Tyler Charles Eyre believes he never would have met Yasmin Khorram, whom he considers his soul mate, had her family not fled Iran four decades ago. But it was a tragic turn of events that precipitated that move.
As the Iranian Revolution was taking place in 1979, Ms. Khorram’s maternal grandfather, a top military commander during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was executed. Her grandmother, along with her parents, abandoned their family home and moved to Denver to begin rebuilding their lives.
Ms. Khorram, 36, who grew up in Seattle after her parents relocated there, has never been to Iran. She said she dreams of one day visiting the country her grandmother loved, though not the one she left.
Mr. Eyre, 33, who was raised in Rockaway, N.J., by an American mother and an Australian father, knew little of Iran until he met Ms. Khorram. He noted, sadly, that “it took Yas’s grandma losing the love of her life for me to find mine.”
Mr. Eyre and Ms. Khorram lived on opposite coasts through college. She attended Whittier College in Whittier, Calif., receiving a bachelor’s degree in journalism and world affairs. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y., and a master’s degree in journalism from N.Y.U.
The two overlapped in New York, when Ms. Khorram relocated for her work as a producer at CNN, from 2015 through 2018. Mr. Eyre was a senior producer at CNBC. Yet they never met.
In 2019, Ms. Khorram joined CNBC as a producer in San Francisco. She caught the attention of Mr. Eyre a couple of years later when she reported on-air during a show he helped produce about Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos. That appearance began a subsequent career as an on-air reporter — and a budding relationship with Mr. Eyre.
“She was obviously beautiful,” he said. “But there was something else.”
The two were in a group text with a colleague who was getting married that fall. Mr. Eyre messaged Ms. Khorram separately, using the suggestion of a joint wedding present as his excuse. The following three weeks brought an endless stream of texting and FaceTime calls.
They skipped past small talk. “It felt like we were interviewing each other for the ‘job,’” Mr. Eyre said.
Ms. Khorram had high standards for dating. She said her career was her priority, and that she did not have any interest in “wasting time on something that wasn’t certain.”
Mr. Eyre visited Ms. Khorram in San Francisco that September, arranging to stay in a hotel near her apartment. She suggested they meet at her favorite restaurant, Foreign Cinema, in the Mission District. When Mr. Eyre arrived, he spotted her through the restaurant’s window, sipping an espresso martini at the bar.
She said she had wondered whether he would ever show. His plane had been delayed.
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Over dinner the two described their connection as “like lightning.” The restaurant’s host, Dashiell Hillman, noticed as well. In his time as a host, Mr. Hillman said, he has witnessed countless first dates. This one was different, he added.
The couple spent the weekend strolling through San Francisco and eating In-N-Out Burger.
“It was surreal,” Mr. Eyre said. “I kept looking at her and asking, ‘Are we really doing this?’”
For the next year or so, Mr. Eyre visited Ms. Khorram every other week. When they were apart, they connected on FaceTime, sometimes falling asleep during the call.
“It felt like a clock was ticking every time we were together,” Ms. Khorram said. They packed their weekends with activities, nurturing “a full relationship in half the time.” They always returned to Foreign Cinema for dinner.
“Their soul-mate connection was evident,” Mr. Hillman said.
After a year and a half of flying across the country, the couple boarded a plane to Paris in April 2023. On a rainy first day, Mr. Eyre led Ms. Khorram to the Eiffel Tower, where he proposed.
“I was worried I was doing something wrong,” he said. “She wasn’t saying anything. She wasn’t crying. She was just smiling at me.”
The couple celebrated their engagement over dinner with her grandmother, who happened to be in Paris on vacation.
In July 2023, Ms. Khorram traveled to the East Coast for good. The couple moved into an apartment in Englewood, N.J., and Ms. Khorram took a job as a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance, where she continues to work.
On May 31, they wed at the El Encanto, a Belmond Hotel in Santa Barbara, Calif. They were joined by 118 guests for a ceremony at the hotel’s lily pond that fused American and Persian traditions.
Mr. Hillman, the restaurant host, officiated. He was ordained through the Universal Life Church for the occasion.
Ms. Khorram’s grandmother, Nahid Aminiafshar, walked her down the aisle in the same emerald dress she wore to her daughter’s wedding in Iran in 1978. Mr. Eyre wore Ms. Khorram’s grandfather’s cuff links, and Ms. Khorram pinned one of his military medals to her bouquet.
“My grandma brought my parents to this country and made my life possible,” Ms. Khorram said. “In some way, she brought me to Tyler.”
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