I Do!: Maddie Wilson and Alex Bertossi, of Garden City

Maddie Wilson said she often tells friends “I love you” when saying goodbye. But when she blurted it out when parting from Alex Bertossi on their first date at a gelato store in 2015, she was mortified. They didn’t talk about it until years later.

The slip didn’t hurt their relationship. The pair became high school sweethearts and, more than a decade later, husband and wife.

Wilson, 27, a mental health therapist who grew up in Greenlawn, and Bertossi, 28, an executive underwriter at an insurance company who grew up in Centerport, moved to Garden City together in January 2024.

Bertossi proposed on Aug. 24, 2024, at Northport Village Park, where their families hid behind bushes awaiting the proposal.

“I knew that we would be getting married, but that week that he did it, it was not on my radar,” Wilson said. “I didn’t have my nails done. That’s how surprised I was.”

Bertossi, who proposed in the town where they’d had that first gelato, also planned a surprise engagement gathering at his parents’ house in Centerport.

“He really did everything exactly how I would have wanted it,” Wilson said.

After almost two years of engagement, the couple held their outdoor wedding and reception June 20 at Brecknock Hall in Greenport.

“I thought I’d be more nervous walking down the aisle,” she said. “Then I was like, these are all of my most loved and favorite people here. I felt so comfortable.”

Their wedding, Wilson said, displayed antique wedding photos from generations in their family, and cocktail hour featured lawn games. Instead of a traditional guest book, the golf-loving couple had their 125 guests sign golf balls.

Although they have known each other a long time, Wilson said being married will still take some getting used to.

“It’s so funny, like calling each other fiancé, I feel like we never got used to it, and now it’s like getting used to calling each other husband and wife is just crazy.”

Nominate a couple who has gotten married in the past 12 months. Email your love story, in 250 words or less, to lilife@newsday.com, subject line I Do!