Winning Her Heart by ‘Walking a Thousand Miles for Love'

New York Times

28-02-2025

It was almost as if the universe was insisting that Emma Rose Gray and Adam Laurence Chadroff, both New Yorkers, get together, connecting them repeatedly before they ultimately decided to go on a first date.
They initially met on Feb. 20, 2012 as they were boarding a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to New York.
Ms. Gray was returning from vacation with her best friend, Laura Stampler, who went to Stanford University with Mr. Chadroff and introduced the two. At that time, Mr. Chadroff had connected on OkCupid with another woman, who happened to be a mutual friend of Ms. Gray and Ms. Stampler.
'I thought that he was cute, but there was no hint of a romantic spark,' Ms. Gray said.
In July 2012, Ms. Gray and Mr. Chadroff became Facebook friends, after seeing each other at a birthday brunch, though the two didn't converse much. A couple of group outings followed as well. Still, no real connection.
Then fate stepped in — again. On March 14, 2019. Ms. Gray and Mr. Chadroff matched on Hinge. 'Fancy seeing you here,' he wrote in a message sent through the app.
'I was excited because I had just come off swearing off dating,' Ms. Gray said. 'I was so excited to have matched with someone I had seen in real life.'
Their first date was March 19, 2019, at Cosme, a restaurant in Manhattan's Flatiron neighborhood. 'All I knew was that he worked in finance and went on a date with someone I'm close with,' Ms. Gray said. 'But I had a good feeling about the date.'
'She is a really warm person, and we had easy conversations,' Mr. Chadroff said. 'She's an ebullient person.' 'Adam was so sharp and also warm,' Ms. Gray said.
At the end of the night, Mr. Chadroff walked Ms. Gray to her subway stop, and the two shared their first kiss. 'We both left pretty clear that we both had a good time,' Mr. Chadroff said.
Their second date was a few days later, and by midsummer, they became an official couple.
But it was weathering the pandemic that really confirmed their connection. 'Adam walked from his Gramercy apartment to mine in Prospect Heights, traversing the Manhattan Bridge pedestrian path multiple times per week,' Ms. Gray said. 'It was quite literally our version of walking a thousand miles for love.'
The couple moved in together in May 2022 into an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where they still live today. 'Adam was already living in the building at the time, and a 2- bedroom apartment opened up,' Ms. Gray said. 'It felt like a sign.'
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Mr. Chadroff proposed to Ms. Gray on June 28, 2024. The plan for the night was dinner and then an Amazon Prime kickoff event in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that a friend of Ms. Gray's had produced, except the event was a ruse.
The two had dinner at Fulgurances, Laundromat in Greenpoint, after which, Mr. Chadroff suggested a walk in nearby Transmitter Park before going to the event
They headed to the pier since the benches at which he had hoped to snag a spot were full. Mr. Chadroff said he suddenly felt like Ms. Gray knew what was about to happen, which she suddenly did.
'What are you thinking?' he asked her. 'I'm thinking I'll keep you,' she replied. He then presented her with a diamond engagement ring that had once belonged to his great-grandmother, Sarah Gordon.
Mr. Chadroff continued with the subterfuge, insisting they head to the event. 'When we arrived, Adam turned to me and said, 'Everyone knows,'' Ms. Gray said. Family and friends awaited them at Jaffa Cocktail and Raw Bar at the Hoxton hotel in Williamsburg to celebrate to celebrate.
Ms. Gray, 37, is a host of the 'Love To See It' podcast, a writer and author of 'A Girl's Guide To Joining The Resistance: A Feminist Handbook on Fighting for Good.' She holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from McGill University in Montreal. She was raised in Silver Spring, Md. Her maternal grandfather, Martin Greenfield, created the children's makeup company Tinkerbell.
Mr. Chadroff, also 37, is a principal at Equal Ventures, a venture capital firm based in New York. He has a bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was raised in Roslyn, N.Y.
The couple were wed in a traditional Jewish wedding Feb. 22 before 187 guests. Rabbi Samantha Frank, affiliated with Temple Micah in Washington, officiated at Shun Lee West, a Chinese restaurant on the Upper West Side that was a favorite of Mr. Chadroff's father and Ms. Gray's maternal grandparents.
The couple used the tallis that was owned by Mr. Chadroff's father, Brian Chadroff, who died from lung cancer in March 2022, for the huppah. 'He was there with us on our wedding day,' Ms. Gray said.
During her reception speech, Ms. Stampler pulled out a poster board with a text on it she had sent to Ms. Gray two days before the couple's first date. It read, 'What if Adam Chadroff was your destiny all along?'