Caroline Baumann and John Stewart Malcolmson were married Sept. 17 under the Buckminster Fuller Dome at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, N.Y. Nina Mehta, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life minister for this event, officiated.
Ms. Baumann, 52, is the director of the Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian design museum in New York. She graduated cum laude from Bates College, and received a master’s degree in medieval art from N.Y.U. In March, she was named a chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France’s Ministry of Culture and Communication.
She is the daughter of Priscilla FitzGerald Baumann of Winchester, Mass., and the late Roger H. Baumann. The bride’s father retired as the chairman of the electrical engineering department at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Her mother retired as a lecturer on medieval art at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass.
Mr. Malcolmson, 49, is a branding and graphic design consultant in New York. He graduated from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and received a master’s degree in graphic design with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design.
He is the son of Robert G. Malcolmson of Christchurch and the late Katherine Stewart Malcolmson. The groom’s father retired as a partner in C&R Equipment, an engineering equipment manufacturer in Christchurch. His mother was a docent at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu.
The couple met in 2011 on howaboutwe.com, a dating website that proposed two people get together for an activity rather than, strictly speaking, just a date. But the couple’s connection was even more coincident than is usually the case with these things, as neither put more than a modicum of effort into their profile.
In fact, Mr. Malcolmson stumbled onto the site because he was looking for an elegant user-interface design for a job he was working on. He signed up and went through the process of creating an account primarily so that he could assess the site’s technical merits.
Ms. Baumann had a similar lack of enthusiasm when the website popped up on her screen as a new offering.
“I thought, what the hell, I’ve dated half of New York,” Ms. Baumann said. “I gave it no time at all, because I have no time, and then, voilà! He’s the man of my life.”
Ms. Baumann was drawn to Mr. Malcolmson’s interest in the subjects that consume her own life — inspirational art and design — and though he found not much to go on in her profile, he was nonetheless intrigued.
Mr. Malcolmson proposed that the two try a tennis match, but Ms. Baumann nixed that suggestion, leery of being committed to two hours if it turned out that she wasn’t interested after all. So they agreed instead to go the Gagosian Gallery together, to see an exhibit of Andreas Gursky’s satellite images.
It was a brilliant move, as, Ms. Baumann explained, “the premise of our union is centered on art and design. It’s what glues us together.”
There was immediate chemistry between the two, and as neither wanted the date to end, they moved on to tapas and a glass of wine afterward.
“I was struck by her energy, her joie de vivre,” Mr. Malcolmson said. “She has a real optimistic, outgoing personality and I was smitten. I couldn’t stop smiling after that tapas bar.”
Ms. Baumann said she, too, knew instantly that this was no ordinary date.
“My heart was pounding the moment he walked into the gallery,” she said. “It was bizarre.”
