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Angelo Massagli and Caitlin Hale met as co-workers. They have been 10 years previous.
The pair, former baby actors, have been each solid within the 2003 movie “School of Rock” wherein Jack Black performs a substitute teacher who creates a rock band out of his classroom of musically gifted elementary-aged prep schoolers. Ms. Hale’s character was a braided pigtail-wearing backup singer named Marta. Mr. Massagli performed Frankie, who was a part of the band’s peewee safety element.
Mr. Massagli recalled being spontaneously requested to sing at his audition for the movie in New York City. He was nervous to carry out after Ms. Hale, who had simply impressed the manufacturing staff together with her voice, together with a rendition of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” wherein she modified the lyrics to be concerning the movie’s director.
“I used to be like, ‘wow, that lady’s actually, actually, actually one thing else,’” Mr. Massagli stated. He carried out the one music he knew the phrases to on the time: “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne.
A yr later, the pair and the opposite kids solid within the movie spent a number of months taking pictures the film in New York. The group bonded shortly, Ms. Hale stated, attending actual college on set and having meals at Benihana. Mr. Black, the movie’s grownup star, would eat lunch with the group and play video games between scenes. Their mothers, typically current on set, additionally grew to become shut throughout this time.
Back then, there was not even a touch of a youthful crush between them, the couple stated. After the movie’s launch, the solid stayed in contact by way of a long-running group chat.
Eventually, Mr. Massagli and Ms. Hale each left present enterprise to pursue different careers.
Ms. Hale, now 33, has a bachelor’s diploma in journalism and public relations from Arizona State University. Mr. Massagli, 32, graduated from Northeastern University, majoring in English. After finishing their undergraduate research, each Mr. Massagli and Ms. Hale pursued additional levels, coincidentally each discovering their technique to faculties in Florida, the place they reconnected in 2018.
At the time, Mr. Massagli was a legislation pupil on the University of Miami. Ms. Hale was finishing a bachelor’s of science and a grasp’s diploma in well being management at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. (Both finally graduated from their respective packages. Mr. Massagli is now a lawyer for TikTok the place he works as music product counsel. Ms. Hale is an Ob/Gyn sonographer.)
After realizing their proximity, the pair acquired lunch and caught up. They even despatched a selfie to their mothers.
“We thought that was sort of it,” Mr. Massagli stated. “But we simply stored grabbing dinners and going out for the weekends. We have been like, ‘one thing’s brewing right here.’”
On an early date, Ms. Hale recalled going to the toilet and returning to the restaurant desk to search out Mr. Massagli had ordered coconut cake for dessert, a taste she’d beforehand talked about was one in every of her favorites. She appreciated his shut listening, she stated.
Their relationship moved shortly, the years spent as childhood associates providing a robust basis.
“Even although it wasn’t romantic, that familiarity we had and our households had once we have been youthful, actually lower by way of a few of these early relationship hurdles,” Mr. Massagli stated.
“I knew very early,” Ms. Hale stated. “I truly stated to one in every of my shut associates, I keep in mind being in an Uber on the best way right down to Miami one weekend and we have been going out and I used to be like, ‘I believe I’m gonna marry this man.’”
The first time Mr. Massagli informed Ms. Hale he beloved her his precise phrases have been, “I believe I really like you.”
“You assume?!” Ms. Hale exclaimed in pseudo-exasperation.
Later that yr, Mr. Massagli provided up his residence as a short-term keep to assist Ms. Hale lower down on the commutes between her residence in Fort Lauderdale and a residency program in Miami. He was going out of city for every week and gave her a key and permission “to crash.” By the time he returned, she had moved in.
The couple moved to Brooklyn in 2019 and acquired engaged in June 2023 on the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Massagli proposed in entrance of the Temple of Dendur, the light-filled gallery featured within the movie “When Harry Met Sally…” Dinner at Nino’s, an Upper East Side Italian restaurant, and champagne on the Carlyle adopted. Upon listening to the information by way of FaceTime, Mr. Massagli’s mom burst into tears.
For their marriage ceremony, the couple knew they needed to “go all out,” Ms. Hale stated. On Jan. 4, they celebrated their marriage ceremony at Park Château Estate & Gardens, a Versailles-like marriage ceremony venue in East Brunswick, N.J. (They had beforehand made issues authorized on Aug. 30 at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Waldo Ramirez, a workers member of the City Clerk’s Office, officiated.)
Ms. Hale began her day at 8:30 a.m. getting glammed up for the night celebration. Ms. Massagli had a extra leisurely morning, together with a therapeutic massage.
The couple, who now reside in Long Branch, N.J., had learn personal vows to one another the evening earlier than the primary occasion. Ms. Hale’s father, Gary Hale, officiated a short ceremony earlier than the party started.
Binge extra Vows columns right here and learn all our marriage ceremony, relationship and divorce protection right here.
Guests have been then whisked into cocktail hour the place they sipped the couple’s signature drinks: a Bellini for her and a unclean martini with blue cheese olives for him. The venue was embellished with solely white flowers and, per Ms. Hale’s imaginative and prescient, many, many white candles.
For the reception, Ms. Hale become a pair of custom-made rhinestone-studded, thigh-high Berta boots that peeked out of the slit of her strapless robe.
“Once I noticed these boots, I used to be like, I have to do no matter I can to verify to have these,” she stated. “The costume can comply with.”
The couple entered the reception to “Through the Wire” by Kanye West, which transitioned into Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” for his or her first dance. They requested their D.J. to play songs that felt like “if Studio 54 by no means closed,” Mr. Massagli stated. A reside saxophone participant roamed the party riffing over the piped-in music.
During “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks, the duo danced with their castmates from “School of Rock,” a nod to a bar scene from the movie. Nine solid members have been there, in addition to greater than a dozen of the actors’ dad and mom and siblings. (Jack Black politely declined, citing an ongoing movie venture, however “was so good and beneficiant together with his phrases and undoubtedly commemorated it privately,” Ms. Hale stated.)
Not eager to throw off the party vibe, at one level Ms. Hale and Mr. Massagli stepped away for a personal cake reducing the place they fed one another “delicate, small bites,” Ms. Hale stated, laughing.
Ms. Hale recalled one other second on the dance ground together with her fellow former “School of Rock” backup singers as a “time capsule second.”
“We have been simply dancing collectively to some old-school disco after which there was some type of advert lib within the music and all of us simply hit it,” she stated. “We checked out one another and we’re like, ‘That simply occurred. We nonetheless acquired it.’”
On This Day
When Jan. 4, 2025
Where Park Château Estates and Gardens, East Brunswick, N.J.
The Family Stone Both the bride and groom wore sentimental rings. Mr. Massagli’s marriage ceremony band was handed down from his grandfather. “He’s huge Ang, I’m little Ang,” Mr. Massagli stated. Ms. Hale’s oval diamond engagement ring was a repurposed ring from her mom.
Late Night Snacks In addition to a three-tiered marriage ceremony cake — every tier was a distinct taste — visitors have been served cannoli on the dance ground. When the evening ended, visitors walked out previous a meals truck handing out McDonald’s.
