On January 7th, three days before they were to celebrate their wedding in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Kendyl Mara Klein and Benjamin Peter DiGiulio received a text alert.
“It said there was a fire in the Palisades and to evacuate,” Ms. Klein said. “I said to Ben, ‘That’s where we belong.’ We were watching and thinking, ‘How big is the fire going to be?'” They went to bed hoping it would be better by morning.
Instead, they were much worse.
They turned on the news to see a reporter outside their venue, the Bel-Air Bay Club. It remains standing, but the venue was unable to host their celebration on January 10. “They said we either had to change the date or get a full refund,” Ms. Klein said. “We got a full refund the same day.
The couple, who live in New Jersey, needed to find a new place amid this growing tragedy, even though they still knew how lucky they were. Rescheduling was not possible, they said. Mrs. Klein’s two older sisters and a friend from high school rushed to help.
The women called 15 locations in the Los Angeles area, all of which were open to help. Then they had one last idea. If they call Ritz just for fun, someone asked in the group text. “It wasn’t on our original list because of the price,” Ms. Klein said.
When they called the Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, Jessica Lange, senior sales manager, asked, “How was your refund?” Ms. Klein said. When she told them, Mrs. Lange said: “That’s all you pay.
So two days before the wedding, the couple not only had a new place, but one much bigger than they imagined.
Mr. DiGiulio and Ms. Klein met in October 2019 when they were both working at Barstool Sports in New York — he as a brand manager and she as a marketing manager. Ms. Klein sat across from Mr. DiGiulio’s friend, Nick Mulcahy. “Who is that beautiful girl?” Mr. DiGiulio recalled wondering.
“He was talking about UCLA and I was like, ‘I used to live in Brentwood,'” said Ms. Klein, who grew up in Northridge, Calif. Mr. DiGiulio, then 24, may have been flirting, but Ms. Klein, then 28, was not. “It wasn’t love at first sight for me,” she said. Her concerns include his age and the fact that he was her colleague.
Not that Mr. DiGiulio thought he had a chance: “I thought he was out of my league,” he said. Instead, he decided, “I’ll just try to befriend her.”
Mr. DiGiulio was soon stopping by every day to see his pal — but “I wasn’t really going out with Nick,” he admitted. “I was going to visit my friend Kendyl. I played the long game.”
The two spent a lot of time talking. “We built a strong friendship on shared values,” said Ms. Klein.
They became even closer that December at a Barstool holiday party. “That was when I was really excited about the idea of dating Kendyl,” he said. “I don’t want to say I watched her like a puppy, but…”
“My boss was like, ‘You and Ben?’ and I was like, ‘Absolutely not,'” Ms. Klein said. the party they started texting – a lot.And on New Year’s Eve, Mr. DiGiulio surprised Ms. Klein with a phone call at 9:45 p.m.
“I always call the people I care about on New Year’s Eve,” said Mr. DiGiulio, who grew up in Revere, Massachusetts. “And she fell into that category.
“He was in Revere and I was in New York,” she said. “People were saying who was that?” I was like, ‘That guy from work.’ I was shocked. I was like, ‘I’ve got to figure it out.'”
Just over a month later, in February 2020, Ms. Klein found herself locked out of her apartment in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Surprising herself, she called Mr. DiGiulio and went to stay with him in Hoboken, NJ instead of calling a friend nearby. However, the sleepover was platonic.
But she said, “Hoboken really wanted to show me the right way” — which became the perfect excuse for him to ask her on a first date. In early March, the two dined at Leo’s Grandevous, an Italian restaurant in Hoboken. (The restaurant has since become their regular spot, Ms. Klein said.)
About a week later, when Covid became a global crisis, Ms. Klein moved in with Mr. DiGiulio, assuming, like most of the world, that it would only be for two weeks. Two weeks turned into more than two months.
In early May, they flew to visit Mrs. Klein’s family in Northridge. Her family was in the process of selling her childhood home. They had already moved out, leaving the way open for Ms. Klein and Mr. DiGiulio to move in. The couple stayed there for another two months.
When Mr. DiGiulio traveled to Revere and she stayed in California for another month, “I was a wreck driving him to the airport after four months of living together,” she said.
