Mayarita Jade Castillo and Jalen Lashay Glenn didn’t exactly hit it off when they met at the birthday party of a mutual friend in September 2013. Both were sophomores at Fordham University, and Mr. Glenn, known for his gregarious personality, attempted to chat with the more reserved Ms. Castillo.
“Jalen started questioning me about where I was from and what I was majoring in,” she said. “I had seen him at school events before, and he was always the center of attention. I was somewhat suspicious and turned off.”
Following the get-together, they bumped into each other around campus every couple of weeks and exchanged awkward hellos, as they recounted, but never conversed.
“It was clear that Mayarita wasn’t interested in getting to know me, so I didn’t try to engage with her again,” Mr. Glenn said.
That changed in May 2016, when Mr. Glenn and Ms. Castillo found themselves at a party in a dorm room to kick off Senior Week. At one point, both were sitting on an itchy maroon couch and struck up a conversation.
“Jalen was so friendly and genuine,” Ms. Castillo said. “Sitting there in that crowded room, I began to feel his magic.”
They met again the following evening at a Senior Week wine tasting, “The only empty seat was next to Jalen’s,” she said. “I was giddy to have another chance to talk to him.”
“We spent the night laughing,” Mr. Glenn said. “We were interested in each other by the end of the evening.”
Their attraction grew throughout that week. They shared their upbringings and interests on a Hudson River cruise, and kissed on the balcony as the boat sailed by the Empire State Building. At another Senior Week mixer, they danced to Drake. “There were lots of people around, but we were in our own little world,” Ms. Castillo said.
After graduation, Mr. Glenn rented an apartment in Harlem and began working in business development at a law firm. Ms. Castillo moved to Astoria, Queens, and took a summer job at Fordham.
They had their first official date that June at the Harlem bar At the Wallace. “We watched the N.B.A. finals, played Jenga and shared jokes,” Mr. Glenn said. “Four hours went by in a blink.”
A week later, Mr. Glenn and Ms. Castillo met for dinner, and by the end of their third date, they realized that their connection was more than a summer fling. “I felt so energized and wasn’t ready to say bye,” Ms. Castillo said, “that night or ever.”
Ms. Castillo, 30, grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier and is a math teacher at Frank McCourt High School on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She has a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and Spanish studies from Fordham and a master’s degree in adolescent math education from St. John’s University.
Mr. Glenn, also 30, is from Piscataway, N.J., and a vice president in marketing at BlackRock in New York. He received a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies from Fordham and an M.B.A. from the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham.
They spent all their spare time together that summer, exploring the city and cooking meals.
In late August 2016, Ms. Castillo left for Spain to be a teaching assistant for two years in a government-sponsored program. They spoke daily but didn’t see each other until June 2017, when Ms. Castillo returned to the United States for the summer. “Our relationship was blossoming,” she said. “We were more connected than ever.”
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In August, Ms. Castillo returned to Spain and asked Mr. Glenn if he would visit her for Christmas. “The fact that she asked meant that she was serious, so I was committed to going,” he said. “It would be my first trip to Europe.”
Their itinerary included Paris, London and Prague and started in Paris on Christmas Day 2017. While there, they saw the “I Love You” wall in Jehan-Rictus Square by the artists Frédéric Baron and Claire Kito, featuring the namesake phrase in 250 languages. “I looked at Glenn and said, ‘Did you know that I love you?,’” Ms. Castillo said. “The rest of the trip was a romantic dream.”
When she returned to the United States in May 2018, she moved in with Mr. Glenn to an apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
The couple moved to their current studio apartment in Harlem a year later. When the pandemic struck and they were confined to the small space, it became “obvious that I wanted to marry her,” Mr. Glenn said.
On Feb. 17, they wed before 70 guests at Sea Breeze Point, a gazebo located on the shores of Crescent Lake at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Wallis Monday, a friend of the couple from Fordham who was ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion, officiated.
After the ceremony, they hosted a reception brunch at the resort’s Shipwreck Beach and headed to Epcot Center with 50 of their family and friends to experience “Soarin’ Around the World,” a flight simulator attraction. “We were at Disney, where dreams come true,” Mr. Glenn said. “That day was the perfect way to start our ‘happily ever after.’”
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