Gianna Lozano and Nicholas Perla hit it off right away after meeting in 2021 at a church event. While dating, both decided to forgo physical intimacy.
Gianna Isabella Lozano and Nicholas Benjamin Perla looked forward to their April 6 wedding with the same high hopes and excitement as many engaged couples. If their sense of anticipation was above average, that was because the two hadn’t yet kissed on the lips.
Ms. Lozano, 24, and Mr. Perla, 23, met in September 2021 on the way to a 5K race in Midtown Manhattan sponsored by their church, the nondenominational New York City Church of Christ. Both were members of the college ministry but in different locations. She lived in New City, N.Y.; he in Yonkers, N.Y.
“I had heard he drove some of my friends to church events in the city,” said Ms. Lozano, now a campus minister at the New York City Church of Christ’s Bronx location. “So I orchestrated a car pool.” The same friends Mr. Perla had been driving had thought the two would hit it off. They were not wrong.
In the car, “we had a simple conversation that turned into effortless laughter,” Ms. Lozano said. “It was an instant connection.”
[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]
At the time, both were navigating the terrain between college and what might come after. She was soon to graduate from Manhattan University with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. He was completing a bachelor’s degree in exercise science at Lehman College.
For her, the 5K was less about crossing the finish line than showing up for the event the college ministry had helped organize. Mr. Perla, now a technician at an orthopedic clinic in Harrison, N.Y., was more invested in the race. “I walked and he ran,” she said.
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