Paul Costabile Emailed His Mom the Day He Met Future Wife Christina Perri: “I Just Knew”
When Paul Costabile and Christina Perri exchanged vows at New York City’s City Hall in December, their decision may have seemed spontaneous, but the entertainment journalist tells The Knot that it was anything but.
“I knew the day I met her I wanted to marry her,” Costabile says in an exclusive interview. “We always talked about this kind of stuff, and as things happened, we kind of went back and forth on planning. And then [we] decided, you know what? Let’s cut out all the busyness of planning this for this year. We have so much other stuff going on, let’s just go to city hall and do our thing for us.”
The pair got married on December 12, 2017, four years to the day after they first met, which was no coincidence for the couple. Costabile tells us, in fact, that they had specifically wanted to demarcate that day as one to celebrate for the rest of their lives.
(Photo courtesy of NBC Universal)
“That’s a big part of the reason why we did it on that date,” Costabile says. “We thought it would be fun just to remember the anniversary of the date of us meeting. So we went literally six blocks away [from where we got married], snuck into the studio with an old friend there and took pictures in that studio. And it was really cool for me because that was where I worked for a long time and I had so many memories in that studio, but the memory of meeting her was my favorite, and then to come back with her as my wife was the best thing ever.”
Four years prior to their big day, Costabile was working as a radio DJ for iHeartRadio when Perri walked in for an interview. It was a day that would change both their lives forever.
“It’s sort of indescribable,” Costabile says of how and when he knew she was The One. “She walked into the green screen studio and we got talking and I always did interviews and I was always professional and there wasn’t one specific thing, like what she looked like or what she said. It was more like our energy together. We’re two kids at heart, and her spirit’s like mine. We’re just like two kids in many ways and to this day, we play around when we’re trying to be adults. So I just knew.”
(Photo courtesy of NBC Universal)
Costabile adds that he even emailed his mom to tell her that he “just did a bit with the girl I’m going to marry.”
“Everyone thought I was crazy but I just knew,” he says.
The Beat the Clock game show host says that after that, he “courted” Perri “the old-fashioned way” and eventually won her over. The pair got engaged this past June, and Costabile made sure to track down an engagement ring just as unique and special as his bride-to-be.
“Her mom had an engagement ring that was a V ring from the late ‘70s, and [Perri] grew up putting it on as a girl and always imagined wearing one like it,” Costabile says. “So I knew that she loved that V ring growing up, and so I got one made that was that style, which was actually a feat, because some guy had to drop off some mold from the ‘70s and make that for me.”
The couple announced that they were expecting a little one just two months later, so for now, Costabile says, a bigger wedding celebration will have to wait. (“We’re planning of doing more of a shindig next year.”) In the meantime, however, Costabile says he’s excited to embark on several new ventures, including hosting family-friendly Beat the Clock and, of course, playing husband and father in the pair’s little family unit.
(Photo courtesy of NBC Universal)
“It’s the best job title I’ve ever gotten,” he says of being married to Perri. “I’m really proud to be a husband and specifically her husband, and I’m just excited for all that’s to come.”
Tune in to Beat the Clock premiering February 6, at 7:30 p.m. EST on Universal Kids.
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