Everything seemed to be going wrong when Chase Vaughan Edmunds and Kirby Lynn Matocha met for their first official date at the Houston Zoo on Nov. 16, 2021.

Shortly before reaching the front gate, Mr. Edmunds’s cellphone, which held their digital tickets, died. But the two merely laughed it off. While the phone recharged at the gift shop, they strolled around the nearby reflecting pool and gardens. Then it started to rain. They simply huddled under an archway until it passed, after which they retrieved his then-charged phone.