I Do!: Paula Saladino and Marco Piazza, of Franklin Square, were wed July 27

It started for Paula Saladino and Marco Piazza with glances across the hallway at each other from their lockers at H. Frank Carey High School in Franklin Square when he was a senior and she was a shy sophomore.

But Piazza, 27, who works in aviation administration management, didn’t want it to be “weird” with a senior dating a sophomore, so he waited until after Saladino graduated in 2017 to start chatting, and they went to the movies and then to a gelato shop in Williston Park.

Afterward, he said his feelings solidified when he saw her looking at him in the reflection in the shop’s window. “I knew I wanted to get to know her better,” he said.

Saladino, 26, an elementary school teacher, said the feeling was mutual. “We shared a look and saw interest. Our families are both from Sicily, Italy, and I knew him, so it felt natural. I just knew he was the one for me, and we share similar values,” she said.

He proposed Dec. 17, 2022, near the Christmas tree at the Huntington Holiday Spectacular event. Piazza said he pretended he was going to ask nearby visitors if they’d take a picture of them by the tree while looking for the photographer he’d arranged to meet there. “I spotted him as we were walking up and then went in my pocket for the phone and grabbed the ring and went down on one knee. Pictures were taken,” he said.
The couple married July 27 at the Church of Saint Anne in Garden City and held their reception at the East Wind in Wading River with 212 guests in attendance. “We come from big Italian families and people came in from different states, and her aunt came over [Sicily],” Piazza said.
Bringing things full circle, they celebrated by offering guests sweets from a gelato cart at the reception.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated where the couple were wed