After a Missed Connection, a Union of Mythic Proportions

He, too, moved to Washington in 2019. Like Ms. Gamble, he was extra attuned to his work than his relationship apps once they matched the primary time. That hadn’t modified a lot for both when she reached out to him on Bumble.

What had modified was her relationship profile, together with her photos. Neither acknowledged the opposite from the date that had been scotched when Ms. Gamble texted Mr. Copeland together with her telephone quantity days after they matched the second time. “His identify was already in my telephone,” she stated. Hers was already in his, too. However each pretended to not keep in mind what occurred in 2019 when, on Feb. 13, 2021, they met through FaceTime — by then, the world was within the grips of the pandemic — for a primary date.

Mr. Copeland had consulted his former co-clerks for recommendation about whether or not to deliver it up. “I instructed them, ‘Joelle is again. Ought to I inform her about our historical past?’” They recommended him to remain mum. For a month, as they progressed from chatting on FaceTime to assembly in particular person to feeling that, skilled lives apart, they wished to spend so much extra time collectively, the Hinge episode went unacknowledged.

Ms. Gamble lastly introduced it up. “I screwed up, I noticed,” she stated. Mr. Copeland now not cared. Six months in, they have been a dedicated couple. In Might 2022, they moved to an condo within the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington collectively. Effectively earlier than he stunned her with a proposal on the Georgetown waterfront on March 5, 2023, they knew they wished to marry one another.

Their March 16 wedding ceremony, on the George Peabody Library in Baltimore, was attended by 100 friends and officiated by the Rev. William Mies, a Catholic priest affiliated with the Worldwide Council of Neighborhood Church buildings. The library ambiance, each stated, was much less an evocation of their lives as public service individuals than a full-tilt swerve into their appreciation for fantasy. Music from the soundtracks to “Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars” performed within the Nineteenth-century constructing, referred to as “the cathedral of books.” An excerpt from a Tolkien poem additionally punctuated the ceremony. “It match our vibe completely,” Ms. Gamble stated.