For Jerrie Johnson, the plot of the final season of “Harlem,” the television series in which she stars, feels oddly similar to her own life.
In a plot twist in the series finale, which aired in February, the character Ms. Johnson plays, Tye, a notorious player, proposes to her love interest. Ms. Johnson’s partner, Dria Brown, was on the set when the scene was filmed in March 2024. The two looked at each other between takes, even crying at one point. It all felt too real.
“When I read about the proposal, I had already been thinking about proposing,” Ms. Johnson said.
After filming, Ms. Johnson went on a solo trip to Tulum, Mexico, where she had an epiphany: She, too, should propose. (The couple plan to marry next year, though they have not set a date.)
The couple theorize that the show’s creator, Tracy Oliver, drew inspiration from their love while writing the final season of the series, which follows the lives of four women in New York. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this season is really our life,’” Ms. Brown, 33, said. “But I am not a player — just to be clear,” Ms. Johnson, 31, added.
On Tuesday afternoon at Union Square Cafe in Manhattan, almost a year after Ms. Johnson proposed during a trip to Jamaica, the couple were mentally preparing for their first wedding dress fittings. They would spend the day at runway shows, presentations and private appointments during New York Bridal Fashion Week, where designers showcased their latest collections to media, buyers, and in this case, two brides.
Ms. Brown, in earth-tone Collina Strada pants and some funky green-and-black boots from Miista, rested one leg over Ms. Johnson’s lap. “I think something that’s really important about our love story and wedding is we both have Virgo mothers who are not present for this journey,” said Ms. Brown, whose mother has had A.L.S. for seven years. Ms. Johnson’s mother died in 2019. “My mom would have loved Dria,” she said.
On their way to their first presentation of the day, held by Justin Alexander, they held hands and sang Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” Ms. Brown’s long brown braids swinging behind her back.
During the presentation, they sipped champagne while engaging with the models. “I have to clap for this one,” Ms. Brown said as she regarded a corset dress with a square neckline and a basque waist.
After the show, Ms. Brown chose the dress, along with a few others, fresh off the runway, to try on with Ms. Johnson. The couple squealed and giggled in the fitting room. Ms. Brown even made Ms. Johnson turn and face away from her during the first fitting because she wanted their dresses to be a surprise.
“Oh my God, let’s just get married tomorrow,” Ms. Johnson said, wearing a corset gown with a peaked bodice and a high slit. “This is the best thing I’ve ever tried on,” said Ms. Brown, wearing a strapless gown with a drop waist. They twirled around and adjusted each other’s dresses.
Ms. Johnson, who grew up in Philadelphia, and Ms. Brown, who is from Winnsboro, S.C., are energetic and bubbly. The pair, who live together in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, met in March 2022 when Ms. Johnson was the host of a panel about the play “Confederates,” and Ms. Brown was a panelist. “I thought Dria was a little cute,” Ms. Johnson said, but she also found Ms. Brown and her friend “a little cliquey.”
Ms. Johnson tried to get the attention of Ms. Brown, an artistic producing director at an arts-based nonprofit called Broadway Advocacy Coalition, for months over Instagram DM. They went on their first date in November 2022.
After trying on two more classic styles, Ms. Brown said her fears of trying on wedding dresses had dissipated during the fitting.
The dresses she tried on were more revealing and tightfitting than she was used to. “I’m the daughter of a pastor,” Ms. Brown said. “There’s been so much I’ve been told about covering up, that is so deeply ingrained in me, that it’s been hard to let go,” she said.
“I just am kind of a tomboy, you know?,” she added. “I want to transition into my divine feminine. I feel so sexy and confident in our relationship that I want to also feel that in the wedding.”
During the fittings, she said, she had not felt squeezed into clothing in a way that made her self-conscious about her body. She said she had also felt comfortable because one of the four models in the presentation was a Black woman with a body type similar to hers.
“If she is rocking it, I can rock that, too,” Ms. Brown said.
Ms. Johnson said she had never imagined herself in a traditional wedding dress, though now she was considering it.
On a taxi ride passing by the cherry blossom trees around the city, the couple said that neither had been to a wedding until their mid-20s, so they didn’t have any fantasies about weddings.
They said they have been reinterpreting wedding-day traditions, like wearing white. The idea of sexual purity and virtue associated with wearing white does not resonate with them, but they said that they had learned that Yoruba deities wore white for peace, protection and renewal.
“White protects me from whatever spirit that I don’t want to let in, so instead of sexual purity, it feels like spiritual purity to me,” Ms. Johnson said. “White can signify clearing yourself to be able to accept divine partnership, to be able to accept this next step.”
Over at a runway show at the Guggenheim Museum for Kyha Studios, Ms. Brown said she appreciated that the show “was like an editorial escape.” She said she would consider taking her engagement photos wearing a silver balloon dress from the collection on the Empire State Building.
After the show, a guest stopped Ms. Johnson for a photo and a hug: “I’m obsessed with you,” the fan said. Ms. Johnson posed with more fans on the street before popping into Esé Azénabor’s store on the Upper East Side. “That’s what you call craftsmanship — craftswomanship,” Ms. Brown said, pointing at the corset beading and three-dimensional, hand-embroidered flowers on one dress.
The last stop of the day was an appointment with Scorcesa, a brand from the Haitian designer Charles C. Dieujuste.
“Sak pase?,” Ms. Brown greeted him in Haitian Creole, meaning “what’s up?”
“N’ap boule” — we’re good — he responded.
For this appointment, they tried on their outfits separately. “I’m already sad,” Ms. Brown said, peeking into the fitting room where Ms. Johnson changed into a white jumpsuit with an exposed midriff.
“This is what I imagined,” Ms. Johnson said about the look when she stepped out of the fitting room in the homey Midtown studio. “I love it. I love you,” Ms. Brown said, embracing her beloved.
Ms. Johnson also tried on white pants and a matching cropped jacket with two detachable trains, flipping them around and doing a spin for Ms. Brown. She practiced twerking in it. “OK, as long as I could do that,” she said.
Mr. Dieujuste engaged in a heart-to-heart chat with the couple, about taking pride in their identities, inviting them back for more fittings and some traditional food.
“I can’t wait to come back for some Haitian food,” Ms. Johnson said.
