The campaign posters were bright and stylish, with slogans like “New York Needs New Voices.” In 2018, they were all over the East Village, where Emily Heinz Bina was living. The graphic design caught her eye, but the candidate captured her interest.
Suraj Champak Patel was running for Congress in Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District race, and Ms. Bina admired him for his political platform and passion. She also thought he was cute.
So when she spotted him at Dumbo House, a social club in Brooklyn, that August, she knew she had to say something. Mr. Patel, 39, remembers noticing Ms. Bina and texting his friend, saying, “There’s this really cute girl staring at me.”
Ms. Bina, 35, went up to him and said something like, “Hi, I live on your block and I voted for you,” and congratulated him on a well-run race despite his loss. He thanked her for her vote and suggested they talk more at the bar after he finished dinner. They exchanged numbers and chatted over drinks. And, after learning they were both going out of town soon, they planned to see each other the very next day.
But there was one caveat: Mr. Patel was going to a Kenny Chesney concert that day. He told Ms. Bina they could get a drink before the concert, but that he would be wearing his “Kenny Chesney get-up.” She was intrigued.
They met at Maiden Lane, a bar in the East Village. Mr. Patel showed up in cutoff jean shorts, an American-flag bandanna and a Western-style shirt. He said he would not normally wear that outfit for a first date. “Against all odds, here we are,” Ms. Bina said with a laugh.
On the date, they talked about politics and their lives, bonding over their big families and Midwestern childhoods. Mr. Patel was raised in Beech Grove, Ind., and Ms. Bina grew up in New Brighton, Minn.
Mr. Patel asked hard-hitting questions, curious about Ms. Bina’s perspective as a freelance journalist and producer. Ms. Bina gave nuanced, complex answers that he appreciated. “Neither of us are cynical people, and I think that became obvious quickly,” Ms. Bina said. The date ended with a kiss.
Over the next few weeks, they texted frequently. As soon as they returned from their travels, they had dinner, where they held hands across the table. “I felt like I had known him for so long,” Ms. Bina said.
Ms. Bina graduated from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., with a bachelor’s degree in communication. Mr. Patel graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and from the University of Cambridge with a master’s degree in public policy. He also has a law degree from N.Y.U., where he graduated cum laude and later became an adjunct professor of business ethics.
Mr. Patel worked for the campaigns of Barack Obama and in the Obama White House as an advance associate. Ms. Bina is a freelance media producer, mainly developing documentaries.
When the pandemic began, Mr. Patel was working on his second congressional campaign. They moved in together for about four months during lockdown. In August 2020, Mr. Patel conceded his primary defeat and the two went on a monthlong hiking trip together. On that trip, Mr. Patel started thinking about marriage.
At his family’s Thanksgiving in 2021, their wedding plans solidified. Mr. Patel was struck by Ms. Bina’s ability to bond with his family. She befriended his grandmother despite their language gap. “I was like, ‘This could really, really work,’” Mr. Patel said.
In May 2022, he proposed with a yellow diamond ring designed to look like the sun. (She had asked for a ring that would remind her of him; Suraj is the word for “sun” in Hindi and a number of Indian languages.)
He plotted with one of Ms. Bina’s friends to get her to the waterfront near Dumbo House, where they had first met, to surprise her. He got down on one knee and said, “Hi, I live on your block and I’m voting for you. Will you marry me?” He later surprised her with a party on the rooftop of their East Village building, complete with an appearance from her older sister, Megan Bina.
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The two were married on Dec. 9 on that rooftop by Isaac Beerman, a friend who was ordained by the Universal Life Church.
Multiday wedding events will also take place in Jaipur, India, at the end of December, with about 540 guests. Friends and family will celebrate the couple’s marriage and their newly united families on Dec. 29, which is the birthday of Ms. Bina’s brother Louis, who died in 2015.
One of the events will feature Bollywood dance numbers performed by the couple and their families, set to a mix of Indian music, songs from the movie “Pitch Perfect” and Taylor Swift songs. “It’s really representative of us,” Ms. Bina said.
