During an overnight stopover in Los Angeles in September 2017, Alicia Cepeda Maule arranged a meeting with her childhood sweetheart Isabelle Claire Davis at the Black Cat, a bar in the Silver Lake neighborhood.

They had grown up as family friends just blocks away from each other in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood, but had not seen each other since their teenage years.

Ms. Davis had expected a quick drink and a chat, but ended up talking with Ms. Maule for hours. Ms. Maule, for her part, confirmed that her interest from decades ago was still there.

“I remember thinking she was the coolest as we left,” Ms. Maule said. “She has the best taste in music and smells the best.”

After a second date a few days later, when Ms. Maule stopped in Los Angeles on her way back to New York City, they began a relationship.

“We didn’t really plan on dating,” Ms. Davis said. “We just never stopped talking.”

Ms. Maule, 35, is digital engagement director at the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that works to overturn wrongful convictions, and founder and executive director of Givepact, a cryptocurrency philanthropy platform. She was a project manager on Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. She holds a bachelor’s degree in African studies from Brown University.

Ms. Davis, 38, is a substitute kindergarten teacher. She holds a bachelor’s degree in writing, literature and publishing from Emerson College and is currently working on a master’s degree in early childhood education at the Erikson Institute in Chicago.

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After years of a long-distance relationship, Ms. Maule and Ms. Davis moved in with Ms. Davis’ mother, Adela Cepeda, in Kenwood at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. They cooked, baked and grilled and reconnected with their hometown. But in December 2021, the rifts caused by the pandemic forced the two to separate. During their 10-month separation, or “gap year,” as they call it, Ms. Maule experienced “personal growth.”

“It was during this time that I realised I couldn’t imagine life without Isabelle,” Ms Maule said. “She is brilliant, she is an expert with children, she is politically savvy, her heart belongs to the world.”

She added: “She knows me better than I know myself.”

When Ms. Maule and Ms. Davis reconnected in September 2022, Ms. Davis made it clear that she wanted a serious commitment. “I let her know this was going one way,” Ms. Davis said. “And she said, ‘Absolutely, that’s why I’m here.'”

On Jan. 26, Ms. Davis’s 38th birthday, Ms. Maule told Ms. Davis they had to pick up some mail from her family’s old house. When they got there, Ms. Davis spotted a photographer and thought he was a paparazzo – the estate where the Obamas lived before his presidency is nearby. Outside the house, Ms. Maule got down on one knee and proposed, holding her grandmother’s Art Deco diamond engagement ring.

After a photo shoot with the photographer who was supposed to be there for her, Ms. Maule surprised Ms. Davis with a party at Ms. Cepeda’s apartment.

“She knocked on the door, said ‘Hi, I’m,’ and suddenly there was a mariachi band, cameras clicking, my best friends from New York, my aunt and dad from California, my brother and his wife from New Jersey,” Ms. Davis said. “I thought I was going to faint.”

Walter Arenas, a friend of the couple, prepared carne asada tacos and mole for dinner, and Ms. Davis’ mother, Deborah Davis, baked a passion fruit cake.

On Aug. 1, Ms. Davis and Ms. Maule were married by Wanyi Mai, an employee of the Manhattan Marriage Bureau, with their mothers as witnesses. Afterward, the four had dinner at the River Café in Brooklyn Bridge Park. They had considered having a big wedding in 2025, but worried that LGBTQ rights could be rolled back after the presidential election, they decided to marry sooner rather than later, they said.

Still, they couldn’t resist a party — or two. Ms. Davis surprised Ms. Maule with a “Tinis and Weenies” party featuring martinis, hot dogs and a Carvel ice cream cake at her friend’s house in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on July 27. Ms. Maule and Ms. Davis also hosted a celebration for 75 people at Nicky’s Unisex, a bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on the night of their wedding.

“It was important for our friends to have the chance to celebrate with us,” said Ms. Maule.