A Tipsy Tuesday Night That Ended in Forever

Alexandra Scott Goodman was perusing Tinder in September 2017 when the three-word bio of Christopher Nicholas Masullo, who went by his nickname Chris on the dating app, caught her eye. “Perpetually in awe,” it read.

Ms. Goodman, who goes by the nickname Zan, was struck by its brevity. Her bio on the dating app also contained just three words: “Design and disco.”

“I actually liked that he didn’t have a lot of information,” said Ms. Goodman who matched with Mr. Masullo. After exchanging messages, they decided to go on a date at the Richardson, a bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

There, each had a few drinks, “which is kind of a lot for a Tuesday night,” Ms. Goodman, 35, said. “So I immediately was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is something special.’” Later that night, “we made out on top of a trash can,” Mr. Masullo, 35, said. “We had an instant connection.”

By their second date, after both had revealed a love for the composer Stephen Sondheim, Ms. Goodman was texting her friends that the two were probably going to get married.

At the time, Ms. Goodman, who graduated from Parsons School of Design, was living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and working as the design director at Chandelier Creative, a media and branding agency in Lower Manhattan.

Mr. Masullo, who graduated from Fordham University, was living in Ridgewood, Queens, and working as a production coordinator at Knockdown Center, an art and performance space in Queens that often hosts nightlife events.

Their opposing schedules soon wore on Ms. Goodman: She had to be at work at 9:30 a.m. and he often worked until 4 a.m. When Mr. Masullo spent their first New Year’s Eve as a couple working at a party, she decided that something had to change.

“I was like, wait a minute — I finally have this dream boyfriend and I don’t get to kiss him on New Year’s?” she said. “It’s not working for me.” Two months later, in February 2018, Mr. Masullo accepted a job at MoMA PS1 in Queens with hours that better aligned with hers.

That May, the couple took a trip to Siesta Key, Fla., where Ms. Goodman was the D.J. at a friend’s wedding, and Mr. Masullo assisted her. As they sat on the beach under a full moon eating grocery store Key lime pie and drinking cheap rosé, he realized he couldn’t picture a life without her.

When they returned from the trip, Ms. Goodman started her own design studio, Zan. By the fall of 2018, the couple had moved into an apartment together in Greenpoint a block from the bar where they had their first date.

In her free time, Ms. Goodman continued to perform as a D.J. in New York. Her favorite party each year was a Halloween celebration called “the Raveyard” that she hosted with friends at the now-defunct China Chalet. At the end of each event, she would play “Stand on the Word,” a popular 1982 gospel club track by Phyliss McKoy Joubert and her church’s children’s choir.

Like her love for Mr. Sondheim, Ms. Goodman’s passion for music was shared by Mr. Masullo. After the pandemic set in, they began to D.J. for family and friends on Twitch, a streaming platform.

By October 2020, Mr. Masullo had picked out an engagement ring, but he couldn’t figure out when to propose. Months later, as the couple was decorating a tiny Christmas tree in early December, he handed her the final ornament: a pouch with a ring inside.

In February, Mr. Masullo left MoMA PS1 for a temporary job as a production manager at the Danspace Project in Lower Manhattan. Later this month, he plans to begin working as a producer of public programs at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The couple were wed April 27 by Zan Emerson, a friend and a Universal Life Church minister, on the roof of their apartment building. Days before, on April 23, they held a ceremony with 64 vaccinated guests at Egg Shop, a Williamsburg restaurant. A reception followed at the IRL Gallery in Greenpoint, which ended with the couple and their guests dancing to “Stand on the Word.”