It took not one, but two dating apps for Victoria Faye Senter and Alexander Marc Lass to finally meet up in person.
They first matched on the League in September 2020, and although he enjoyed their conversation, Mr. Lass stopped responding because he felt “overwhelmed” by Ms. Senter’s lengthy responses. “Things were just too crazy at the time,” he said.
“You ask her one question, she’ll answer in a paragraph and ask you four questions back,” Mr. Lass said. “I was an English major, duh,” Ms. Senter added.
Ms. Senter, who had been single for a couple of years, did not take the ghosting lightly. “The conversation that we had was nice and felt easy,” she said. “I could tell that he was a really good guy and not just looking for something quick and casual, and I felt sad.”
So when she saw him on Hinge the next month, she decided to like his profile “out of spite,” she said. “I thought it would make him uncomfortable, and that felt like a win.”
Mr. Lass immediately recognized her and remembered their connection, but he waited until he was “mentally ready to jump in and answer 1,400 questions” before matching with her, he said.
“When that day came, and I was ready, I went right into it being like: ‘I know I dropped the ball, I would love to buy you a drink,’” Mr. Lass said.
Ms. Senter was headstrong about not jumping straight into an in-person date, though. She suggested a FaceTime date to make sure they were a good fit before meeting in person.
On FaceTime, they had a lively conversation that ranged from education policy to Kanye West. “We both knew that there was something different and so special after our first FaceTime date,” Mr. Lass said. “I didn’t sleep at night for hours.”
After two more virtual dates, they made plans to meet at the Italian restaurant Novita in Manhattan’s Flatiron section.
But three hours before the date, Mr. Lass had time sensitive business added to his work plate. He spent the next couple of hours working frantically, but ultimately, he knew there was no way he could make it to their 7:45 p.m. dinner reservation.
Rather than canceling the date entirely, he proposed that they hang out in one of their apartments — he would work from the couch, and she could watch TV or read a book, as if they’d been “dating for three years,” he said. He promised that he would take her on a proper date that Saturday.
She agreed and invited him over to her apartment in Gramercy. As he worked at her place until midnight, he “secretly felt vindicated being able to prove that things really were crazy the last few months,” he said.
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As promised, that Saturday they went to the now-closed Middle Eastern restaurant Nur in Flatiron, on a balmy night in November. At the end of the date, Ms. Senter said, “I have a feeling you and I are going to be best friends,” a line that he later referenced in his proposal.
By Christmas of that year, they spent weeks at a time at each other’s parents’ houses. “We ingrained ourselves with our respective families very early and very soon,” Mr. Lass said.
A few months later, in April 2021, they moved in together in Chelsea. And a few months after that, Ms. Senter’s father joked about Mr. Lass to friends over golf: “I know you think that this is my son-in-law, but it’s just my daughter’s boyfriend. And hopefully my son-in-law one day.”
Mr. Lass proposed in February 2022 in the backyard of her parents’ home in Hampton Bays, N.Y.
Ms. Senter, 31, graduated from University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She also received a master’s degree in education from Columbia University. She is a director at Teach for America.
Mr. Lass, also 31, graduated from Lehigh University with a Bachelor of Science in business and economics. He is a director at GreensLedge Capital Markets.
The couple married Jan. 15 at the Mandarin Oriental hotel with 215 wedding guests. Mr. Lass’s rabbi from college, Rabbi Zalman Greenberg of Chabad Lubavitch of Lehigh Valley, Pa., officiated.
For the two New Yorkers, the venue was a special place because of the views of New York City from inside. Before the ceremony, they took pictures in nearby Central Park and shared a hot dog from a halal cart. In a reception that followed, they belted out “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers, and Mr. Lass then crowd surfed to the song.
“The room was so filled with love and support,” Mr. Lass said. “But at the end of the day, all that mattered for me was Victoria.”
For Ms. Senter, her “honeymoon phase” never ended. “I still am giddy,” she said.
