Austin J Mills said he remembered Taylor Beverly Mills, then Taylor Dordick, as “the popular older girl with the quarterback boyfriend” when they were both students at Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 2010.
At the time, Mr. Mills, now 30, was a junior and a star basketball player, and Mrs. Mills, 31, was in her senior year. “We had never really spoken beyond saying ‘hello,” he said.
That changed in May 2018 when they reconnected at the Los Angeles nightclub Hyde Sunset, where both were spending the evening with separate groups of high school friends. “She caught my eye, and I tried to talk to her, but she was on her way out the door,” Mr. Mills said.
The attraction was mutual. “I didn’t remember Austin being so cute in high school, but I was in a rush to leave, so I didn’t give the meeting much thought,” Mrs. Mills said.
When Mr. Mills messaged her on Instagram a few days later asking her on a date, she was surprised, she said, but didn’t hesitate to agree.
Both lived in West Hollywood at the time and met for dinner at Zinqué, a casual French restaurant in their neighborhood that they frequented — just not together. Over the meal, they talked about their respective lives, careers and families.
“We didn’t leave our seats until the restaurant closed,” Mr. Mills said.
Mr. Mills walked Mrs. Mills to her car and kissed her goodbye.
“In that moment, we both knew that this was real, and that we would get serious fast,” she said.
Their relationship intensified over the next year, and the couple spent every spare moment together. “I was in law school and studied a lot, but any chance I got, I was with Austin,” Mrs. Mills said.
Mr. Mills said that he took his time, not because he was uncertain about a lifetime commitment to Mrs. Mills, but because he was young. “I was 24 when Taylor and I met again and wanted to be more financially and professionally established before getting married,” he said.
Mr. Mills grew up in Beverly Hills and is a D.J., television host and content creator. He is also a host of the “The Check Ball Show,” a basketball podcast. He graduated from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, with a degree in health kinesiology.
Mrs. Mills also grew up in Beverly Hills and is a lawyer at her family’s law firm, Dordick Law Corporation, specializing in personal injury and sexual assault cases. She graduated with a business degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, from which she also received a law degree.
On July 28, 2023, Mr. Mills proposed at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach in Dana Point, Calif., where they were on a weekend getaway. “I told her that we were going to meet my parents for dinner to celebrate their anniversary and that she should dress up,” Mr. Mills said. But first, he said, they would go for sunset drinks at the resort’s beach club.
On the walk there, Mr. Mills stopped Mrs. Mills at the third hole of the golf course, which had a view of the ocean, got down on one knee, and proposed.
On Sept. 1, the couple wed before 275 guests at Stanly Ranch in Napa, Calif. Keith G. Bremer, a partner with the Orange County law firm Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara and a Universal Life Church minister, officiated.
Following the ceremony, the festivities included a family-style dinner on a hilltop under the stars, followed by late-night snacks of truffle grilled cheese and chicken and waffles.
Guests included several N.B.A. players, such as Sacramento Kings power forward Domantas Sabonis and Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who was part of the United States Olympics basketball team that won a gold medal this summer.
A saxophone player and D.J. kept the crowd dancing until 2 a.m.
“Our guests gave it their all until we finally had to stop the partying,” Mr. Mills said. “How lucky are we that we begin our journey as a married couple with such a bang?”
