Quick fall, then engaged for seven years

Luke Kalat knew he wanted to marry Justin Conner after their first conversation in 2010. Over a decade later, he did.< /p>

Late one evening in September 2010, as Luke Neville Kalat was preparing to return home from a dance party at Bowlmor Lanes near Union Square in Manhattan, he noticed a man watching him from across the room. That man was Justin Claude Conner.

Mr. Kalat gave him a smile and Mr. Conner came forward to introduce himself.

"We just started talking," said Mr. Kalat, 42, who remembers being struck by how easily the two strangers got along while chatting about their nights and themselves. "It was simply the most open and honest conversation I've ever had."

Mr. Conner, 39, felt a similar connection. "I just remember he was extremely nice and kinda quiet and just had this really sweet, open mind," he said.

The couple exchanged phone numbers and at the end of their conversation, Mr. Kalat said: “I just understood that this is the man I am going to marry. ”

A few days later, Mr. Conner invited Mr. Kalat to his birthday party. Mr Kalat, who arrived with a few friends, was impressed with how Mr Conner's friends "really hugged me", he said. "We just clicked," Mr. Kalat added, the same way he and Mr. Conner did when they first met.

Few Time after Mr. Conner's birthday, the couple had their first official date: Lunch at La Bonbonnière, a restaurant in Manhattan's West Village, where "we kind of carried on the conversation," Mr. Know. "After that, we kind of got in touch."

That November, Mr. Conner brought Mr. Kalat to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family in Newtown, North Connecticut. Having never met a boyfriend's family before, Mr Kalat, from Olympia, Washington, said he was initially nervous. But Mr. Conner's family made Mr. Kalat feel as comfortable as his friends.

"His family welcomed me with open arms Mr. Kalat said.

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In the fall of 2011, Mr. Kalat introduced Mr. Conner to his family, and in June 2012, Mr. Kalat moved into Mr. Conner's apartment in Brooklyn, where the couple still lives.

"I think that's when we kind of realized this was going to be long term," Mr. Conner.

Three years later, in August 2015, Mr. Conner proposed while they were vacationing in Provincetown, Mass. "I learned from him how to be a more sensitive and compassionate person."

In 2016, the two purchased an old farmhouse in New Milford, Connecticut, and spent the next few years restoring it, choosing to focus on that project before beginning to plan a wedding. Mr. Conner, founder of Third Eye, an arts and communications company in Manhattan, and Mr. Kalat, hairstylist at Seagull Salon in Manhattan, now split their time between New York and New Milford.

The couple married on June 18 at Club Getaway, an adult camp, in Kent, Conn. Their friend Kyle Goodwin, who was ordained by Universal Life Church for the occasion, officiated around 180 vaccinated guests. Paying homage to the bride and groom's love of drag performances...