Read more from The Big Day, The Boston Globe’s weddings column.
Molly Bloomingdale’s Hinge profile didn’t mince words. She was looking for a partner who could dice an onion.
“Guys who don’t know how to dice an onion give me the ick,” Molly says. It wasn’t necessarily about the onion per se, but evidence of culinary “knife skills,” she explains. “I wanted someone who can cook.”
Bryan Maddock, a culinary school grad and professional cheesemonger, was up to the task. “You should see him with a shallot,” Molly says.
His profile included the basics — “looking for someone to go out to eat with and travel,” etc. — but mixed in with the usual photos was one of an elaborate cheese board. “You’ve got to play to your strengths,” he says. (He’s worked for Wasik’s Cheese Shop in Wellesley for about a decade.)
Before their first date, Bryan sent Molly a photo of the fried chicken he was cooking in his Waltham apartment.
“Fine I’ll marry you,” Molly texted back.
“That’s good, because it sucks cooking alone,” he replied.
They met up in December 2022, about two weeks after they matched, for drinks and small bites at Bar Mezzana in the South End. Bryan got there first and, as he settled in at the bar, heard someone call his name.
When Molly arrived, Bryan informed her of an awkward, unplanned surprise.
His sister was sitting at another table.
She kept her distance once Molly arrived, but, Bryan says, in retrospect, she wished she hadn’t. “‘I was trying to be respectful, let my little bro do his thing,’” she told him, but “ ‘if I had known that you were going to get married, I would have gone and said hi.’”
For their second date, Bryan put his knife skills to work. He cooked dinner: Nantucket Bay scallops, served two ways — seared and as a ceviche — with Cocktail Cheese, a cheddar-blue spread from the shop, as a starter.
It was a bit of a test, he says. “You could just bring a triple cream brie, a nice, easy mild one. You’re not going to scare anyone away with that.”
Molly didn’t shy from the cheese, or from grabbing a knife and helping with a salad and prep. Her late father had been a chef, and she proudly holds her own in the kitchen. “We both have our own strengths,” she says.
Over Easter weekend, the pair did a trade before heading to their respective families’ celebrations. Bryan curated a cheese care package and Molly acquired a large floral centerpiece from Winston Flowers, where she works in account management, focusing on the company’s restaurant, residential, and corporate partners. In addition to wow-ing their future in-laws, they officially became a couple.
By December, Bryan had moved into Molly’s South Boston apartment, where they’d soon host a decadent New Year’s Eve soiree for friends — complete with a sushi boat, Raclette and caviar stations, and a dumpling bar, all of which they prepared and served themselves.
“We’re hosts,” Molly says.
Bryan is the youngest of four siblings in a tight-knit family. Molly is the younger of two. He had grown used to being single and the “fun uncle,” but getting to see Molly interact with his nephews and her own began to shift his perspective.
“I knew I could hang out with her every day,” he says, “and you could tell she was going to be a good mom and a good wife.”
The following spring, Molly’s mother, who lives in Maine, gave Bryan a gentle nudge, offering him the rings she had worn throughout her own marriage.
“She told me, ‘The ring’s in the safe right there, if you ever need it,’” Bryan remembers. “Before I asked her, she let me know.”
Her mother jumped into helping prepare the rings to be resized and cleaned when Bryan did call. He also called Molly’s “protective older brother” to ask for her hand, a gesture that surprised and moved her.
Bryan proposed that November on Lime Street, a quiet residential road on the flat of Beacon Hill.
“It’s my favorite street,” explains Molly. “Acorn Street gets every photo, but Lime Street’s actually where you’d want to be.”
With their industry insights, they had a clear hospitality-centered vision for their wedding. They decided on Grill 23 & Bar in the Back Bay — a favorite of theirs for special occasions and “just for cookies and drinks at the bar,” Molly says. “And it’s just the coolest room in Boston.”
Molly, 31, and Bryan, 37, wed on October 12, 2025, at Grill 23.
The celebration, which Molly likened to a “massive dinner party,” featured their well-vetted favorites: a shrimp cocktail and raw bar for the bride, and bottles of Prévost, which the groom calls an industry favorite. Guests ordered from a curated menu of Grill 23’s greatest hits, including strip steaks (Molly’s mother’s preferred cut), macaroni and cheese for the vegetarian option, and a “huge” version of its house coconut cake for dessert.
Plus, cheese — “obviously,” says Molly.
The pair planned the wedding themselves, but for florals, Molly’s colleagues and friends at Winston’s stepped in and she handed them a color palette with the direction: “I trust you. Do whatever you want.”
Flowers and vines were interwoven through the restaurant’s staircase handles and balcony, clustered in oversized bunches on the platforms and steps, by the altar where the newlyweds would exchange “I do’s.” Table arrangements were intentionally low and minimal so as to not disrupt the flow of conversation and shared plates.
As the night wore on, Bryan made a speech to thank their guests for joining them on their wedding day. He cited Dunbar’s number, a theory from the anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who proposed that humans can maintain around 150 stable relationships at once.
With a few last-minute cancellations, the couple’s headcount came to just around 150.
“You’re all here for a reason,” Bryan told them, “You mean something to us.”
Read more from The Big Day, The Boston Globe’s weddings column. Apply to have your wedding featured in an upcoming issue.
Rachel Kim Raczka is a writer and editor in Boston. She can be reached at rachel.raczka@globe.com.