Teachers share like minds, careers

April 15, 2022, in Atlantic City

Christina hadn’t been to the New Jersey Education Association’s annual convention in years, but in fall 2018, a new Cinnaminson Middle School coworker wanted to go, and Christina was game.

They had just arrived at the Borgata’s Premier Nightclub for the early career social networking event when Christina, a math teacher, saw a good-looking man walk in with his friends. “Oh, he’s cute,” she thought.

The Atlantic City club soon filled with hundreds of teachers, but two hours later, Christina saw the cute guy again, dancing by himself.

She took her drink, the rest of the tiny bottle, and two coworkers to a strategic spot to see what would happen.

***

Matt hadn’t been to the teachers convention in years, but in 2018, friends persuaded him that they should all go together. A couple of hours had passed since they’d arrived at the networking event. They were at a club and Matt wanted to dance. His buddies didn’t want to, but that didn’t stop him from having fun.

From the dance floor, he saw a pretty woman dancing, laughing, and sipping champagne. “After a while I just thought, ‘I’m gonna go for it,’ ” remembered Matt, who teaches health and physical education at Arthur Rann Elementary School in Galloway Township.

He smiled at Christina then, noting she had both a glass and a tiny bottle, and quipped, “That’s a power move!”

Their friends gave the two space to dance on their own.

When Matt’s friends said they were ready to leave, he gave them the keys to his Margate apartment. He wanted to spend more time with Christina.

After the mixer, Matt, Christina, and her friends hit another Borgata bar — where, it turned out, Matt’s friends had also gone. After the group closed that bar, Christina called for an Uber ride. Her lingering goodbye with Matt cost her a previously perfect passenger rating.

Matt asked Christina to dinner that Monday. They talked until the Mexican restaurant she chose closed around them.

“After that night, I shut down all of my dating apps,” said Matt, who grew up in Galloway.

“I texted my mom to tell her I met someone,” remembers Christina, a native of Cherry Hill. She was up-front with the one big problem for an Eagles family: “He’s a Cowboys fan.”

“WHAT?” Marie replied.

“Well,” Christina typed, “It’s only football.”

Marie knew then her daughter was hopelessly smitten.

Other than football teams, Christina and Matt like the same things: the beach, hanging out with friends and family, golf and mini golf, and, of course, teaching.

They knew they would marry one day, but COVID-19 sped up the timeline. Christina lived in Mount Laurel and Matt was still in Margate, but with the world shut down, they spent a lot of time at each other’s places. “Being with someone 24/7 during such a big thing and being able to survive it together teaches you about your relationship,” Christina said. “And we both got to see each other working with our kids.”

One day early on, Christina saw Matt doing jumping jacks on her patio as he led a group of students by Zoom. “It was just so cool to see him and hear the little second-grade voices,” she said.

Matt loves talking to Christina about her students. “We’re both teachers, but we serve different age groups, so we have different problems and different joys,” he said. “But as teachers, we can both appreciate the other’s small victories. And it’s so nice to see her positive energy — I think we feed off of each other’s energy.”

In February 2021, Matt called his mother, Carla, to tell her he would soon be asking Christina a very important question. Then he called his Aunt Lisa, a jeweler, to ask her to make a ring. When it was ready, he showed it to Christina’s father, Bernie, and received his blessing.

Matt later called Christina’s mother, her brothers, Butch and Stephen, his sister, Nicole, and about 40 other close friends and family members from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia. He invited them to a June 12, 2021, engagement barbecue but asked them to keep it a secret.

The night before the party, Christina thought she and Matt had dinner plans with friends Kate and Dave.

“When she just put on regular hanging-out clothes for dinner, I knew she had no idea what was going to happen,” said a still-proud Matt.

The couple walked out onto the Margate Pier. Christina had no idea that Kate and Dave were just behind them, taking photos. “I got on one knee, held out the ring, and asked her if she would marry me,” said Matt. “After what felt like a whole minute — but was probably only 15 seconds — she finally said yes.”

That time gap? “That was me crying,” Christina said.

Every person Christina called or texted with the big news had some version of the same reply: Congratulations! And I know.

The next day, she got to hug them all at the surprise celebratory barbecue.

Her brothers earned the right to say, “I told you so” — for years, they had teased that their little sister the math teacher would find herself a nice gym teacher to marry.

The couple wed outdoors at the Atlantic City Country Club. “One of the reasons we picked that venue is that it overlooks Atlantic City, the place we met,” Christina said.

Before the ceremony, each read a letter from the other. “She wrote that she was marrying her best friend, and I felt exactly the same way,” said Matt.

“He figured out the exact time in hours, minutes, and seconds of how long it had been since he asked me to marry him — which appealed to the math teacher in me — and said that it was the best moment of his life, up until now,” Christina remembered.

Matt’s vice principal, Terry O’Connor, who happens to be an Episcopalian pastor, officiated the ceremony and then the couple commenced with an evening celebration of “good food, good times, and good people,” Matt said. They had 150 guests.

The couple got to see each other for the first time on their wedding day shortly before the ceremony. “He was standing with his back toward me, and as I walked toward him, I got emotional,” said Christina. “I tapped his shoulder and he turned around, and even though the photographer and videographer and some staff members were nearby, it felt like no one else was there. I really liked that moment of just us before the whole day got crazy.”

The beauty of the day brought Matt to tears several times. “One was seeing Christina for the first time — she was gorgeous!” he said. “Another was when I saw my dad’s friend, Teddy. My dad, Daniel, died eight years ago. He and Teddy knew each other for 30 years — they worked together at the Absecon ShopRite. I know my dad was there spiritually, but Teddy being there was like having a father figure there. We had a drink together to honor my dad.”

The couple were so sad to leave their Punta Cana honeymoon that they booked a return trip for this coming fall. After the intensity of last summer, when they planned a wedding and purchased their Berlin home, Matt and Christina are looking forward to 10 weeks of R & R.