Elizabeth Maresca and Nicholas James Magarelli Sr. were each other’s high school crushes during their senior year at Fair Lawn High School in New Jersey in 1988, though they never dated.
“Nick looked like a young Bon Jovi with cool, ’80s long hair, spandex and fringe,” Ms. Maresca said.
“Liz was the cool, tough girl, and I definitely crushed her but didn’t have the courage to act on my feelings,” Mr. Magarelli said.
After graduation, the two lost touch and didn’t reconnect until January 2017, when both were cast in a production of “All Shook Up” at St. Anne Stages, a theater group in Fair Lawn, N.J. Ms. Maresca played Sylvia, and Mr. Magarelli appeared as Sheriff Earl. At their first rehearsal at the Fair Lawn Community Center, they locked eyes and instantly recognized each other. “Sparks flew,” they both said.
By then, each was divorced, had children and was not looking for love.
After her divorce, Ms. Maresca had moved back to Fair Lawn from Corona, Calif., where she had settled with her former husband. At the time of her encounter with Mr. Magarelli, she was renting an apartment in town and searching for a job.
Mr. Magarelli had returned to Fair Lawn after serving in the Air Force in Albuquerque, where he and his former wife had raised their children. Divorced for four years, he was living in an apartment four blocks from Ms. Maresca’s and working as the chief of staff for the Borough of Fair Lawn.
“I hadn’t seen Nick in almost 30 years, and there he was, as handsome as ever but with a lot less hair,” Ms. Maresca said.
“Seeing Liz brought back a flood of feelings about how much I had liked her and her smile,” Mr. Magarelli said.
After rehearsal that day, the two caught up about their lives over the previous three decades, talking about their children, divorces and careers. They began hanging out together with the cast after rehearsals, often heading to local restaurants and bars, and before long started going out on their own.
“We share similar struggles about raising children while being divorced and also discovered how much we both love the arts, theater and music,” Mr. Magarelli said. “I started to grow feelings that I never imagined I could or would.”
“Nick and I shared the same quirky sense of humor and had empathy for each other’s challenges,” Ms. Maresca said.
By March, they were chatting daily and texting nonstop. On opening night in April, after the show, Ms. Maresca leaned in to Mr. Magarelli backstage for their first kiss.
They said the kiss was when they knew that they were each other’s “one.”
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Ms. Maresca, 54, grew up in Budd Lake, N.J., and Fair Lawn. She is the administrator of cultural and heritage affairs for the Borough of Fair Lawn and the human services coordinator for Fair Lawn’s registrar of vital statistics. She is also a student at the State University of New York, where she is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the arts, and is expected to graduate in December. She has two children, ages 27 and 20, from her previous marriage.
Mr. Magarelli, also 54, is from Fair Lawn. He is the director of social media and technology, the municipal clerk and the veteran affairs liaison for the Borough of Fair Lawn. He served in the Air Force as a sergeant in the 58th Special Operations Wing in Albuquerque. He has five children, ages 32, 22, 18, 17 and 15, from his previous marriage.
By the summer of 2017, Ms. Maresca started her current job, and the pair had settled into a rhythm of seeing each other most nights after work and on weekends. They frequented restaurants in town and often took day trips to nearby destinations like the Jersey Shore and upstate New York.
They chose to maintain separate apartments, an arrangement they still keep today. It’s “fun” to have sleepovers at each other’s places, they said.
The two hit a rough patch in November 2021 and spent the next two years apart as they addressed family matters. During their split, Mr. Magarelli was diagnosed with colon cancer, and as he battled it without Ms. Maresca, he said, he realized he didn’t want to be without her. “Having cancer made it clear that life is too short, and that I didn’t want to live it with Liz not in it,” he said.
They became engaged last April on a getaway to Santa Fe, N.M. One evening, during a “Jazz Under the Stars” train ride, Mr. Magarelli asked Ms. Maresca to step outside so they could stargaze. There, under the desert sky, he asked her to marry him with a sapphire and diamond ring. Ms. Maresca described the moment as “a shock.” “I knew that Nick and I would be together forever, but we had never talked marriage,” she said.
The couple wed on April 12 before 300 guests at the Craftsman, an American restaurant in Fair Lawn. Cristina Cutrone, the mayor of Fair Lawn, officiated.
The couple walked down the aisle together to “The Final Countdown” by Europe. In a nod to their shared love for Santa Fe, the bride wore blue cowboy boots with her lace wedding dress, and the groom donned a Western-style suit paired with a cowboy hat.
Later, at the reception, they changed into sequined disco wear and hosted a “Saturday Night Fever”-themed dance party.
“The last thing I would have expected was to not only date Liz, but to fall deeply in love with her and eventually marry her,” Mr. Magarelli said. “It’s like my high school fantasy come true.”
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