I Do!: Valerie Manzo and Steve LaRose of Bay Shore

Valerie Manzo and Steve LaRose were friends long before they fell in love.

The couple, both 26, attended Grand Avenue Middle School in Bellmore and were in the same seventh-grade English class. Even when they headed to different high schools — Wellington C. Mepham for Manzo, John F. Kennedy for LaRose — they kept in touch, except for a brief period in senior year when they drifted apart.

“Life just took us in different directions,” Manzo said.

But, Manzo said, they reconnected in September 2015 as students at Nassau Community College. By December of that year, they were a couple.

“It was just nice that we had that basis of a friendship. . . . We really just had the same background,” Manzo said.

LaRose agreed: “I guess it just felt right,” he said. “I love how much she cares for others.”

The two dated for more than six years. Then, in April 2022, LaRose said he proposed at Jones Beach Field 6, where the couple had spent many evenings watching the sunset when they first got together. They then met up with their families to celebrate. “It was great,” LaRose said.

Manzo and LaRose got married on Nov. 22, 2023. They invited 470 people, and about 300 attended. There were 24 people in their wedding party, plus a ring bearer and flower girl.

“We both have really big families,” Manzo said.

Everyone in their bridal party was given the chance to personalize their entrances. Their best man and maid of honor came in wearing dinosaur costumes, one person skateboarded in and one pair threw money in the air, Manzo said.

“We are very non-traditional people,” Manzo said. And, in a sense, trailblazers: “We were the first couple to get married in our friend circle; now everyone else is starting!"