Then she realized, “I can’t live without him.”
In late January 2021, Ms. Klein moved into a one bedroom rental in Hoboken. And about a year and a half later, she bought an apartment, also in Hoboken, where she and Mr. DiGiulio currently live.
One morning, in the spring of 2023, Mr. DiGiulio woke up knowing he was ready to propose. “I texted a friend who recently got married and asked, ‘How do you know?’ and he said, ‘You just know. And if you don’t lock it with Kendyl, you’re an idiot.’
He called his family. He texted her sisters. He even asked her parents and grandmother for their blessing. A plan was soon born. The family gathered for what was supposed to be the birthday party of her father, who turned 70 a few months ago.
In August 2023, under the guise of taking family photos, they all gathered on the beach in Oxnard, California. There was one catch.
“We have a family rule: You can’t be in family photos unless you’re engaged or married,” Ms. Klein said. So, when they gathered for the photos, the plan was for one of Ms. Klein’s siblings to tell Mr. DiGiulio that he couldn’t be in the photo. This was the cue for him to design and the photographer to shoot.
But Mrs. Klein messed up the game by enforcing the rule before her siblings could.
“I messed up and whispered to Ben, ‘You can’t be in the photo,’ and he said, ‘Can you come over here for a second?’ and he proposed.” said Mrs. Klein. “It was pure luck and surprise.” (And the photographer still got the shots.)
Mr. DiGiulio, 29, is now senior brand manager at Barstool Sports. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Syracuse University.
Ms. Klein, 32, was fired from Barstool in August 2023. She has a bachelor’s degree in media studies from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.
The two were legally married on October 4, 2024 at Revere City Hall by City Clerk Ashley Melnik. The couple decided to have a “pre-wedding” so that Mr. DiGiulio’s 94-year-old grandfather, who would be unable to travel to California in January, could attend.
This decision became even more meaningful because on December 21, Mr. DiGiulio’s father, Peter Vincent DiGiulio, died unexpectedly in his sleep at the age of 72. ‘” Mr. DiGiulio said.
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On Jan. 10 at the Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, the couple held an interfaith celebration, including a ceremony officiated by Ms. Klein’s brother-in-law, Andrew Miller. (Mrs. Klein is Jewish and Mr. DiGiulio Catholic.) There were 150 guests in attendance. About 50 had to cancel because they were evacuating their homes or worried about going to Los Angeles.
“In the elevator, people would say, ‘You’re dressed nicely. I hope you have something to celebrate,” Mr. DiGiulio said. “We were all kind of walking on our shells.
“Everyone showed up with so much love to give and so much celebration,” Ms. Klein said.
Just three weeks ago, the two of them told each other that neither of them could have imagined that they would ever feel as happy as they did that night.
“We were happy to have a lot of joy in a dark time,” Ms. Klein said.
On this day
When January 10, 2025
Where The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, California
No hitch “We didn’t throw away thousands of dollars to save the day,” Ms. Klein said. “The Ritz saved the day, recreated our entire original menu, went above and beyond to make our wedding perfect. This place will forever have a special place in our hearts.”
Each of the couple’s other original stockists, including With Love by Katie, With Love Floral Co, DJ Bryan Neville, the Blitz Nation team and Haines Tribe Media, have stuck with the couple despite the fires. “All the sales people were saying, ‘Tell us where to be,'” Mrs. Klein said. “We are so grateful for their hard work and flexibility.
A cultural mash-up While everyone was doing the mountain, the DJ switched from “Hava Nagila” to Lou Monte’s “Lazy Mary (Luna Mezza Mare)” as a nod to the groom’s Italian heritage as the dancing continued.
The kids are fine At one point, Mr. DiGiulio said, “The kids took over the dance floor. When I saw the next generation, I felt like everything was going to be okay.” The song? Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club.
Still the Life of the Party Throughout his life, at every event or party, Mr. DiGiulio would say, “My dad would do this party trick. Light a match and eat it. Light a napkin and eat it. Light a matchbook and eat it.” At the reception, his cousin Kathryn Cronin “stepped up and did the trick at the right moment”.