It took him nine months. But on a rainy morning in March 2016, in the Rittenhouse neighborhood of Philadelphia, the man known as “the hot doctor” by all the girls on the block finally asked out the girl he apparently had noticed a few months after she had moved into the brownstone just one door down from his.
Jerri Hobdy was walking her dog in the rain. She said her neighbor, Dr. Ryan Weight, appeared “unusually chatty considering the weather.” He asked her out to bubble tea and it was love at first sip.
Ms. Hobdy, 29, is a Houston native who graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She is a furniture designer and the owner of Meno Home in Denver. Dr. Weight, 38, from Vinita, Okla., graduated from Kansas City University Medical School, having completed his undergraduate work at the University of Missouri. Dr. Weight is a medical oncologist and the founder of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Institute, also in Denver.
Their first kiss tasted like Scotch whisky, Ms. Hobdy said, Balvenie 21 to be exact. “On our fourth date, I took Ryan to a classical performance of a string quartet with a classical guitar. He loves guitar. Afterward he offered me a small glass of Scotch right before our first kiss.”
It was over a year later when she learned just how significant that was. “He only drinks Balvenie 21 for major life occasions — finishing medical school, buying a condo, and kissing me,” she said.
Three years later, they decided it was time for a move in search of “a lower stress lifestyle,” Ms. Hobdy said. On June 26, 2018, they headed for Denver. “It was the moment we became a team, just us,” she said.
They bought a home in one of Denver’s downtown historic neighborhoods. Dr. Weight started his own medical practice, and Ms. Hobdy began renovating a commercial property to be her design studio.
Dr. Weight proposed to Ms. Hobdy on Thanksgiving in 2019. “Ryan knows how important family is to me and how much I cherish time with my large family who mostly live in Texas,” she said. So the couple invited both of their families to Breckenridge, Colo., to meet for the first time and celebrate the holidays. “Right after the prayer, Ryan knelt in front of the family to propose,” Ms. Hobdy said.
One year after their engagement, they chose their wedding date, June 26, 2021. “We did not even realize that was the same day we left Philly back in 2018 together,” Ms. Hobdy said.
They had an intimate wedding, 52 in-person guests and about the same number watching via livestream, at the Henry Lee House, a Victorian home built in 1894 in Denver.
Dr. Weight said the livestream really added to the day. “It allowed people to celebrate and attend virtually and allowed for shots of the wedding that wouldn’t have otherwise been captured. Quiet moments that we wouldn’t have seen,” Dr. Weight said. The ceremony was held at 11 a.m. with a reception later that evening.
Michael Satterfield, the founder of Field of Grace Ministries in Texas and the man who had baptized Ms. Hobdy, officiated. The bride wore a Sarah Seven crepe gown, and music from a live string duet accompanied the ceremony. A tented, champagne toast followed the ceremony.
In lieu of cake, old-fashioned ice cream with the couple’s wedding monogram as a chocolate medallion topper was served from an ice cream truck. Guests were gifted candles hand poured by the bride.
“We fell in love with each other’s ambition. We love building things in life,” Ms. Hobdy said. “We work and love as a team.”
