They met at Boston’s historic King’s Chapel on the corner of Tremont and School streets on a sunny Sunday August afternoon in 2018.
Kevin Duran, then 28, had moved two weeks earlier to begin a grad program at Boston University’s Metropolitan College. He’d matched on OkCupid with a volunteer for Boston By Foot, and a first date that doubled as a tour of the city seemed appropriate for the transplant from Dutchess County, N.Y.
His tour guide/date was Dianna Bronchuk, a 24-year-old Leominster native working in higher education and finishing a graduate program at Northeastern University.
Dianna’s regular route was the Road to Revolution, along the Freedom Trail. She and Kevin made it through some of its historic spots before they decided to take a break at Long Wharf to sit by the water and turn the conversation from Boston’s history to their own.
“I noticed the chemistry really quickly,” says Dianna. “I felt very comfortable talking to him.” When a piece of litter floated by, Kevin managed to scoop it up. “Aw, look at him,” she remembers thinking. “He cares about our oceans.”
On the dates that followed, they explored the Arnold Arboretum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, and attended a screening of “Crazy Rich Asians.” Dianna’s roommate noticed her smile when she got home from the outings.
But after date three, a problem had emerged — “We hadn’t kissed yet,” Dianna says.
“I’m not really great at picking up signals,” explains Kevin. “I thought I was pushing things when I held her hand at the MFA.”
For their fourth date in late September, they bought smoked fish burritos at the Boston Public Market and hopped a ferry to Spectacle Island. It was an overcast day, but comfortable enough to walk the beaches. When they sat to rest on a bench, Kevin asked Dianna, “What do you want to do now?”
She replied: “I want you to kiss me.”
Kevin nonchalantly made the relationship official when leaving Dianna’s Jamaica Plain apartment in early fall, asking, “When you come to my apartment, should I introduce you as my girlfriend to my roommates?” “And I was like, ‘Ooh, that was smooth,” Dianna says.
Their first “I love yous” happened after Game 5 of the 2018 World Series. The Red Sox had just clinched the win, and as they sat in front of Dianna’s TV, Kevin watched as she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her fists and head in a silent, joyous scream — so as not to wake the neighbors.
“What got me in that moment was seeing how excited she was, and that made me excited and happy,” he says. (Kevin, a native New Yorker, is a Yankees fan.)
Dianna moved into Kevin’s Roslindale apartment the following summer, before the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. They took walks around the Emerald Necklace, and listened to musical theater podcasts, and Dianna experimented with homemade cheese making. She began a second master’s program in public administration at Northeastern in May 2020, and Kevin completed his master’s in computer science the following January. Careers had become the future’s focal point for the couple, but plans for marriage and a family weren’t far behind.
He proposed on Dec. 31, 2022, after leading her on a tour that mirrored their first date — to King’s Chapel and the Old South Meeting House and the Old State House — before stopping at Long Wharf.
Dianna had always hoped for a New Year’s Eve wedding; the pair married on Dec. 31, 2024, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End. Dianna, now 30, is the chief of staff for City Councilor Enrique J. Pepén, who did a reading during the ceremony. As they exited down the cathedral stairs, the church bells rang as the final hours of 2024 began.
They chose the Sheraton Commander Hotel in Cambridge for their reception, hoping their 70 guests would stay the night rather than drive home. Kelly Boyle of Leslie James Events helped execute the evening that featured metallic pop-out streamers, vintage alarm clocks that rang at midnight, and upcycled champagne bottles that Dianna and her mother covered in glitter. Their wedding cake featured two chess pieces — a king and queen — molded to appear as though they are leaning toward one another and dancing, a tribute to their love for board games.
![The couple worked with 617 Weddings to provide the night's entertainment, a recommendation from the venue. "They assigned [our DJ] to us because he loved doing New Year's Eve weddings because he's very, very energized," says Dianna. "He was just like, 'Don't worry, I've done the countdowns many times.'"](https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/3K2FL6MTBFDOZBPFI4BBN5B2HU.jpg?auth=1b279283b40a3159d3f8c02947f007db876a48123ffd18dac73259eb35eba2db&width=1440)
A thin veil of glitter covered Dianna’s Maggie Sottero gown and sparkled during the couple’s first dance to “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. Kevin, now 35, wore a pair of red cufflinks made from pieces of a circuit board in Poland, a nod to his profession and his cultural heritage — they were a gift from his bride.
The couple has embraced married life, tabling a honeymoon until next year when they plan to go to Australia and New Zealand for their anniversary. Until then, marriage is a gift that keeps on giving — like when a food processor arrived from their registry, with a note from one of Kevin’s friends who was unable to make the wedding.
“It said something along the lines of, ‘Marriage is a beautiful thing, where everything stays the same, yet everything changes,’” says Dianna. “I was very taken aback by the beautiful, reflective [message]. We’re still very much the same people, but we’re growing together and are much more of a solidified unit, too. We’ll be going through life, and everything is going to happen, but we’ll still be constants in each other’s lives. It’s a beautiful thing.”
They named the food processor after him.
Read more from The Big Day, The Boston Globe’s new weddings column.
Rachel Kim Raczka is a writer and editor in Boston. She can be reached at rachel.raczka@globe.com.