Hannah Ruth and Steph both attended American University but moved in very different circles. However, a friend of Steph's was also in the Theatre Department with Hannah Ruth. This meant that in supporting her friend in his shows, Steph saw Hannah Ruth in her natural habitat on stage. She was starstruck!

Like many a modern couple, we both swiped right on each other. Steph swooped in with the very clever pickup line "Haha hey," and for some unknown reason, that was enough for Hannah Ruth to reply.

Steph and Hannah Ruth's first date was on September 15, 2019 at Kramer Books & Afterword Cafe and they have spent every anniversary there, where they pick out books for each other and share a slice of key lime pie.

In the early months of 2020, Steph packed a suitcase and her cat, Goose, and moved into Hannah Ruth and her cat Prims's studio apartment for a fun, two-week sleepover. The rest is history.

They braved the lines at Trader Joes, celebrated a virtual Passover seder, and worked from home, finding that they love living together.

Soon, living in an apartment with no chairs started to become just a little confining and the four moved into Steph's apartment and tried to settle in during the first Covid-19 summer.

After the lease was up at Steph's apartment, it became clear the new family needed a more comfortable spot to call home. Setting out to the beautiful neighborhoods of Northwest D.C., the two found paradise in the form of a balcony, walk-in closet, and outdoor pool.

Hannah Ruth and Steph have loved making their first apartment as a couple their home.

Soon, Hannah Ruth became an adult and aged out of her parent's insurance. Steph, tempted by the promise of finally being in-network, left the nest early to stop being covered by her own parent's insurance and get onto Hannah Ruth's plan. But to do so, the two had to enter into a Domestic Partnership. The two were partnered domestically after going to four different UPS stores to find a notary on December 17, 2021.

After two-and-a-half years of dating and building the foundations of life together, Steph popped the question to Hannah Ruth at the Mill Mountain Star, overlooking the Roanoke Valley on April 3, 2021.

Not long after, Steph realized it wasn't fair that Hannah Ruth got a shiny pretty ring, and began to pester Hannah Ruth for one of her own.

Hannah Ruth asked Steph to marry her (twice!) later that summer.

Unfortunately, after the landmark fall of Roe v. Wade, it became clear there was a potential threat to marriage equality. Roe fell on a Friday and the two were civilly married in front of the National Gallery of Art that Monday morning. The two self-officiated the ceremony on June 27, 2022.

After a domestic partnership, engagement, and civil marriage, only one frontier was left to conquer.

Despite near-yearly commitments to each other (officially becoming girlfriends in September of 2019, a domestic partnership in December of 2021, an engagement in April of 2022, and a civil marriage in June of 2022) the two simply didn't have enough.

After consulting the secular and Jewish calendar, Steph and Hannah Ruth settled on a Jewish wedding ceremony on October 27, 2024. They are thrilled to stand together with their loved ones in front of their community and partake in the ancient wedding traditions of their faith.