They met on the Fourth of July in 2011 on a beach in Marblehead. She was pretty and blond, going into her senior year at Boston College. He was handsome and dark-haired, a former Boston College baseball star, with a promising career in insurance.

Pete Frates, 28, of Beverly and Julie ­Kowalik, 22, of Marblehead, fell in love fast. They are engaged to be married on June 1, 2013, but they have already been tested like a long-married couple.