Three years ago, Olivia Hall received a surprise during a psychiatry lecture at N.Y.U. when she took a peek at her phone and noticed a message in her Bumble account from another Olivia — Olivia Reaney.
“I thought, wow, what were the odds that someone named Olivia would be trying to contact me,” said Dr. Hall, 28, a medical resident at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, who was then living in Manhattan.
“She was so passionate about music and enjoyed the New York City nightlife,” said Dr. Hall, who graduated from Boston College and eventually received a medical degree from N.Y.U.
“To be honest,” Dr. Hall said, “I thought she was a bit too cool for me.”
Ms. Reaney (left), also 28 and a freelance graphic designer in San Francisco who was then living in Brooklyn, was equally impressed.
“From her profile, it was clear that she was an extremely interesting and intelligent person,” said Ms. Reaney, who graduated from Ohio University. “She wasn’t just worldly and well-educated, she was also a very compassionate person, especially where her patients were concerned.”
They went to a jazz bar in the East Village on their first date in February 2017 and immediately hit it off. But it was on their third date whenDr. Hall began to learn the true depths of Ms. Reaney’s kindness and generosity.
“I had told her that I always wanted to learn how to play violin,” Dr. Hall said. “She surprised me by renting a violin and a studio in Manhattan, where she taught me how to play. It was beyond nice, and way beyond thoughtful.”
In June 2017, four months after they met, the couple, who enjoy traveling, took their first trip together, to Iceland, where they fell in love.
The possibility of getting engaged could have come on any of their trips that followed in such countries as Indonesia, Hong Kong, Bermuda or Mexico. But Dr. Hall chose to propose in September 2018 in Vancouver, British Columbia, where it was her turn to surprise Ms. Reaney as they walked across the Capilano Suspension Bridge.
“I didn’t see it coming, at least not on that day,” Ms. Reaney said. “There were a lot of smiles, and lots of crying — good crying.”
They continued to enjoy life together and moved to San Francisco in May 2019 as Dr.. Hall was to begin her residency there the following month. There they live with their two dogs, Maisy, a Labrador retriever, and Oliver, a miniature dachshund.
The couple set a May 9, 2020 as their wedding date. They planned a ceremony and reception at the Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito, Calif., with nearly 200 guests.
Those plans changed as the coronavirus began to spread globally. Instead, the couple decided to elope on May 14, in an outdoor ceremony on the California coast in Big Sur, and reduced the number of attendees to four, including both Olivias, a photographer, and their officiant, Jacqueline Lustrino, a Universal Life minister.
The wedding was streamed over Zoom so that both of their families could watch from home.
“We didn’t want anyone traveling to see us with this virus still in the air,” said Dr. Hall, the daughter of Rochelle and John Hall of Alexandria, Va.
“We just want to make sure that our friends and family members stay healthy,” said Ms. Reaney, who will change her surname to Reaney-Hall. She is the daughter of Elizabeth Jacobs of Cincinnati and Marshall Reaney of Henderson, Nev.
