When Olivia Christine Snyder Spark matched with Elias Jeremy Stein on Hinge in September 2021, she had been online dating for 10 years and had never found her ideal partner. Ta. “We probably went on at least a few hundred first dates, sometimes twice in one day,” she said.
Mr. Stein is not very familiar with online matches and had only gone on a few dates in the previous year. “I wanted a serious relationship, and since COVID-19 made it difficult to meet people in person, I decided to try the online route,” he said.
At the time, Mr. Stein, 35, was renting an apartment in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Snyder Spack, 36, lived on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
The two exchanged messages throughout the week, talking about their shared love of cooking classes and art projects, and swapping funny stories. Afterwards, Mr. Stein invited Mr. Snyder Spak out on a mini-golf date.
Mr. Stein was struck by Ms. Snyder-Spack's energy when the two met in mid-September at a putting green mini-golf course in Brooklyn. “She was very cute and bubbly,” he said.
They played golf for an hour, talking about their backgrounds and professions as they made their way around the course. “We had a good laugh as Olivia kept hitting the ball far from the hole,” Stein said. “The conversation was so enjoyable that I asked her for a drink afterwards.''
They walked to nearby Other Half Brewing, sat outside, and continued drinking beer and talking for the next few hours. “We were comfortable around each other and it was obvious we hit it off,” Stein said.
Eventually, it started to rain heavily. While waiting for an Uber ride, Stein asked Snyder-Spack if he could kiss her. “I said yes, and when he made me a smoothie, it felt like a movie kiss,” she said, describing it as “very romantic.”
They quickly settled into a dating rhythm, meeting several times a week for activities such as sushi making, comedy shows, and museums. On Halloween, they went to Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. “The eeriness of the cemetery seemed like the perfect fit, and the fact that Eli felt the same way was a big sign that he would be a great teammate no matter what,” Snyder-Spack said. Ta.
A vacation to the Turks and Caicos Islands in January 2022 only strengthened their resolve. “Due to bad weather and lack of staff, our return flight was canceled, and the two subsequent flights we had booked were also cancelled,” Stein said. “We ended up in Miami, but we bumped into each other on the flight back.”
Still, they had fun. “That's when I knew Olivia was the one.”
The experience “made me want to do difficult things with Eli forever,” she said.
Mr. Stein, who grew up in Durham, North Carolina, is a product manager on the software development team at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York and the founder of Admissions Intelligence, an artificial intelligence-powered college admissions platform. He holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from Vassar College.
Ms. Snyder-Spack is a native of Woodbridge, Conn., and works as a director of nonfiction at Topic Studios, an entertainment production company in New York. She holds a BA in Film from Dartmouth College.
After a trip to the Turks and Caicos Islands, the couple began spending several nights a week in one of their two apartments. In July 2022, they began renting a location in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which they later purchased.
Their bond grew as they decorated homes and traveled to places like Brazil, Portugal, and Costa Rica. “My love for Olivia grew stronger and stronger, and it was the perfect time to propose,” Stein said.
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On December 13, 2023, during an evening picnic in Prospect Park, as the Geminid meteor shower brightened the sky, Stein asked Snyder-Spack to marry him. When she said yes and kissed, they caught a glimpse of a shooting star.
More than a year later, on Dec. 29, the couple wed on the front porch of a Park Slope brownstone owned by their friend and master of ceremonies, Rabbi Yael Werber. Rabbi Werber belongs to the Beit Simchat Torah congregation. Afterwards, they walked to Millefeuille Bakery Cafe in Prospect Heights and had three desserts.
In September, Stein and Snyder Spack hosted a six-day pre-wedding celebration for 140 guests in Asheville, North Carolina. Activities included solving a murder mystery, visiting a local brewery, and tubing down the French Broad River. The celebrations culminated in a symbolic wedding ceremony held on September 1st at Yesterday Space event venue in Leicester, North Carolina.
“All my online dating before Eli was in vain because I found the man I had been looking for,” Snyder-Spack said. “I remember the hard work, but now everything feels like magic.”
