“Guess the place this photograph was taken” was the quick John Saser Sanders, Jr., to present with a photograph in his courting profile with hinges. The picture filmed Mr. Sanders at an occasion for signing books for sociologist Matthew Desmond through the 2023 Nationwide Ebook Competition in Washington.
Shannon Shee Wu had voluntarily joined the competition in the identical yr and was conversant in Mr. Desmond’s work. So, when Mr. Sanders preferred one of many photographs of his profile in September 2023, Da -ju Wu checked his profile and noticed the photograph from the competition. “I do know precisely the place that is,” she replied. “This e book is” Poverty, from America. ” They talked about how Mrs Wu had learn the e book of the Pulitzer Award of Mr. Desmond “expelled” and visited the exhibition, which she impressed on the Nationwide Museum of Buildings in 2018.
It was the primary of many shared pursuits for the couple. Their first date, days after they coincided with the hinge, nevertheless, they started roughly when Mr. Sanders went to the incorrect place of the cafe, the place they agreed to satisfy. After they collected SNAFU and located half-hour later, the dialog was straightforward.
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It was “very straightforward to dialog, very partaking and enjoyable,” mentioned Mr. Sanders. “I assumed there was a beautiful, distinctive chortle.”
D -Ju Wu, 33 -year -old, is the director of the Cost Cost coverage on the American Hospital Affiliation. Born and grew up in Libertiville, Illinois, she obtained a Bachelor’s diploma in Psychology in Princeton and PhD. from John Hopkins Bloomberg College for Public Well being.
G -N -Sanders, 37, who was born and raised in Chevi Chase, Md. He’s a Senior Technical Accounting Supervisor at Worldwide Recreation Expertise, an organization that gives services and products for lottery and casinos.
The following dates within the fall of 2023 had been a sequence of considerate actions, reminiscent of watching a comedy present, attempting Peruvian meals, a go to to the Rothko exhibition on the Nationwide Artwork Gallery and Dinner in Dabini, Michelin-Star Restaurant in Washington.
It was on their first weekend collectively in December, when Mr. Sanders invited her to his household residence on the east coast of Maryland, Da -ju Wu realized that their relationship had an actual promise. Taking a look at him within the automotive on the route as she listened to her favourite track from her favourite band (“I want my woman” from the nationwide), she realized that she didn’t need the trip to complete. “” Oh God, I may very well be actually critical with this man, “she remembers.
The autos had been additionally the place Mr. Sanders felt his love, although with totally different audio supplies. He preferred to take heed to audio books like “Dangerous Blood” by John Carrieu or “American Prometheus” by Kai Chook and Martin J. Sherwin collectively whereas driving. “She has an unbelievable mental curiosity that has been engaged from the start,” he mentioned. “I study a lot from her.”
In November 2024, simply over a yr after they met, G -N -Sanders supplied G -ju Wu close to the Touchstone gallery in downtown Washington. It was the place they’d gone to their second assembly and stepped from the place they first kissed. “I had informed him earlier that I did not need a massive scene or one thing else,” mentioned G -ju Wu from their conversations about engagement.
Their wedding ceremony on February 28 was additionally low. The 2 married within the Supreme Court docket of the County of Colombia at a ceremony, official by George Barber, the top of the Department Bureau, solely with their dad and mom and brothers of Mr. Sanders and a nephew of a younger baby.
“I cried somewhat after I was studying my vows and I feel he additionally needed to take a number of breaths there,” mentioned G -ju Wu. “I am unable to think about this in entrance of 100 or 200 individuals.”
The small group then shared a household -style consuming at Ambar, a Balkan Restaurant on the Capitol Hill, ending with a hazelnut cake from the Heidelberg candy store in Arlington, Washington.
