We have decided to move our wedding to an outdoor location and will be celebrating with our closest family and friends this fall. We will hold a bigger celebration with the rest of our loved ones at a later date with our original venue.

Joe and Althea were both working at Kean University’s University Center when they met in 2013. After trying for minutes to unsuccessfully get rid of a customer reading him poems about death for no good reason, Joe had to ask Althea, who was literally just walking into work, to take over so he could make his escape. Over the next few months, their friendship grew as they bonded over theatre and music. One day, Joe asked “Hey, do you wanna hear the greatest love song ever?” To this day, “Never Stop (Wedding Version)” by SafetySuit is still a favorite of both.

On June 7th, 2015, following a NYC afternoon with an off-off-off-Broadway production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a dinner at TGI Fridays, Joe used a plastic trophy one usually gets from a souvenir shop and asked Althea to be his girlfriend. The trophy was definitely a surprise, but the relationship, at this point, had been a long time coming, which prompted some not-so-surprised comments on social media after they had announced it.

After almost 4 years of being together and 7 months of living together, Joe and Althea appeared in a play together for the very first time. In 2019, both of their families attended a matinee viewing of Prelude to a Kiss, where Joe and Althea did not - sadly - play the romantic dating-then-engaged-then-married couple. Joe incorporated that fact into his proposal, explaining that he wanted to change all of that, got down on one knee in front of a very oblivious and surprised Althea, and asked her to marry him. While everything was a blur (thank goodness for video footage!), she happily said yes!