When Kheri Orisha Carter decided to audition in 2021 for the fourth season of “Ready to Love,” a dating reality show on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network, it was not her idea.
“It was actually a dare,” Ms. Carter said. “I was looking for love, and I wanted to be in a committed relationship.” But she wasn’t having much luck with the dating scene in Washington. “It’s small but big here,” she said. “It’s hard to connect.”
The show was a favorite of Ms. Carter and her friends. So, when they learned it was coming to Washington, they dared her to audition. She did, and after several interviews, she joined the cast.
Once on the show, she only made it through the first four episodes — which was long enough for Brian Thomas Carkhuff to take notice.
Though her time on the show was short-lived, she says now, “I was obviously on so Brian could find me.”
After seeing her on the show, Mr. Carkhuff messaged Ms. Carter on Instagram on Dec. 15, 2021.
Ms. Carter “struck me as intelligent, strong-willed, and composed, as well as sexy and beautiful,” Mr. Carkhuff said. “I needed to meet her. I immediately followed her on Instagram and started liking her pictures.”
She had gotten a lot of messages, but Mr. Carkhuff seemed different, she said. “He was a gentleman.”
“She had written a post about men who were ‘thirsty,’ and I used that post to slide in her DMs,” Mr. Carkhuff said. “I am not that kind of guy and if you’d go out with me I can show you,” he said in his message.
After a phone call, she was confident he was who he said he was. They went on their first date, dinner at St. Anselm, a steakhouse in Washington’s Union Market on Dec. 19, 2021.
It was an immediate and mutual attraction, both said. “I thought she was even more beautiful in person than on the show,” Mr. Carkhuff said.
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“He’s very witty and observant,” Ms. Carter said, “And the way he carried himself was very sexy.”
The second date, at O-Ku Sushi in Washington, and a third, ax throwing, soon followed.
They were still both casually dating other people, but when he saw her on social media at a Washington Wizards basketball game with someone else, and she saw him post about a trip he was on with another woman, it was time for a serious conversation.
“When I saw him on that trip, I knew I was serious,” she said. “So, when we had the conversation I was very vulnerable with him.”
He got the message. “I realized then how serious she was, so when I got back we talked about where we were headed,” Mr. Carkhuff said. “That was two months into dating.”
After that, Ms. Carter said, “We started to date exclusively.” And in April 2022, while on a trip to Miami for Mr. Carkhuff’s birthday, they became official.
In August 2022, Ms. Carter moved into Mr. Carkhuff’s home in the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast Washington, where the two still live.
Mr. Carkhuff, 58, is a senior account executive at T-Mobile for Government. He graduated from National Louis University with a bachelor’s degree in business management, and received an M.B.A. from Howard University. Mr. Carkhuff was born in Buffalo and raised in McLean, Va. He has two daughters from a previous marriage who are now 33 and 34 and one daughter from a previous relationship who is 29.
Ms. Carter, 41, is a real estate agent with RLAH @properties. She graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor’s degree in consumer science and merchandising. She was born and raised in Dallas.
Mr. Carkhuff proposed on March 7 in a private room at St. Anselm, where they had their first date. He created a ruse of having a late dinner with friends to surprise Ms. Carter, who said she knew something was up but she wasn’t sure what. “When you know someone it’s hard to hide something like this,” she said.
The two were wed April 30 at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Marriage Bureau by George Barbour, the branch chief of the Marriage Bureau. “I felt like a teenager in love — giddy, ecstatic, and so proud to have just married my best friend,” Ms. Carter said.
Afterward, the two had lunch at the Capital Grille across from the courthouse with Ms. Carter’s longtime friend, Ijeoma Azubuko.
“When we had lunch, a lot of people gave us a lot of love,” Ms. Carter said. “Someone we didn’t know surprised us by paying for our meal. It made me teary-eyed.” That evening they had dinner and drinks with a dozen friends at Sly Rooftop in the Morrow Hotel.
The couple plan to host a larger wedding celebration on June 20 in Georgetown. “I wasn’t sure I would ever find the kind of love and commitment Kheri and I have found in each other,” Mr. Carkhuff said. “I felt like I truly solidified a life with my true partner.”
