To him, Apgar, now 28, seemed like a “ball of electricity.” He’d always considered himself a busy person, working long days and playing sports at night, but her schedule was more packed than his, mostly with volunteer work he found inspiring.
Apgar broke things off with the other guy; by the following week, she and Painter were a couple. A year later, he asked her to move in. Painter, now 29, is rigidly organized, lining up guests’ shoes by the door the minute they arrive. Apgar is not: He once walked into her apartment, which looked as if it had been hit by a hurricane, to find a high heel sitting on the dining room table. When she had kicked it off, that’s where it had landed.
In previous relationships, she felt anxious at the one-year mark; this one continued to feel comfortable and exciting. Painter had never been able to visualize a future with past girlfriends, but he could imagine a life with Apgar — assuming they didn’t want to throttle each other in the first year of their lease.
“They say when you meet the right person, you find yourself changing into a better person and you don’t realize it,” Apgar says. Once they were under the same roof, she got into the habit of keeping an organized closet and started to need a clean space. And though both consider themselves highly driven, type-A people, their home became a place where they could let their guard down and relax.
“When I’m with Sarah, I can kinda just roll back,” Painter says.
On their third anniversary, after dinner at Marcel’s, Painter walked Apgar to Dupont Circle and asked her to be his wife.
They were married July 9 at Meridian House in the District. Painter wore a kilt to honor his Scottish grandparents, and the bridal party’s entrance was accompanied by a bagpiper.
“I was feeling nervous I would fall because my shoes were really tall,” Apgar said after the wedding. “I was holding onto my dad, and all these people were staring. It’s kind of overwhelming. Then I remember seeing Alex and feeling really calm. He said, ‘You look so pretty!’ That’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
“That was the emotional highlight for me,” Painter added. “Everything just felt right.”
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