Nicolas Gianni Heller and Naomi Jenny Otsu call themselves “such millennials.” They bonded over their awkwardness in front of a camera, and they prefer to shun the limelight because they “hate being perceived,” Ms. Otsu explained.
So, when they married on April 11 at Katz’s Delicatessen, they didn’t share personal vows. They couldn’t picture confessing their love for each other in front of 130 people.
Ms. Otsu is a visual illustrator and designer, while Mr. Heller is a filmmaker and social media influencer known as New York Nico. Given Mr. Heller’s work photographing legendary and eccentric individuals, the party’s venue, a famed pastrami place on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, seemed fitting.
Several recurrent characters from his videos appeared, including Elizabeth Sweetheart, sometimes known as “the Green Lady,” who is famed for always wearing green. Mr. Heller grabbed up the spiky-haired comic Mario Bosco and gave him to Daniel Mondello, a culinary influencer known as “Cugine.” Wayne Diamond, an actor noted for his role in “Uncut Gems,” exclaimed, “What a day. I saw Naomi; I’m not sure how she married this guy. I assumed she would enjoy males with hair. But I mean, fuhgeddaboudit!”
“They’ve all become like family over the years,” said Mr. Heller, who was born and raised in Manhattan and now has 1.5 million Instagram followers.
Mr. Heller, 36, may have run into Ms. Otsu, 37, at events around New York, but it wasn’t until he saw her on a friend’s Instagram page in 2017 that he took note. He followed her account, and she followed back. Aside from thinking she was cute, he loved her job and was glad she was a graphic designer, like both of his parents.
He claimed to have “tried doing the DM thing, but it didn’t really work.”
Ms. Otsu saw he was sneaking into her direct messages, but she didn’t respond much. She was enjoying time with her friends and taking a vacation from dating, which had been “exhausting,” she explained. “I just wanted to not think about men.”
Months later, when she was ready to start dating again, the two matched on Raya, which surprised him. “I kind of just got the impression that she wasn’t interested,” he told me.
“The moment we had the date, I felt pretty sure that we were going to be together for a long time,” Mrs. Otsu told me. “I just could tell from his demeanor that he wasn’t going to be the type to not text me back or play that game.”
After a few beers, they met her pals at Lovers Rock, a now-closed reggae bar in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Ms. Otsu had arranged to see them in case the date did not go well.
