A Reunion That Was a Long Time Coming Christy Ely and Peter Tiboris shared a moment as they posed for photographs before their wedding on Dec. 14 at the Bowery Hotel in New York. Sundays were the hardest day of the week for Peter Tiboris. Weekdays were focused on his business as a wealth management adviser in New York. Saturdays were often spent on the town with a group of close friends or an eligible bachelorette. But on Sundays, the world slowed down, and Mr. Tiboris's thoughts turned inward. "Sundays are pretty lonely for a single person," said Mr. Tiboris, 34, who yearned for someone with whom he could effortlessly share life's quiet moments, someone who could make him smile just by being in the same room. He had no doubt such a woman existed, because he had already found her. The problem was, he had also lost her. Mr. Tiboris first saw Christy Ely in the spring of 2000 at a Cornell campus bar. He was a sophomore with a brief career as a tight end on the football team, and she was a studious freshman who had been both a high school homecoming queen and a senior class president in Mount Lebanon, Pa. Mr. Tiboris was captivated by her "thousand teeth" smile, but it was her kind spirit that impressed him most. "I thought she was out of my league," he said. The newlyweds cut their wedding cake during the reception. But it was Ms. Ely who developed a crush at first sight on "this dark, handsome, older boy," she said. They soon started dating, and though Ms. Ely is someone who deliberates carefully over every decision, there was no hesitation about Mr. Tiboris as she fell for his gregarious personality and "goofy" style. He had a pet rabbit at his fraternity, and his wardrobe consisted largely of plaid pajama bottoms. But the relationship remained casual. "I was keeping her at arm's length," Mr. Tiboris said. Despite being a jock, he had grown up in a somewhat strict, churchgoing household and felt awkward when it came to dating. I was inexperienced, so I didn't want to look like an idiot. Instead, he looked noncommittal. "I remember being uncertain about where we stood," said Ms. Ely, now 32. She also recalled shedding a few tears. There are men who are immune to a woman's tears, but Mr. Tiboris was not one of those men. By the fall term, they were inseparable. "In college, there's nothing to stop you from spending almost 24/7 together," Ms. Ely said. So we did. They became each other's best friend, most-trusted critic and No. 1 fan. But there was a downside to the insularity of their relationship that crept up on them. "I didn't feel like I had my own friendships and identity apart from Pete," said Ms. Ely, who as the eldest of four sisters had always valued her independence. People didn't see me as Christy; they saw me as Christy and Pete. Mr. Tiboris graduated in 2002 and moved to New York, where he faced a headwind as a finance major seeking a job on a post-9/11 Wall Street. After months searching, he ended up a financial consultant, which required generating business through cold calls and working on commission. "I became more dependent on our relationship as a source of stability in an unstable time of my life," he said. That made Ms. Ely even more aware of what she considered the "codependent" aspect of their relationship, as she followed him to New York in 2003 to work as a kindergarten teacher in the Bronx while obtaining a master's degree in education at Mercy College as part of the New York City Teaching Fellows program. It was a challenging time for Ms. Ely, who had always believed that hard work made anything possible, "but no matter how hard I worked as a teacher, a lot of my kids still couldn't read," she said, and she took that personally. The uncertainty she was feeling about her career carried over into her personal life. "She would get anxiety talking about the future," said Mr. Tiboris, who wanted to make long-term plans. Now it was Ms. Ely who was noncommittal. By 2005, she had applied to law school and they were in "relationship purgatory," according to Mr. Tiboris. "I didn't think she'd ever make a decision," he said. So he made it for her by giving an ultimatum: it was marriage or "we can't see or talk to each other." They cut off all contact. It was over. "He was my best friend," she said. It was agony not speaking to him. She compared the experience to going through a divorce. "It was worse than divorce," Mr. Tiboris said. It was more like she died. But she hadn't. She was living a few blocks away, attending Columbia Law School. Mr. Tiboris was having regrets, if not about forcing a decision, then about the outcome. He emailed her several times, but her responses were emotionally distant. He walked to his office along a route that maximized his chances of running into her, but in three years after their breakup, he saw her only once, and it was an awkward encounter. So he threw himself into his work, got an M.B.A. from Fordham, and took classes in everything from bridge to photography. "I had a goal of acquiring two new skills a year," he said. But he didn't completely give up on Ms. Ely. When she took a clerkship in San Diego, he wound up in Laguna Beach for a month visiting friends, and though he never saw her, he emailed about getting together. "Every time he emailed me, I would feel like we were breaking up again," she said. I'd go through this thing: Should I see him? Should I not see him? The answer was always no. "Some people take "no" personally," Mr. Tiboris said. I don't. But he also found no one to replace her. And it was not for a lack of trying. "How do we live in a city of 10 million people, and it's so tough to find somebody?" he said. Explain that to me. His sister, Stephanie Marotto, had an explanation. "You can't keep breaking up with women because they're not Christy Ely," she recalled chiding him. He desperately wanted to not still be in love with Christy, but he just couldn't help it. Ms. Ely was similarly stymied, according to her sister, Laura Seals. "She would go on dates with other guys, and she would always compare them to Pete," Ms. Seals said. No one was as kind, honest or romantic in Ms. Ely's eyes, but she didn't allow herself to consider the option of a reunion, even though by late 2011, she had returned to New York after two years living in Washington. She was 30 years old and working long hours as a securities lawyer at WilmerHale. She decided to try online dating. And, Match.com suggested Mr. Tiboris as an ideal mate. "Of all the people," Ms. Ely said. I was mortified. She was also critical of his preening profile photos. He thought her profile made her sound "rigid" and awkward. But that didn't stop him from texting her. Unfortunately, he did so while she was on a London business trip with a five-hour time difference. "My brother is very impatient," Ms. Marotto said. "When he hadn't heard from her in two hours, he was panicking and saying, "I'm not going to go through this again." " Yet a few weeks later, on a rainy December night, he found himself sitting in a Mexican restaurant across from Ms. Ely, for the first time in six years. They were both nervous about risking their idealized memories of each other, but they needn't have been. "I felt the same chemistry immediately," Ms. Ely said. He was still the frank, funny man she had fallen for. And she was still the one woman who could take his ribbing and give it right back to him. "With my brother, it's easy to fall in love with the bravado, but Christy loved him when he was a dorky, chubby college kid," Ms. Marotto said. She's smarter than him. She's prettier than him. And he feels genuinely lucky to be with her. On Dec. 14, Ms. Ely, wearing a sleeveless, silk Amanda Wakeley dress, stood beside Mr. Tiboris before a glazed brick fireplace framed by lighted evergreen trees at the Bowery Hotel in New York. He promised her love and laughter. "I promise you all my Sundays," the bride vowed. The Rev. Katherine Jeddah Vailakis, an interfaith minister, declared them husband and wife, and they shared a passionate kiss. Then Mr. Tiboris raised one arm in the air like a prizefighter as musicians played "You Can't Hurry Love." When Dec. 14, 2013 Where The Bowery Hotel, New York. Details The bride and groom will be honeymooning in Africa, but after two weeks in Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar, the bride is returnng solo to the United States, while the groom continues on to Rwanda to see the gorillas. No one can believe she's letting me stay. Mr. Tiboris said.