They Fell in Love One Bite at a Time

New York Times

09-05-2025

When Elizabeth Nan Rasmussen met David Maynard Amini at a party hosted by the magazine Edible DC, she knew instantly that she needed him in her life, just not necessarily as a boyfriend. Their mutual friend AJ Dronkers, the magazine's associate publisher at the time, introduced them, but Ms. Rasmussen, who goes by Libby, wasn't looking to be set up on that evening in the spring of 2017.
'Initially, I was like: 'I'm really interested in being your friend. You're really cool. I need to have you in my orbit,'' she said.
Mr. Amini, on the other hand, was interested in more. 'I feel fulfilled just by being near her and her excitement,' he said.
At the time, Ms. Rasmussen, now 34, worked in event planning and was building her online presence as a content creator about town. Mr. Amini, also 34, worked as a baker at Ellē in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Washington. Their shared love of food brought them closer, and they started hanging out at food events and sharing recipes.
When Ms. Rasmussen found out his 27th birthday was coming up, she told Mr. Amini she was taking him out. They shared treats at Seylou Bakery, and she had him write down 28 things he wanted to accomplish before he turned 28, a birthday ritual Ms. Rasmussen holds for herself. Then they took a stroll around the National Arboretum in Washington. They later came to view that day as their first date.
The time they spent cooking and eating together were formative in the early days of their budding romance. Ms. Rasmussen knew things were serious when Mr. Amini, who typically baked on his own, invited her to make croissants with him. Croissants are famously complex to make and can take hours. The two made them on a snowy winter morning and Ms. Rasmussen said she realized he must really like her to commit to such an undertaking.
'Seeing someone make croissants, have the patience and the perfectionism, but also enjoying the mess of it all,' she said, 'felt really special.' Not too long after, at a cheese party with friends, Mr. Amini pulled Ms. Rasmussen aside and said, 'I just have to tell you I love you.'
Though they met in D.C., the two came from different worlds. Ms. Rasmussen grew up in Oshkosh, Wis., where she rode horses, visited antique malls with her parents, Kathleen Rasmussen, a psychotherapist, and Jeffrey Rasmussen, a plumber, and attended Harley-Davidson bike nights with her older brother, Zach.
For Mr. Amini, a mall was a building with PacSun and Sharper Image. He and his younger sister, Elizabeth, grew up in Mt. Pleasant, where their father, also named David Amini, worked for the State Department and coached youth soccer, and their mother, Jocelyn Amini, was a nurse.
Ms. Rasmussen left the Midwest to earn a bachelor's degree in political science at American University in Washington and planned on becoming a lawyer. Right before law school, however, she began assisting with events — including ones planned by Evoke Design & Creative, who planned her wedding years later — and decided she didn't want to pursue law after all.
'I realized there are more options and I didn't want to be stuck in a career that I would have to be in the rest of my life,' Ms. Rasmussen said. Among her endeavors was a disco ball business, and during the pandemic she channeled her love of vintage into a reselling business with porch pickups. Now she owns Vintage Vintage Vintage, a store in D.C.'s Union Market District with 20 vendors.
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Mr. Amini earned a bachelor's in anthropology with a minor in social entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and when he came back home after graduating, he wasn't quite sure what to do. So he gave baking at Ellē a try — coincidentally, his mother had worked for the building's previous tenant, Heller's Bakery, in her youth — which he enjoyed until the pandemic rocked the restaurant industry.
Leaving the bakery behind, he followed in his father's footsteps and became a program analyst at the State Department, where he currently works with embassies in the Middle East.
When they first started dating, weekends meant different things to them. Ms. Rasmussen filled hers with antique hunting while Mr. Amini went bird-watching with seniors.
Over time, their interests aligned and even Mr. Amini now appreciates shopping for vintage, especially having shopped with her family in Midwestern antique malls. 'She really opened my eyes to older things and the pleasure of finding those treasures,' he said.
After living with roommates her whole adult life, Ms. Rasmussen was ready for her own space. In 2019, she got a heads-up from Mr. Amini that a one-bedroom apartment in Mt. Pleasant was available. It checked all her boxes and was close to him, so she took it sight unseen.
Two years later, the couple moved in together, and suddenly the apartment felt a little too cozy. 'It was a challenge having that limited amount of space, especially given the limitations that were imposed by Covid regulations at the time,' Mr. Amini said.
But they worked through the adjustment period and found ways to make it work, like planting a garden on the fire escape. 'For me, that was a really great place to spend a lot of time to get fresh air and give space to Libby, too,' he said. It taught them how to be nimble, which is 'something we'll take into our marriage,' he added.
In October 2023, Mr. Amini recreated their first date: a bite at Seylou Bakery and a stroll around the National Arboretum. Only this time, he proposed to Ms. Rasmussen in the bonsai section with a 100-year-old toi et moi ring they had chosen together.
Ms. Rasmussen and Mr. Amini knew they wanted to get married in the woods of Serenbe, an upscale planned community outside of Atlanta in Chattahoochee Hills, Ga., where her parents live. The date was set for Saturday, May 3, but with a storm on its way, they made the day-of decision to hold their ceremony on Friday, May 2. The bride wore her mother's 1983 Carolina Herrera dress, the groom a black suit with jewels designed by Bode.
Ms. Rasmussen's uncle, Curt Drexler, a nondenominational pastor who retired from Christ the Rock Community Church in Menasha, Wis., officiated. At the reception, which was held the next day, friends spoke of how the ceremony glowed at sunset.
If the ceremony was for weeping, the reception was for revelry. Guests sipped brandy old-fashioneds at the cocktail hour (a nod to her Wisconsin roots) in a field, as horses grazed in the distance, while Tom Ellis of the Hudson Valley-based Swell Party prepared a feast over an open flame. For dinner, held under a pavilion, 85 guests were seated at two communal tables adorned with green hydrangeas and bells-of-Ireland.
As soon as the roasted beet salad hit the table, the storm rushed in. The crowd cheered when the brightest lightning bolts cracked outside the pavilion. Cedar Hill, a bluegrass band from Atlanta, played twangy rock covers, but it was 'I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow,' famously sung in the film 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?,' that the entire party dancing in a conga line around the tables.
Mr. Amini reflected on the weekend in an impromptu speech at the end of the evening. 'The Japanese have a phrase, 'ichi-go ichi-e,' which basically means that every moment is unique and won't happen again,' he said. 'The likelihood of all these people being together again is very low, so we should all enjoy ourselves.'
When May 2 and 3, 2025
Where Serenbe, Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia
Something custom For the reception, Ms. Rasmussen wore a custom veil by Emily Adams Bode Aujla of the brand Bode. 'She has never done one before, which is very, very cool,' Ms. Rasmussen said. For the after party, Mr. Amini wore a shirt made out of a tablecloth crafted by Fei Mancho, a vendor at Ms. Rasmussen's store.
Vintage touches Leading up to the wedding, Ms. Rasmussen sourced vintage shrimp cocktail forks for the wedding as well as other vintage silver pieces. 'Mom and I have been polishing lots of silver leading up to the wedding,' she said.
Personal details Ms. Rasmussen's father built a riser for the couple to stand on for the ceremony, and they surrounded it in white gladiolus, a tribute to her late grandparents. The couple also participated in a Persian Sofreh Aghd ceremony, in which they shared honey to honor Mr. Amini's heritage.
Many layers After baking a Ukrainian medovik cake, made with burned honey, the couple knew they wanted to serve it at their wedding. They found a Ukrainian-owned bakery, the Cake House, in nearby Newnan, Ga., which made them a four-foot-long cake. Ms. Rasmussen's best friend decorated the cake with edible flowers.