When Victoria Michelotti first saw Alán Weinfeld in October 2010, he was sitting at a Manhattan bar with another woman — his mother.
“I thought that was just so adorable,” said Ms. Michelotti, 34 and the director of brand strategy and new market development at the Cambridge Information Group, an investment firm in New York.
Mr. Weinfeld, 45, found her equally adorable, which is why he asked Ms. Michelotti if she would take a photo of him standing alongside his mother, who was there to help her son settle into a Manhattan apartment as he had recently returned from a financial job he held in Vienna the previous three years.
“It was my way of trying to start a conversation with her,” said Mr. Weinfeld, now a partner in Invesco Private Capital in New York. “Once we did start talking, my mother kept saying over and over again how impressed she was with Victoria.”
Ms. Michelotti and Mr. Weinfeld exchanged phone numbers and were soon out on a first date. Mr. Weinfeld, a Mexico City native, took Ms. Michelotti out for Mexican food and wowed her with his fluency in Spanish and tequila expertise.
“I found him to be an extremely cultured and creative person,” said Ms. Michelotti, who graduated from Dartmouth and received an M.B.A. from N.Y.U. “He was just a super-interesting person, and we had such a great time that night.”
A second date seemed all but certain, but it never happened, as both had left town for extended work trips and simply lost touch.
“It was just one of those things,” said Mr. Weinfeld, who graduated magna cum laude from Tulane, and is also a chartered financial analyst. “Sometimes, life just gets in the way.”
Seven years later, in January 2017, Ms. Michelotti was on a ski slope in Park City, Utah, when she spotted a familiar face. “It was Alán, I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “He was just as handsome as ever.”
They resumed the conversation they started in New York, when Ms. Michelotti and Mr. Weinfeld were both single. Although sparks were flying at their unexpected reunion, both were now involved in serious relationships, and parted ways once more.
The following year, fate allowed them one last opportunity to get together when they ran into each other during a happy hour at a Midtown bar.
“This time, I saw her first,” Mr. Weinfeld said. “I made a beeline for her and we started catching up again.”
One update in particular put a smile on both of their faces; they were both unattached, setting the stage for the two of them to finally start dating.
Five months into their relationship, however, Ms. Michelotti started to wonder where their relationship was going. At that time, she was traveling to São Paulo, Brazil, to speak at a conference and suggested that perhaps the distance would be good for them and that they should take the time apart to reflect on what they both wanted and to reconnect when she returned to New York.
Mr. Weinfeld, sensing that Ms. Michelotti was slipping away once again, booked the next flight out to São Paulo and sneaked into Ms. Michelotti’s conference. He sat in the audience and stunned her when he raised his hand to ask a question at the end of her presentation.
Ms. Michelotti was re-energized by Mr. Weinfeld’s over-the-top gesture, and after another year of dating, he proposed to her during a surprise trip to Marrakesh, Morocco, on New Year’s Day 2020.
They were married July 31 by Judge Cordilia Montoya at the Santa Fe County Commission Chambers in Santa Fe, N.M.
“Things worked out the way they were supposed to all along,” Ms. Michelotti said. “There is no one else I’d rather spend the rest of my life with.”
