James Beard-winning cookbook author and TV personality Hawa Hassan first met her future husband, engineer Kwame Apraku, close to home—but a trip across an ocean was needed for them to exchange numbers. The pair initially crossed paths in September 2018 at Dumbo House. “I was hanging out with a group of friends and Kwame was working right next to them,” shares the bride. “At some point, I was spraying her face with rose water and offered to spray Kwame’s face. We had a brief chit-chat and went on with our day. No names or contact info were exchanged.”
Their next meeting took place by chance 18 months later in Accra, Ghana. Kwame was home with his family for Christmas and Hawa was in town for the “Year of Return,” an initiative memorializing 400 years since the first slave ship left Africa. “We ran into each other at a house party at Hawa’s friend’s backyard,” says Kwame. “I walked up to Hawa and said, ‘You’re the girl from Dumbo House!’” They finally exchanged information and had their first date in January 2020 back in New York.
Kwame planned to propose to Hawa while they were on a three-week trip to Japan. However, the vacation almost fell through as Kwame’s passport renewal was running behind. “Just two days before departure, we nearly canceled the trip, but Kwame found someone on Instagram offering a same-day passport renewal appointment for $300, which saved the day,” says Hawa. “After eating our way through Tokyo and visiting friends, we headed to Kyoto for a few days of peace and quiet. It was there, in a beautiful, quaint garden, that Kwame popped the question.”
Initially, Hawa and Kwame were set on hosting their nuptials in Lisbon as it would be an easy middle ground for family and friends on multiple continents to meet. The bride even spent six weeks in Portugal while planning the event. However, due to complications, the couple shifted their wedding destination to Mexico City, a place they both love and spent time in together, just six weeks before the event. The new celebration was held on April 26, 2024, at Liverpool 76, a historic building in the Juarez neighborhood operated by Table Studio that once served as the headquarters for active members of the Mexican Revolution.
