The NYC Date Spots That Lead To Our Fairytale Ending

My name is Danielle, though most people know me by my Instagram handle, @singingdanielle. I’m a professional singer based in NYC but I often travel to perform around the world (most recently, South Africa!). I recently launched a blog where I share photos, recipes, tips and tricks, and lots of miscellaneous stuff that I think the OG followers of @singingdanielle, and hopefully many more, will find interesting.

A part of my life that I don’t often share is my relationship with Louis, my husband of just a few months. While I’m the creative/performer type, Louis is in the finance world and probably explains why we fit together like two perfect puzzle pieces. We met out one night in NYC in 2009 as I was getting ready to pursue my music career in LA. The timing couldn’t have been worse, but we both couldn’t ignore the immediate connection and attraction. When I got out to LA, Louis reached out saying he was coming to visit. After spending that first weekend together, we knew we’d be starting this relationship on opposite coasts. Louis would fly out almost every weekend and take the redeye back to NYC just in time to get to work on Monday mornings. Eventually, I moved back to the east coast.

At this point, we were both living with our parents so our date nights would consist of dinner in the city, and then use of our favorite app ever: Hotel Tonight. Over the course of our relationship, I can confidently say we’ve tried just as many hotels in NYC as restaurants. Whatever hotel was having a deal that night and looked cool, we booked it.

Two years ago, Louis proposed in the most romantic way possible in front of a yacht in Delray Beach, Florida (a very special place to us) filled with all of our closest family and friends. You can read the full story here.

We were married this fall on September 30th in front of our most cherished family and friends. And though we ended up with the fairytale ending, our love story hasn’t always been so glamorous. We’ve overcome many hardships to get where we are today. We exchanged our own personally-written vows (which our guests still talk about), and in mine I wrote, “Although our relationship has not always been perfect, it was in the imperfections where we learned and found the strength to get through anything together as a team.”

We thank God now for the things we’ve gone through, because without those experiences, we wouldn’t be standing on the most solid and stable ground we’ve ever stood on, with the utmost respect, love, commitment, and passion held for each other. We started our relationship as babies and had to be patient with each other throughout the process of growing into adults. We are both so thankful it has lead us to exactly where we are today.

And speaking of today, we currently live together in Astoria, Queens in a small apartment with one hell of a view, and our baby doggie daughter, Pancake. For the most part, we’re homebodies during the week, as we both work during the day, and I work as a singer on the weekends. Weeknights are cherished as some of our only quality time together.

However, when we do go out, we do it up. These are a few of our favorite places.