Taylor Many Scruggs was reading through Natalie Anne Labriola’s profile on Hinge when an astrological prompt caught his eye.
“Natalie’s said, ‘Way to win my heart is to guess my sun, moon and rising signs,’” Mr. Scruggs said.
An astrology enthusiast himself, his interest was piqued. Though he didn’t guess her Taurus sun or Sagittarius moon, he correctly noted her Scorpio rising. Soon enough she guessed his signs, correctly placing his Capricorn sun and Taurus moon before learning that he was actually a Pisces rising.
It was August 2019 and Ms. Labriola, a Los Angeles native, was living in the city’s Rampart Village neighborhood. Mr. Scruggs, a native of Cincinnati, was in Brookside. Their first date, days after connecting online, was a late-afternoon picnic in Barnsdall Art Park, where Mr. Scruggs, 34, gave Ms. Labriola, 35, a tarot card reading.
“He was clearly not knowledgeable about the tarot, but was very able to tap into the symbolism and the imagery on the cards,” Ms. Labriola said. “He was just so clearly emotionally attuned and open.”
The couple continued going on dates around Los Angeles and realized how serious their relationship was becoming when they took a trip to Palm Springs, Calif., on New Year’s Eve 2019.
“We started talking about marriage in January 2020, which was pretty early on in our relationship,” Ms. Labriola said. “It just kind of felt right.”
But when the pandemic began, they had to quarantine separately to protect Ms. Labriola, who has common variable immunodeficiency (CVID). They communicated on FaceTime daily but only got to see each other through masks and glass when Ms. Labriola needed to wash her clothes.
“Natalie didn’t have a washer and dryer,” Mr. Scruggs said. “So I would pick up her laundry outside of her apartment and take it back to my apartment, wash it, and then we would see each other through the window pane.”
“He would fold my underwear so neatly,” Ms. Labriola said with a laugh. “It was really sweet.”
After two months of only seeing each other from a distance, they decided to quarantine together. By July 2020, Mr. Scruggs had moved into Ms. Labriola’s apartment.
“It didn’t feel like there were ever any games or any real confusion,” Ms. Labriola said. “It just felt like we were both emotionally available and ready to meet each other where we were at in life.”
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Mr. Scruggs, who has a bachelor’s of fine arts degree from the University of Cincinnati, is an interior designer with the company he founded, Equipoise Studio. Ms. Labriola has a bachelor’s of fine arts degree from N.Y.U. and a master’s of fine arts degree in sculpture from Bard College. She makes art and does astrology and tarot consultations for her brand, Talis.
In March 2021, Mr. Scruggs and Ms. Labriola moved to a bungalow in Pasadena, Calif., on an oak tree-lined street. That July, they went on a trip to a beachside resort in Costalegre, Mexico. There, Mr. Scruggs brought her to a vista at the top of a cliff for a picnic dinner and waited for the clouds to clear up before proposing.
“It was like the exact moment of the new moon in cancer,” Mr. Scruggs said, “which is very loving.”
“And about family and connection and kin,” Ms. Labriola added.
Ms. Labriola and Mr. Scruggs planned their wedding to be an astrological-Judeo event, incorporating aspects of Ms. Labriola’s art and Jewish heritage. They assigned five family members planets to represent (corresponding with each person’s moon signs), leaving Ms. Labriola to represent the sun while Mr. Scruggs represented the moon.
The couple were married Oct. 15 in Paso Robles, Calif., at Ms. Labriola’s father’s home, which was furnished for the wedding by Mr. Scruggs. Perry Silver, Ms. Labriola’s stepfather who was ordained by the Universal Life Church for the event, officiated before 142 guests.
They picked their date based on where Venus, the planet of love and marriage, and Saturn, the planet of commitment and responsibility, would be in the sky. Their invites even included the birth chart of their wedding day.
“On our wedding day, the moon was in cancer,” Ms. Labriola said. “Which was a nice echo.”
