As actors in Philadelphia’s theater community, Peter Andrew Danzig and Richie Sklar only met each other in passing at auditions. Sklar, 27, said he was intimidated by Danzig’s high confidence but thought he was “a very handome man.” Meanwhile, Danzig, 33, saw Sklar in a play and thought his performance was very engaging and noted finding him “adorable” and “attractive.”
Little did they know they would each meet their future husband at a friend’s party in December 2015, when Danzig spotted Sklar enter a room with a bag of ice.
“He walked in and my best friend said, ‘Put your eyes back in your head’ because he walked in and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this guy is gorgeous,’” Danzig said. “My jaw dropped and I just stared. We started talking that night. He asked me [about] some of my favorite things and I said, ‘I love ‘Sailor Moon’ and then he’s never left my side since.”
“That’s what did it,” Sklar joked, noting their mutual love for the anime cartoon.
A week later, Danzig invited Sklar to a friend’s show at the Walnut Street Theatre so the two could hang out.
“I didn’t actually know if we were on a date or if that was just something I imagined in my head,” Sklar said.
After the show, the two men walked under the stars in Rittenhouse Square. They sat on a bench and Danzig asked if he could kiss Sklar, which the latter obliged.
“And it was at that moment when I realized that we were, in fact, on a date,” Sklar laughed.
“We go back to that bench pretty regularly just to spend a romantic date night and we always go back to where we had our first kiss,” Danzig said. “It’s very romantic.”
Danzig said he was “the most unromantic guy in the world” until he met Sklar.
“I don’t know about love at first sight but when you meet somebody, there’s just something there,” he said. “Our comfort was pretty amazing from day one and about seven months later, we moved in together — the best decision we could’ve made. We just clicked naturally.”
Sklar added that he never saw himself getting married but knew right away that he would marry Danzig one day. He noted that, from a “logistic point of view,” their relationship progressed quickly.
“It definitely moved very quickly but I’ve never felt pressured,” Sklar said. “I never felt like it was moving too fast. It definitely felt like we were moving at the right pace and everything felt right, like we were making all of the right decisions and steps in time.”
In November, Danzig proposed to Sklar on top of the big rock in New York City’s Central Park.
“I wrote him a letter in the card as opposed to getting down on one knee so he could understand how I felt and why I wanted to spend my life with him and then he looked at me, and I got down on one knee and proposed,” Danzig said.
“[The card] had this beautiful note inside and I started to tear up a little bit,” Sklar said. “I looked over and he was on his knee and he had the ring and I said, ‘Yes.’ It was the most amazing moment of my entire life.”
The two will get married in front of family and friends April 29, 2018, in Bensalem and look forward to adopting a child in the next few years.
“I really look forward to watching Richie evolve as a person,” Danzig said of the future. “I look forward to seeing what he’s going to become over our lifetime and his potential. I’m sure he’ll be an amazing father and husband. It’s kind of cool to spend your life with your best friend. I’m excited to see where that goes.”
Sklar is also looking forward to married life.
“Something totally changed as soon as I met Peter,” Sklar said. “I suddenly could see being married, owning a home and having children. I felt like all of those things were in reach.”