“Do you ever feel like a masochist for choosing your job?” Kaley Lynn Lockwood messaged Michael Brett Friedman on Hinge in August 2021. Ms. Lockwood had noted that both she and Mr. Friedman were product managers.
Her opening line managed to grab his attention. The two — whose jobs entailed working with a variety of teams to ensure an item’s strategy, development and success — began messaging on the app before moving to text and making plans for a first date in Brooklyn later that month.
They had a cocktail at Hotel Delmano, a beer at Radegast Hall & Biergarten and then a slice at Joe’s Pizza before walking to North 5th Street Pier and Park. “We laid on the chaise longues and talked until 2 a.m.,” Ms. Lockwood said.
After the date “she said, ‘call me sometime,’ which was so cute,” Mr. Friedman said.
Their second date came six days later and included drinks at the Up & Up in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and then a show at the Comedy Cellar. By mid-November, Ms. Lockwood asked Mr. Friedman to be her boyfriend. “I already thought we were dating,” he admitted.
Along the way, the two discovered they had much in common. Years before, they had lived only a few blocks from each other in Washington, D.C. “Our paths had to have crossed because we had the same commute to work,” Ms. Lockwood said.
On Sept. 20, 2021, the day before her birthday, Mr. Friedman took Ms. Lockwood out for drinks and dinner to celebrate.
The next day, she found herself feeling sick. “He came from Manhattan to Brooklyn with Covid tests and meds and candy and dropped it at my door,” Ms. Lockwood said. “He didn’t even DoorDash it.” It was then she knew they had something special, she said.
Mr. Friedman, 33, said he knew Ms. Lockwood, 32, was the one when they spent their first holiday season together” “Without knowing it, we each got each other the same Parachute terry cloth robe.”
After dating for about year, Mr. Friedman got a job at Meta, which then acquired the company where Ms. Lockwood was working at the time, Kustomer, a customer service platform. “We ended up working together at the same office in Midtown,” Ms. Lockwood said.
But in November 2022, Meta made a round of layoffs — and it included Ms. Lockwood. “That day, Michael turned the living room into a fort and we watched ‘National Treasure’ and I ate ice cream and he rewrote my résumé,” Ms. Lockwood said.
As she looked for a new job, Mr. Friedman was her biggest supporter, she said, helping her prep for interviews, and ultimately connecting her to her current employer, Capital One, where she is a product manager.
The two moved into Ms. Lockwood’s Williamsburg studio apartment together for three months in January 2023 before upgrading to a one-bedroom in the same building, where they now live.
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Seven months later, they got engaged on the same pier they went to on their first date.
“I was starting my new job the coming Monday,” Ms. Lockwood said. “My mom and my sister weren’t answering their phones. I looked at my Find My Friends and they stopped sharing their locations.” She knew something was up.
After proposing, Mr. Friedman surprised her with a brunch with their immediate families. Then they went to get a drink, where he surprised her with 45 of their friends at Gran Torino, a bar in their neighborhood.
Ms. Lockwood, who is from Satellite Beach, Fla., holds a bachelor’s degree in information, communication and technology from Florida State University.
Mr. Friedman, a product manager at Instagram, has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Ohio State University. He grew up in Cleveland.
The couple were wed before 87 guests at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn on Jan. 18 by Scott Zenker, Mr. Friedman’s best friend, “who quickly became one of my best friends,” Ms. Lockwood said. Mr. Zenker was ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion.
The couple had what they called a “modern Jewish wedding ceremony.”
“Our officiant made sure to explain the important elements of a Jewish ceremony like the huppah, the kiddish cup and the seven circles,” Mr. Friedman said. “We also got the Lockwoods into their first hora.”
#Bumped #Years
