A Love Story For Any Season but Particularly After You Voted
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| Wilson Payamps, left, and Cameron Kirk were married Sept. 14, 2024, at Casa Cipriani in New York.Andy Martinez |
Single now but was in a few LTR's totaling 19 yrs. I usually don't like love stories but this on Caught my eye because OF THE WAY they met. It's what I hope for if Im not to stay single. Enjoy the real and current love story for any day but particularly to get your mind off the elections if you voted already. Adam Gonzalez
The New York Times
On a night out in July 2017, Wilson Payamps was playing wingman for a friend who thought Cameron Hall Kirk was cute. Their friend groups happened to merge at a rave at the Brooklyn Mirage, an event venue in East Williamsburg, where they were all dancing together. Mr. Payamps approached Mr. Kirk on behalf of his female friend.
But Mr. Kirk threw a wrench in that plan by informing Mr. Payamps that he was gay. “Me too,” Mr. Payamps swiftly responded, surprising even himself with his assertiveness. “And I’m single.” He then bought Mr. Kirk a drink. An hour later, they went for a walk on the roof, and Mr. Payamps’s streak of boldness continued when he inquired about Mr. Kirk’s relationship status.
“I put all my cards on the table right away,” Mr. Payamps said. Before the conversation was over, Mr. Payamps leaned in for a kiss.
Mr. Kirk, who was 23 at the time and had just graduated from High Point University in North Carolina with a bachelor’s in business, struggled with dating. “I feel like going to school in the South, there weren’t many gay guys there,” he said.
But, after his night with Mr. Payamps, he said, “I remember going to work on Monday and being so excited that I felt like I could barely eat.”
They met up the next day at a “Game of Thrones” watch party with Mr. Payamps’s friends, and then again the following day at Variety Coffee Roasters in Greenpoint, where Mr. Kirk lived at the time.
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| The couple, Wilson Payamps and Cameron Kirk, kiss on a rooftop in front of seated wedding guests. |
The couple met on the dance floor in July 2017 at a rave at the Brooklyn Mirage.Credit...Nico Daniels
They discussed their families and career goals. Mr. Payamps had moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic when he was 12. After coming out to his family, he moved, at age 19, from his father’s home in the Bronx to the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. He also shared his longtime dream of visiting Paris after seeing the Eiffel Tower on television as a young boy in Santiago.
Mr. Kirk, who grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and moved to New York in 2016, talked about being best friends with his siblings and calling his parents every day, a ritual that Mr. Payamps admired. They both wanted to take care of their families and were laser-focused on their careers.
Mr. Payamps, 36, is an account executive at Google. He graduated from the New York School of Interior Design with a bachelor’s in interior design.
Mr. Kirk, 30, is a partner at Hallmark Communities and HCC Construction, his family’s real estate development and construction businesses. Both companies are based in Columbus.
Three weeks after they met, Mr. Payamps invited Mr. Kirk over for a home-cooked meal at his studio on 181st and Riverside Drive, eager to bring him into his world in Washington Heights, or “Dominican land,” as he called it.
And, even though Mr. Kirk had caught him in the act of unpacking boxed food from a work event that he intended to pass off as the home-cooked meal, the sunset dinner overlooking the George Washington Bridge “was just perfection,” Mr. Payamps said.
To officially mark the start of their relationship three months after they met, Mr. Kirk helped make Mr. Payamps’s childhood dream come true and surprised him with a trip to Paris for his birthday.
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| A mossy black cake adorned with red flowers. |
The couple’s brown butter carrot cake was from the Brooklyn-based cake company Yip Studio.Credit...Andy Martinez
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| A table with food items including dishes of caviar and a plate of deviled eggs. |
A four-course dinner at the Grill included caviar.Credit...Andy Martinez
They moved into an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in January 2018, and gradually brought each other into their boisterous families. Navigating their cultural differences was a process, they said, but one that they’ve managed together.
Mr. Payamps spent his first Christmas with Mr. Kirk’s family in Columbus in 2018. Every year on Dec. 23, Mr. Kirk’s family members gather around a piano to sing Christmas carols together. Significant others, especially on the first visit, typically hide in the back, Mr. Kirk said. But Mr. Payamps was front and center.
When they wrapped up their carols, Mr. Payamps announced to the entire room that he had one more song he wanted to sing. He started belting out the lyrics to “Feliz Navidad.” (Now it’s tradition for the family to end with that song.)
“It was just hilarious seeing the white part of my family try to clap” — “out of beat,” Mr. Payamps interjected — “and everyone only knew one part: ‘I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas.’” Once that hook was done, Mr. Payamps was left singing alone in Spanish. It was a laughter-filled experience that helped them realize they had something special.
And then, for New Year’s, Mr. Kirk went to the Dominican Republic to visit Mr. Payamps’s family, most of whom do not speak English. Now, they go every year, and Mr. Kirk is learning Spanish. (“It’s coming along very slowly,” he said.)
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