“We sneaked around like high school kids,” he said, for a few weeks as his parents quarantined.
One evening after Ms. Mastrocola drove up near his parents’ house to pick him up, his father, walking their Cairn terrier, knocked on the car window. After introductions, Ms. Mastrocola joined the family for dinner, and soon began spending a great deal of time with them.
“It was a unique, but amazing way to get to know my husband’s family,” she said.
In August 2020 the pair decided to take a trip to Newport, R.I., where they stayed at the Cliffside Inn overlooking the ocean.
“We had the whole town to ourselves,” he said.
Ms. Mastrocola fell in love with his parents’ tortoiseshell and calico cat Scooter, and in 2021 she adopted Zelda, a dilute calico, named for the Legend of Zelda video game that she and Mr. Barcelo often played. A month after she moved into his place in January 2022, they adopted another cat, a tabby named Neo.
In March 2024, after a Boston Symphony concert featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, they drove to the Cliffside Inn in Newport. This time around, Mr. Barcelo got on one knee during a late night stroll on the moonlit cliff walk.
On May 3, Scott Barcelo, the groom’s father, ordained by American Marriage Ministries for the occasion, officiated on a breezy afternoon at Belle Mer, an events venue on Goat Island in Newport, before 220 guests, some of whom enjoyed a clambake at Fort Adams nearby the night before.
