies the ocean itself — the currents, temperatures, and hidden forces that shape life beneath the surface.
In many ways, we were studying two halves of the same world.
We met during a research expedition, two scientists standing on the same deck, staring out at the same horizon. Somewhere between early morning data collection and long conversations under the stars about whales, currents, and the mysteries of the deep… something unexpected happened.
We fell in love.
So when it came time to choose where we would be married, the answer felt obvious.
We chose the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History, standing beneath the magnificent blue whale. To many people it’s a breathtaking exhibit. To us, it represents the wonder that first drew us both to the ocean — and ultimately to each other.
But our wedding story has another layer that means just as much to us.
I was raised in the Catholic faith, while Hopper grew up in a Jewish family. From the beginning, we knew that our wedding should honor both of those traditions, because both helped shape who we are and the families who raised us.
That’s where Father Kevin became such an important part of our journey.
Father Kevin didn’t just agree to officiate our wedding — he truly invested himself in our story. He spent time getting to know us, asking thoughtful questions about our lives, our work, our faith, and the future we hoped to build together. He understood that this ceremony wasn’t just about two people, but about bringing together two traditions, two families, and two histories.
With genuine warmth and openness, Father Kevin helped guide us through what a shared ceremony could look like. He reached out and worked closely with Rabbi Levin, whose wisdom and kindness helped shape the Jewish elements of the ceremony.
Together, Father Kevin and Rabbi Levin created something that felt deeply meaningful to both of us and to our families — a ceremony where faith, love, and respect stood side by side.
Standing beneath the great blue whale, surrounded by the ocean that first connected our careers and our hearts, we promised our lives to each other.
Two scientists.
Two faith traditions.
One extraordinary beginning.
It felt like the perfect place for two people whose lives revolve around the ocean to start the next chapter of our journey.
Because in many ways, our love story is a lot like the sea itself — vast, deep, sometimes mysterious, and always full of discovery.
And if the ocean brought us together once…
we can’t wait to see where it carries us next.
— Bassett & Hopper