Style

Trivia Rivals Become Life Partners

Question: Name the couple who met eight years ago while playing a Trivial-Pursuit-like game at the Brass Rail Bar and Grill in Matawan, N.J., and fell in love despite a 30-year disparity in age.

Answer: Angela Newman, 30, of Matawan, N.J., and Anthony Falco, 60, of Staten Island.

“Anthony was so smart, it seemed as if he knew the answer to every question he was asked, he was very impressive,” said Ms. Newman, who works remotely as a senior account executive for sales at Indeed, an employment listings website.

“As smart as he was, it did me little good because he was always on a different team,” said Ms. Newman, who graduated from Rutgers. “But I would look over at him every once in a while and I could tell that he loved answering trivia questions as much as I did.”

Mr. Falco, who was a divorced father of two by the time he met Ms. Newman, had also noticed her great enthusiasm for the game, among other things.

“I had seen her many times and thought she was very beautiful and, from where I sat, she seemed very friendly,” said Mr. Falco, who graduated from St. John’s University and works as a settlements analyst for Broadridge, a financial services company based in Newark, N.J.

The pair’s relationship evolved beyond fellow competitors one night in February 2013, when Ms. Newman walked into the bar and noticed Mr. Falco sitting with a few of her friends.

“I found out he was on my team that night,” Ms. Newman said. “That changed everything.”

After becoming teammates, both said that they became fast friends and started to spend time together outside of the Brass Rail.

“We had a lot of things in common,” Mr. Falco said. “We like the same kind of music, movies and TV shows, and we have a similar sense of humor, so we made a very good connection and I fell for her pretty quickly.” Ms. Newman’s feelings for Mr. Falco evolved just as fast, she said.

[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]

Credit…Michael Guccione 

But when their relationship crossed a platonic line in October 2015, Ms. Newman said that their difference in age was initially hard to swallow by her parents and some other friends and family.

“In those early days, we had to deal with a lot of anger and pushback from family and friends,” she said. “Of everyone involved, it hit my father the hardest; he had his reservations at first,” Ms. Newman added. “It’s not that he didn’t like Anthony, he just wanted to make sure that this is what I wanted to do.”

But in the years that followed, she said, “most of the people who were upset about the age thing have now gotten over it,” including her father. “He would say ‘I see it too,’ so we’ve pretty much gotten over that hurdle.”

The couple became engaged Aug. 5, 2020. As part of the proposal, Ms. Newman said Mr. Falco presented her with a bottle of her favorite wine that did not feature its label, but another one that read: “Will you marry me?”

They were married Nov. 26 at the Park Château Estate and Gardens in East Brunswick, N.J. Pastor Tom McKenna, a Protestant minister, officiated before 150 guests, most of whom were fully vaccinated. They included the bride’s father, Frank Newman, mother, Lois Marr, and stepfather, Kenny Marr, as well as the groom’s children; his son Patrick Falco, 25, was his best man, and his daughter Allie Falco, 23, was one of Ms. Newman’s bridesmaids.

“They are both wonderful people,” she said of Mr. Falco’s children, “and we have a lot of mutual respect for each other.”

The groom said that the couple’s relationship has always “just felt natural” from the night they became trivia teammates for the first time. “We knew we wanted to hang out with each other, and we really liked each other’s company. There wasn’t anything awkward about it.”

The bride agreed.

“I don’t know if it had anything to do with the age difference,” she said. “But it was and is a very mature relationship, and that’s what I always wanted.”

Related Articles

Back to top button