In March 2022, Ms. Lockett sent Mr. Miller a text wishing him happy birthday — one of the few times they had communicated. When Mr. Miller came to Houston for a bachelor party in April, he asked to meet for brunch. Ms. Lockett, who returned to Houston to retrieve belongings for her move to the Bay Area, said yes with some reservations.
“I knew I was going to see him and it’ll be a good brunch, but I knew I was going to stay guarded,” she said.
At a dinner in July, Mr. Miller was in the Bay Area, where Ms. Lockett lived, and they caught up with a mutual college friend. Mr. Miller recalls a conversation at the table that put things in perspective.
When Ms. Lockett said she wanted an invitation to their future weddings something “clicked,” for Mr. Miller, he said. Instead of imagining her as a guest, he wanted her to be the woman in his life. By September, he ended his two-year relationship and they were a couple by October.
After nearly a year of dating long distance, during which Mr. Miller wrote monthly letters that reassured her of his commitment to their relationship, he moved to Menlo Park, Calif., in September 2023 for business school at Stanford. The following year, they each moved to separate apartments near the campus in Palo Alto, Calif., where they now live together.
With help from Ms. Lockett’s younger sister, Lerah, Mr. Miller planned a surprise proposal disguised as a couple’s photo shoot on Stanford’s campus. As they strolled around the familiar paths snapping photos, Mr. Miller got down on one knee. Waiting at Hoover Tower on campus, her family stood by to surprise her again.
On March 29, the couple exchanged vows at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, with the Rev. Dr. Marcus D. Cosby officiating before 300 guests. The newlyweds made a grand exit in a classic Rolls-Royce, heading to their reception nearby at the Crystal Ballroom at the Rice hotel.
