Kirsten Lynn Milliard and Jesus Armando Osete were married Oct. 26 at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lenexa, Kan. The Rev. Gerard Alba, a Roman Catholic priest, performed the ceremony.
The bride, who is 30 and taking her husband’s name, is a curatorial assistant in American art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo. She graduated from Notre Dame, from which she also received a master’s degree in art history.
She is the daughter of Lori Milliard and William E. Milliard of Olathe, Kan.
The groom, 28, is a lawyer at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, a law firm in Kansas City, Mo. He graduated from the University of Arizona, and served as an intern for Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. He received a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
He is a son of Pedro X. Osete Sr. and a stepson of Patricia Osete of Nogales, Ariz.
The couple connected via the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel in September 2017. Mr. Osete had logged onto the app from Kansas City, where he was attending the Missouri Bar Conference, which initially had Ms. Milliard thinking that they were both living in the same town.
“Just looking at her profile, I could tell that she was both beautiful and very intelligent,” Mr. Osete said. “We seemed to have a lot of things in common.”
But what they did not have in common was a ZIP code, and by the time Mr. Osete told Ms. Milliard that he was living in Jefferson City, about two and a half hours away by car, he was already leaving Kansas City. There was no time to meet in person.
“I was disappointed to hear that he was not a local guy,” Ms. Milliard said. “I didn’t think we would last much longer because I was not interested in a long-distance romance.”
But she slowly began to change her mind during a month’s worth of conversations that led to a first date on a stormy day at Le Fou Frog, a French restaurant by the River Market in Kansas City, an ideal choice since both were Francophiles.
“Every time he called or sent me a text I got so excited,” Ms. Milliard said. “I couldn’t wait to meet him in person.”
Before they entered the restaurant, Ms. Milliard got a taste of Mr. Osete’s respect and fine manners. He was waiting for her in front of the restaurant when she drove into the parking lot in a pouring rain. He rushed over to her car, umbrella in hand, and held it over her head as she got out.
“I thought, ‘what a sweet, gentlemanly thing for him to do,’” Ms. Milliard said. “I was so impressed that I gave him a big hug. We were definitely off to a great start.”
They enjoyed their meal and their conversation, and later went over to Ça Va in the Westport neighborhood of the city for more conversation (and Champagne).
Despite the rain, they ended the evening with a walk through Mill Creek Park and shared their first kiss by the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain (the same location of their subsequent engagement).
The following week, Ms. Milliard returned the favor by driving to Jefferson City, where Mr. Osete took her to a college-football game at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo., against the visiting University of Idaho.
“Everything seemed to fall together perfectly on that trip,” Ms. Milliard said. “He made me so comfortable and treated me so kindly, I knew we were heading in the right direction, and that this very thoughtful person was someone who I could see myself marrying.”
A long-distance relationship ensued, and within weeks, they were an exclusive item.
“Kirsten is very cultured and very well-spoken, but she is also a great listener,” Mr. Osete said. “She has completely turned my life around with the kind of unconditional love I had never found in any previous relationship.”
