Julia and Elijah were born in 1995, both to musical families, raised almost entirely in the greater New York City area, were brought up Christian in their early lives (Julia as a Catholic, Elijah as a Baptist; both later gravitating towards Eastern spirituality), went to the same university (Montclair State) at the same time, and—despite all of this intersectionality and overlap—met on a dating app while living twenty minutes away from one another.


On Saturday, June 2nd, at 10:10 AM, after poring over Julia’s Hinge profile and discovering a shared interest in “Star Wars, Harry Potter, metaphysics,” Elijah sent the first message. On Thursday, June 14th, at 4:53 PM—on the same day that Julia landed her first teaching job—Elijah asked Julia out for lunch. And on Monday, June 18th, the two finally met one another at a café in Montclair called Toast. It was a hot summer day, and Julia was wearing a blue dress with butterfly print, and Elijah, clearly not understanding how clothing works, showed up in jeans and a black sweater.


Unbeknownst to Elijah, Julia didn’t want to be there. Disillusioned by the dating world, she had approached this day with overwhelming skepticism, which would have won out if not for the insistence of Caroline Godofsky, one of Julia’s closest friends. Arriving at Toast at roughly 11:11 AM, she waited anxiously for the arrival of this boy she had only known through text. When Elijah finally arrived, however, all doubt melted away.


For them both, whether they knew it at the time, it was love at first sight.


“I need to use the bathroom,” Julia abruptly blurted out two minutes into their being together. On the outside, Elijah was all smiles; internally, however, he took this to be a bad sign. Crap, I already blew this somehow, he thought to himself, as the image of Julia climbing out of a bathroom window to evade a bad time swam through his mind. What he didn’t know was that Julia had just hopped onto the phone with Caroline to gush over Elijah. A moment later, she was back in her seat, and the two talked and ate and got to know one another, often over several minutes of unexplainable laughter, each one all the while wondering why the other seemed so familiar—as if they had been reuniting with a long-lost friend.


After brunch the two stole away inside a nearby bookstore, where they talked about books and music, and then wrapped up their date at Java Love over coffees. Elijah then got onto his bus home and, as they parted, promptly deleted his Hinge profile.


Eleven days later, the two met up for the second time, and it was here that they had their first kiss—though they missed each other’s lips on the first attempt. Later, Julia cooked themselves a homemade dinner and baked a chocolate cake, and Elijah, overpowered by the feelings that swelled in his heart, unexpectedly professed his love, and was promptly reciprocated.


And from that day, Julia and Elijah were inseparable.


Together they embarked on numerous museum dates, city excursions, photoshoots (with Elijah as the photographer and Julia as the subject), bought scores of books, explored new foods and coffee spots, educated each other on film and musical theatre, delved into esoteric spiritual texts, meditated with Tibetan Buddhist monks, met and got to know each other’s loved ones, supported each other’s hopes, passions and careers, underwent extensive healing work together, fought and made up (a lot), survived Covid, and finally moved into their own place in 2022.


It was later that year, bordering on Father’s Day, when Julia decided it was time to look at engagement rings. The following day, after deciding on a ring of her choice, Elijah ordered it. It was then that he began preparations for a proposal, complete with a surprise appearance by Julia’s closest friends, during a weekend in which the two had already planned on staying in Bethel, NY, to explore Woodstock and see Steely Dan in concert.


Leading up to this day, Elijah was presented with the fortuitous opportunity to ask both Julia’s father and mother, in person, for their blessing. It was Father’s Day weekend, and both Jann and Silvio, Julia’s mother and father, were visiting a day apart from one another. To his luck, Julia, Jann, and Julia’s aunt Betsy had already planned on having dinner at the diner Elijah was working at, and so with the help of a coworker, Elijah managed to distract Julia long enough to ask Jann for her blessing.
The following day, Father’s Day, Silvio, Silvio’s partner Romaine, and Elijah’s father Robert arrived at the couple’s apartment to celebrate—an occasion made better by the fact that the three arrived before Julia made her appearance. Seizing the opportunity, Elijah asked Silvio for his blessing.


A week later, on July 3rd, 2022, at the Mountain Top Arboretum in Tannersville, NY, under the guise of a photoshoot, Elijah got down on one knee, heart racing, and asked for Julia’s hand in marriage. She was then surprised by her friends, who were all there to witness the moment, and the group set out for a celebratory lunch in Woodstock, NY.


A few days later, Julia and Elijah locked down their wedding venue at the Waterloo Village in Stanhope, NJ, for July 11, 2024.