Umber & Ray

Umber Ahmad, the CEO and founder of Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery, first connected with Ray Crisara, an actor and acting coach, online after a particularly challenging breakup. “My friends insisted on creating an online dating profile for me,” Umber says. “They did so without my knowing and started to amass an inbox of people. When I finally relented to going on a date, I perused the inbox and selected the most handsome photo of the lot. I told myself if I didn’t laugh at all during our first date, I would not ever have to see him again. Alas, we laughed and talked and shared our stories for hours. That date’s name was Ray, and he’s now my husband!”
Throughout their courtship, the two occasionally talked about getting married, but when Umber’s mother passed away in 2016, she put the idea of marriage out of her head—she felt it wasn’t worthwhile to have a wedding without her mother present. “Then, a few years later, there was this moment where I couldn’t imagine my life without Ray, and I said out loud, ‘I want to marry you,’” she remembers. “He looked at me, smiled, and said, ‘I know. I was waiting for you to get there.’” 
- Vogue