After Tiffany Quynhnhu Langlinais and Michael Steven Graves had their first date in central New Orleans, Mr. Graves drove off to Chicago in a green 2008 Kia Sedona minivan to officiate a friend’s wedding. And so, to Ms. Langlinais’s friends, he was known as “minivan Mike.”
Ms. Langlinais, 33, wasn’t used to dating a man who drove a minivan, but she said she appreciated seeing him in an “unfiltered way” throughout the date. She found him forthright and intentional, plus she was “a fan” of his beard.
The two met in June 2021 on Magazine Street, a six mile-long, major thoroughfare in New Orleans, after matching on Hinge in May. Mr. Graves, 35, needed to buy gifts for his newborn nephew in Chicago. He wanted to make sure he saw Ms. Langlinais before he left town for two weeks, so he asked her if she wanted to join him.
“We hit it off right away. I thought she was very beautiful and couldn’t believe she was into me,” Mr. Graves said.
During his drive to Chicago, he had 14 hours to think about the date — and how much he liked her. The next day, he texted her that he was excited to come back to New Orleans and see her again.
When he returned, they went bowling. Ms. Langlinais “whupped him,” she said. Afterward, they got a late-night burger at Beachcorner Bar and Grill. They stumbled upon a cobblestone alley nearby, where live music animated the street. It was the perfect setup for their first kiss.
A few weeks later, just before Hurricane Ida struck, the couple decided to evacuate New Orleans together, despite not knowing each other for long. They spent two weeks on the road.
They stayed with friends in Meridian, Miss.; Nashville; Rosemary Beach, Fla.; and Biloxi, Miss., where Ms. Langlinais grew up.
“We got put into a 14-day pressure cooker,” Mr. Graves said about their two intense weeks on the road — but it brought them closer together.
During their stop in Nashville, Ms. Langlinais met several of Mr. Graves’s friends. When they saw her, they asked Mr. Graves, “Is this your girlfriend?” She stood there awkwardly and avoided the question. So when they went on a Walmart run shortly afterward, he asked her if she wanted to be his girlfriend. She said yes. A few days later, during their stop in Biloxi, he met her parents.
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In August 2023, Mr. Graves proposed on a beach in Door County, Wis., while watching the blue supermoon gleam above the water. With no cell reception, they watched the stars and listened to the waves.
A large group of people nearby disturbed the peace by banging sticks on a massive piece of driftwood. “In my head, I was like, I don’t want this to be the background music for my proposal,” Mr. Graves said. So he shouted “boo,” nice and loud. “It was the most effective boo of my life because they stopped immediately,” Mr. Graves said. He was finally able to propose.
On Jan. 6, the couple opened a pop-up cake shop together for Mardi Gras season called King Cake Drive-Thru. In February, they moved in together into a home they had purchased. It is a block away from where they had their first kiss.
They also both own their own businesses. Ms. Langlinais is the founder of Freret Napoleon, a marketing company. She graduated from Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Mr. Graves is the owner of Bof Bars, a novelty ice cream company. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a law degree from DePaul University.
On March 9, the couple were married at the Broadside, a live music venue in New Orleans, in front of 300 guests. Matthew Oglesbee, a friend who was previously ordained by the Universal Life Church, officiated.
Many of their vendors were local Mardi Gras artists, including Coco Darrow, a décor artist who created a giant crawfish pot that guests could step into, hold a spoon and take photos. The couple also had a four-foot-long alligator cake made by Bittersweet Confections.
As business owners in New Orleans, their wedding date was significant because it was during a break after Mardi Gras season and before the start of festival season. They both love New Orleans and the city’s culture.
“It’s our home,” Mr. Graves said. “Neither of us were born there, but we chose to go there.”
“Mike is from Chicago, I’m from Mississippi — we are from completely different worlds,” added Ms. Langlinais, who is first generation Vietnamese American. “It’s kind of crazy how we found each other.”
After their wedding, they drove off in the green minivan with a friend as their chauffeur.
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