A big family just got a little bigger

Neither Diana Ming nor Jonathan Barrett Gold seemed to want their first date to end.

After connecting on the dating app Hinge, the two agreed to meet on March 22, 2018 at Goodnight Sonny, a bar in Manhattan’s East Village.

“We instantly bonded over spicy margaritas and laughing,” said Ms Ming, 30, vice president of business operations at Global Atlantic Financial Group, an insurance and annuity provider in New York. She had graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in government and public policy.

“He was interested in me and curious about what kept me busy,” she said.

Mr. Gold, 31, a software engineer at Amazon, found Ms. Ming sociable and attractive, as well as intellectual and kind. “I was impressed by her and hoped she would feel the same way about me,” said Mr. Gold, who has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science from Stanford.

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By 1 am, they had closed the bar. He then followed Mr. Gold to the roof of a friend’s apartment, for which he had the entry code, just two blocks away. They shared their first kiss on the terrace, which overlooked Tompkins Square Park.

“I wanted to keep talking to him,” Ms. Ming said, adding that she had found Mr. Gold refreshing and different and “felt dizzy and uplifted by him.”

She got her wish. Just a few hours later, she sent a text message to Ms. Ming and invited her to dinner.

Their relationship progressed rapidly. The two spent the next six months falling in love by seeing New York City through each other’s eyes. This included hundreds of bike rides, hot yoga classes, Yankees games, food tours of Astoria, Queens, and batting cages in the Bronx.

In September, Mr. Gold invited Ms. Ming to his family’s annual summer barbecue at his childhood home in Manhasset, New York, which was attended by 75 family and friends.

“Having a big family is part of my personality,” said Mr. Gold, the oldest of five children. His mother died of cancer when he was in high school. “I figured they would bring me into someone else’s big family, because they understand the things that come with it.”

Ms. Ming, the daughter of Chinese immigrants who grew up in Morristown, NJ, is an only child. She said that she “rarely had any connection to my extended family, except for a few childhood visits to China.”

“Marriage seemed like an out-of-the-box idea,” he added. “I thought, ‘I’m never going to find someone who understands me and my cultural identity.’”

The summer meeting was an important event for both Mr. Gold and Mrs. Ming.

“Instead of feeling lost, they hugged me,” Ms. Ming said. “I knew that I wanted to marry John that day. Linking up with the people closest to him helped me get to know him more intimately.”

“At the party, I could hear his distinctive laugh from across the room, which let me know he was okay,” Gold said. “She not only survived, she thrived. That was touching.”

They moved into an apartment in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, together in July 2019. On October 2, 2021, while out for a picnic in Prospect Park, she turned around to find Mr. Gold, ring in hand, proposing to her over a knee. She said “yes” when Mr. Gold’s father and brothers emerged from the park entrance promoting balloons, champagne and lobster rolls.

Ms. Ming’s parents, who moved to Singapore in 2020, were looking forward to their 2am time to join in the festivities via FaceTime.

The couple tied the knot on June 3 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Plant Family Collection in front of 180 guests. Officiating was Victor Hollenberg, Ms. Ming’s college roommate, who was ordained through Universal Life Church for the occasion.

Ms. Ming’s culture was celebrated the night before with a performance by a traditional Chinese lion dance troupe and a family dinner at Mr. Chow’s in TriBeCa. Mr. Gold’s Jewish heritage was infused throughout the wedding ceremony and reception as the couple stomped on a glass, read the seven blessings and danced the hour.

“John has made me more spontaneous and vulnerable,” Ms. Ming said. “His family of his adds so much color and relationships to my world.”

The groom spoke similarly. “When my mother passed away, she didn’t have anyone to push me to be the person she could be, Diana did,” he said. “She lifts me up.”