Ashley Chioma Emerole and Madison Ray Head and were married May 24. Kacie Lyn Martinez, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life minister for the event, officiated at Freemans, a restaurant in Manhattan.
Ms. Emerole (left), 31, is a candidate for an M.B.A. at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. She is to be a summer associate in June in the technology, media and telecommunications group of Credit Suisse’s Manhattan investment banking unit. She graduated from the University of Arizona and received a master’s degree in urban planning from the City University of New York’s Hunter College.
She is the daughter of Obii N. Emerole of Jamaica, Queens.
Ms. Head, 30, is an architect. She oversees design and delivery of new construction and renovation in the capital projects unit of Indiana University in Bloomington. She graduated from the University of Miami.
She is a daughter of Judy McKelvey Head of Indianapolis and Stephen R. Head of Carmel, Ind.
A little bit of cabin fever led both Ms. Head and Ms. Emerole to leave their apartments to meet up with friends in Manhattan after a big snowstorm in January 2016. Both were heading home around the same time from the Upper East Side. Both ordered an online ride share.
Ms. Emerole was the first one in the car, and was on her cellphone chatting when the vehicle made an unanticipated stop and Ms. Head got into the car.
“We had never been in a ride share where someone else got in the car!” Ms. Head said. “Obviously, it worked out for the best, but that was new for both of us.”
Ms. Emerole hung up on her call and the two immediately started chatting about architecture, Indiana (Ms. Head’s home state) and New York (where Ms. Emerole grew up).
“We had the best 19-minute conversation I’d ever had,” Ms. Emerole said.
When the vehicle arrived at Ms. Emerole’s stop, she asked Ms. Head for her number. Over the course of the next couple of months, the two went out several times and found much to admire about each other.
“The first thing is her kind heart and her fierce loyalty to her friends and loved ones,” Ms. Head said. “I’ve never met anyone with the kind of character and integrity that she has.”
Ms. Emerole said that she admired how close Ms. Head was with her family, and also her willingness to throw herself into a challenge, such as the New York City Marathon.
“She’s absolutely beautiful, she also has the best sense of humor in terms of dry, sarcastic humor, and we can giggle for hours,” she said. “You give her a book, and she will uncover something you never thought to look into.”
By their fourth get-together, their friendship had become a romance. “It was a natural development,” Ms. Head said. “Come to find out she had feelings for me all along the way.”
The sheer element of chance, in their story, however, still leaves both a little in awe. “You get a vibe from someone when you first meet up,” Ms. Emerole said, “and lo and behold they become the love of your life.”
