Michele Denise Hall and Stanford Divante Fraser were married Sept. 7 at the Newton White Mansion in Mitchellville, Md. William J. Epps Jr., a federal magistrate judge for the Western District of Missouri with chambers in Jefferson City, officiated.
The bride, 27, and the groom, 28, are both public defenders for the State of Maryland in Prince George’s County. She defends juveniles, and he represents adults. Each received a law degree from Harvard.
The bride graduated from Washington University in St Louis. She is a daughter of Cornelia O. Porter-Hall of Annapolis, Md., and Dennis M Hall of St. Petersburg, Fla. Her mother is a school nurse at Prince George’s County Public Schools.
The groom graduated from Howard University. He is the son of Ermyn A. Murray of Mitchellville and Stanford McArthur Fraser of Sunrise, Fla. His mother is a teacher at Newport Mills Middle School in Montgomery County, Md. His father is a retired Army veteran.
Ms. Hall and Mr. Fraser met in July 2014 at a house party in Manhattan that was a precursor to a “grits and biscuits” party held later that evening for young black professionals.
At the time, Ms. Hall was working as an intern for a Manhattan law firm, and Mr. Fraser, living in Brooklyn, was interning for the Legal Aid Society of New York. She was about to enter her first year of law school at Harvard, where he was eager to begin his second year.
“The first time I saw him, he was being loud and dancing all over the place,” Ms. Hall said. “I thought he was cocky and really full of himself.”
Mr. Fraser had other thoughts. “I thought she was gorgeous,” he said. “In fact, I thought she was someone I wanted to get to know better, but all I wanted to do that night was enjoy myself at those parties.”
They spoke briefly at both events and did not see each other again until they returned to law school the following month, when she ran into him at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.
Their paths continued to cross on campus. “We just couldn’t avoid running into each other,” Mr. Fraser said. “It was as if our energies kept making it happen.”
In September 2014, Ms. Hall was part of a group that received a blanket invitation to a party that Mr. Fraser was hosting on campus, and she sent back an audacious reply.
“I told him I would only go to his party if he personally invited me,” she said, laughing. “I wanted him to make me feel special.”
Mr. Fraser promptly sent along a personal invite via text, and Ms. Hall went to his party. After a spirited conversation, she said she began to realize she had “mistaken his confidence for cockiness.”
“He was someone with big dreams who believed in himself,” she said. “He just had this way about him. He was funny and smart, and someone I felt I could trust.”
A few days later, their paths again crossed on campus. This time, Ms. Hall spotted Mr. Fraser, on his way to housing court, sporting what she described as “a really hot suit.”
“He looked so handsome,” she said. “I felt it was time for me to make the first move.”
She invited him to her dorm room to watch a favorite television show. “At first, he seemed more interested in the show than in me,” Ms. Hall said. “I was like, ‘What is up with this guy?’”
But moments later, Mr. Fraser leaned over and shared a long, first kiss with Ms. Hall. “I thought to myself, ‘What took you so long?’” she said.
