Daniel M. Hendrick and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer were married Saturday evening at Studio Square, an event space in Long Island City, Queens. Audrey I. Pheffer, the Queens County Clerk, officiated.
Mr. Hendrick (left), 41, works in Manhattan as the communications director for the New York League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group. He graduated from Columbia University.
He is the son of Elizabeth L. Hendrick of Fraser, Mich., and Daniel W. Hendrick, of Largo, Fla. His mother retired as a laboratory supervisor at St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital in Warren, Mich. His father retired as a fire marshal for Chrysler and worked in Detroit.
Mr. Van Bramer, 42, is a member of the New York City Council representing the 26th District, which is composed of Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Astoria and Maspeth in Queens. He is also the chairman of the council’s Cultural Affairs and Libraries Committee. He graduated from St. John’s University.
He is a son of Elizabeth E. Marcum of Astoria and William R. Van Bramer of Vero Beach, Fla. His mother retired as a cashier and a meat wrapper at a Pathmark supermarket in Long Island City. His father retired as a pressman for The New York Times and as an executive board member of New York Pressman’s Union, Local 2.
Mr. Van Bramer is a stepson of the late James E. Marcum. His stepfather retired as a custodian from Intermediate School 10 in Astoria.
Mr. Hendrick and Mr. Van Bramer met in May 1999 at a fund-raiser for a gay community center in Queens. (At the time, Mr. Van Bramer was working in government relations for the Queens Borough Public Library and Mr. Hendrick wrote news releases for the Fitch Ratings agency.)
Mr. Van Bramer, having just arrived, went to the bar for a glass of wine when he looked up and saw Mr. Hendrick. “He was this handsome redhead with glasses,” Mr. Van Bramer recalled. “I just kind of said to myself ‘Who is that?’ ”
Mr. Hendrick was soon chatting with the man who had invited Mr. Van Bramer to the fund-raiser, leading Mr. Van Bremer to assume that the two were dating. A short time later, the friend told Mr. Van Bramer that he was not dating Mr. Hendrick, and he had more good news: Mr. Hendrick had asked about Mr. Van Bramer (“Who is the guy in the suit?”).
Mr. Van Bramer approached Mr. Hendrick and very soon began a mental survey of his new acquaintance.
“As we were standing there talking, I went through my checklist,” Mr. Van Bramer said. “I thought, ‘He’s good looking, he’s smart, he’s employed and he’s able to talk about politics.’ He met every one of my requirements.”
Mr. Hendrick also had a checklist.
“I thought he was sweet, handsome, intelligent and above all, I really loved his political activism,” Mr. Hendrick said. “He wanted to make some changes in the world.”
That conversation led to a first date at a movie theater in Queens, and they began dating steadily, with Mr. Hendrick, who lived in Long Island City, spending time at Mr. Van Bremer’s studio in Woodside. Though Mr. Van Bremer wanted them to live together, he did not want to appear desperate.
“Every time he would leave a shirt behind or a toothbrush, I thought that was a good sign that he was leaning toward moving in,” Mr. Van Bremer said.
Then one day, Mr. Hendrick brought over one of his most treasured possessions, a sugar bowl that he had bought in Siberia during a college trip.
The sugar bowl, which Mr. Hendrick put on the kitchen counter, never made it back to Long Island City, and neither did Mr. Hendrick, who moved in shortly thereafter. VINCENT M. MALLOZZI
