Elizabeth Rose Moroney met Jeremy Carl Blaustein on her first day of work at Formaggio Kitchen, a cheese shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Both were cashiers behind the lunch counter.
Mr. Blaustein had started in December 2014 as a seasonal assistant at the store, which counts cellist Yo-Yo Ma as a regular. was adopted in May 2016. Not long after, Ms. Moroney, who has a culinary arts certificate from Boston University, was accelerated to become a supervisor.
Neither of them were looking for romance when they started to merge that they had a lot in common, including the fact that both were in a long-term relationship at the time.
“It was clear early on that we shared a passion for food, cooking, travel and the outdoors,” said Mr. bluestein.
Both are also Harvard graduates. Ms. Moroney, 32, received a bachelor’s degree from college before enrolling in culinary school. Mr. Blaustein, 38, a graduate of Wheaton College, holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard and a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Massachusetts Boston.
At the end of 2016, they had something else in common: each of their relationships started to rot. “We felt sorry for the disappointment of having serious relationships that had soured,” said Ms. Moroney.
In December, she broke up with her boyfriend. Later that day, Mr. Blaustein was the first person she asked for support. “I think becoming friends with Jeremy made me realize that I was really unhappy and that the relationship had to end,” said Ms. Moroney.
By the time they met in mid-January 2017 to further pity a drink at Alden & Harlow, a Cambridge bar, Mr. Blaustein had endured his own difficult breakup. Each had also come to see the other more than a friend.
Ms. Moroney, who was promoted to full-time supervisor in August 2016, was then technically Mr. Blaustein’s boss. But dating a co-worker, even one who was a supervisor, was no problem. “The shop where we work is very accepting of finding love at work,” said Ms. Moroney. “We are not the first Formaggio couple.”
In February 2017, she invited Mr. Blaustein to dinner. If they didn’t fall in love while enjoying the seafood stew they made together that night, which they consider their first date, the two were well on their way. “It didn’t take long for us to admit our feelings for each other,” he said.
The following year, in August 2018, they moved into a house in Belmont, Massachusetts. A few months later, their time to work in the same store came to an end. In April 2019, Mr. Blaustein was promoted to his current position as general manager and cheese buyer at Formaggio Kitchen Kendall, an outpost of the original store. That same month, Mrs. Moroney also promoted; she is now an assistant general manager at the Cambridge store, where she manages 70 employees.
They became engaged on February 4, 2020, their third dating anniversary, after Ms. Moroney co-teached Formaggio Kitchen called Building the Perfect Cheese Plate, with Mr. Blaustein serving as her assistant.
When they got home, Mrs. Moroney started dropping her things at their front door while Mr. Blaustein turned on the light. There, on the dining table, was their favorite cheese, robiola incavolata, a kind of goat’s cheese, along with two small plates. One read, “You forgot a perfect cheese platter.” The other read: “The proposal plate: Robiola Incavolata, Art Deco diamond ring, happiness for life.”
Mrs. Moroney, knowing that Mr. Blaustein saw marriage as a patriarchal institution and one to be avoided, was surprised.
However, Mr. Blaustein had glimpsed what he believed to be a perfect picture of married life with Mrs. Moroney during their first Thanksgiving together, which they hosted at their Belmont home in 2018. With relatives and friends coming and going that day, he began to see for the first time how the two could become a family, he said.
They were married on June 4 at the Eustis Estate in Milton, Mass., in the presence of Katherine Read, a friend and pastor of the US Marriage Ministries, and 140 fully vaccinated guests.
Vincent M. Mallozzi reported.