I Do!: Margaret Famiglietti and Ray Tavarez

Thirty years and several relationships and marriages later — all with other people — Margaret Famiglietti and Ray Tavarez finally tied the knot.

The two met and became flirty friends in 1994, when Famiglietti said she was working at a nursing home and he delivered medical supplies.

“There was always an attraction between us, but we were both married,” said Famiglietti, a hospital emergency room technician.

They remained friends for years, but when it came to a romantic relatonship, the timing never worked out.

“Whenever I wasn’t with somebody, he was with somebody. Whenever he wasn’t with somebody, I was with somebody,” said Famiglietti, who declined to give her age.  “He was always the one that got away. I always said if I would have been married to him everything would be perfect.”

The two eventually lost touch but two years ago, Famiglietti said she decided to look up Tavarez on Facebook and message him.

“I didn’t know who she was until she said my nickname,” said Tavarez, 58, aka Froggy. He noted that her surname and appearance had changed since he first met her.

At the time, the two were ending their respective long-term relationships. One month after Famiglietti broke up with her then-boyfriend, Tavarez called to say he’d left his girlfriend.

In early October 2022, they went on an official date — dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and bowling at Lucky Strike at the Palisades Center in West Nyack — and in May 2023, Tavarez moved in to her Valley Stream home.

“He just came over that day and he never left,” Famiglietti said.

After a nine-month engagement, the couple married on July 12 at the Sunny Atlantic Beach Club in Hempstead Town, with Famiglietti’s daughter and Tavarez’s mother, his three sons and their wives and his three grandchildren in attendance.

Famiglietti said she is thrilled to be part of Tavarez’s family.

“Every holiday we’re all together,” she said. Tavarez added, “Everybody loves her.”

Though 30 years in the making, transitioning from friends to lovers felt like a natural progression, Famiglietti said.

Her new husband agreed. “When we got together, it almost felt complete,” Tavarez said. “Like it was meant to be.”