When David Adam Guggenheim stretched out his hand to greet Michael Scott Bosworth in February 2017, the handshake cemented what he already knew from their long conversations.
“He was a relationship person and the idea of family was so important to him,” said Mr. Guggenheim (left), who matched with him on the Tinder dating app.
Mr. Bosworth had sent Mr. Guggenheim, who was his first match on the app, lengthy texts that were more like phone conversations.
“When I moved back to New York I wanted to find someone for a relationship and to spend my life with, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon,” said Mr. Bosworth, 42, who moved from Washington in January where he had been a deputy assistant and the deputy counsel to President Barack Obama.
Mr. Bosworth is now a partner in the Manhattan office of Latham & Watkins and an adjunct professor at N.Y.U. School of Law. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and received a law degree from Yale.
Mr. Guggenheim, 39, a psychologist, is the chief behavioral health officer at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in Manhattan, and an adjunct professor online at Post University. He graduated from the University of Connecticut, at Storrs and received a doctorate in psychology from the American Schools of Professional Psychology in Washington.
As they walked along Broadway after their date, which was at the lounge at Cibar in Gramercy Park, to catch their cabs — Mr. Guggenheim lived on the Upper East Side and Mr. Bosworth on the Upper West Side Side — they kissed on the cheek and agreed to meet for dinner that Saturday.
They began seeing each other once or twice a week, and in mid-March they spent a snow day together with their rescue dogs: Ray Ray, Mr. Guggenheim’s Chihuahua and Marbury, Mr. Bosworth’s yellow Lab .
“Ray Ray and Marbury learned to get along,” said Mr. Guggenheim with a laugh, and after Marbury died in January 2018, they adopted a chocolate Lab rescue named Liberty, Libby for short.
“We take the dogs Ray Ray and Libby for off-leash hours in Central Park on weekend mornings before 9, Mr. Guggenheim said. “We walk in the park, hold hands and look at the scenery.”
Early on they cooked Parmesan-crusted chicken and asparagus together in Mr. Bosworth’s apartment. “I was not a great cook and Michael wasn’t a cook at all,” Mr. Guggenheim said.
He moved in with Mr. Bosworth in May 2018, and they now enjoy cooking as a hobby and watching reality TV. “We spend a lot of time watching ‘The Real Housewives.’ I’m not proud, but I love it,” Mr. Bosworth said.
On the two-year anniversary of when they first met, they went back to Cibar with gifts for each other. Mr. Guggenheim first pulled out wads of pink tissue paper from a giant gift bag for Mr. Bosworth, and after he pulled out a ring and got down on one knee.
Before the coronavirus set in, they had planned to marry Aug. 22 at Liberty Warehouse in Brooklyn, with about 200 guests.
They were legally married on that date instead at the home of Mr. Bosworth’s brother Dr. Brian P. Bosworth and his wife Lauren Freeman-Bosworth in Larchmont, N.Y. Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman officiated. Earlier the rabbi led a religious ceremony on the deck of the home of their friends Patrick Langevin and Christopher White in Avon, Conn. Attending were about 20 guests, including Mr. Guggenheim’s 91-year-old maternal grandmother and Mr. Bosworth’s parents from Great Neck, N.Y., who wore masks imprinted with the couple’s names and a rainbow. About 50 guests tuned in via Zoom with rainbow cake pops, rainbow popcorn and rainbow cookies sent by the grooms.