Their Connection Proved Stronger Than the Elements

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While on his trip, Mr. Freeman couldn’t help but imagine what his life would be like with Ms. Chernikoff in it. He kept talking about her so often, that the Millers took notice. At the end, he stated that Ms. Miller had made it clear to her husband that she was certain that Mr. Freeman would marry Miss Chernikoff.

“I just could not stop thinking about her,” he said. “I had never felt that way before.”

They saw each other on the day that Mr. Freeman returned to Washington. In September 2021, they moved in together into a new apartment.

“We both knew, within just a couple weeks, that it was something really special and different,” Ms. Chernikoff said. “We were both on the same page about pursuing it in the same way.”

In February 2022 Mr. Freeman asked Ms. Chernikoff’s parents for their blessing. In March 2022 he surprised Ms. Chernikoff by proposing amid the Kenwood cherry blossoms in Bethesda, Md., in front of his best friend, Justin Miller, and Mr. Miller’s girlfriend. Jabin Botsford, a Washington Post staff photographer, and a friend to Mr. Freeman, captured the moment.

“There are a lot of things I love about Jordan,” Mr. Freeman said. She makes “life beautiful and easy and fun.”

Dec. 31 was the day that Ms. Chernikoff and Mr. Salmiery were married at Capulet in New Orleans. This restaurant is where she lived for over 12 years. Lauren Salmiery, Ms. Chernikoff’s sister-in-law who was ordained as a Universal Life minister for the event, officiated. The Brass-A–Holics, a local brass group, performed surprise live at the reception.

“One of my favorite things about Demi is his sense of humor, he’s so funny and he’s a jokester, and he keeps things really light,” Ms. Freeman said about her husband. “It puts me at ease in a way that I have never been before.”