This couple met in a teen chat room online. Thirteen years later, they got married.

A flurry of greetings — all colors, fonts and sizes — welcomed Alissa Wylie into the AOL teen chat room.

“Hi!” “HELLO” “a/s/l?”

It was 2003, and Alissa, 13 and an eighth-grader in Deerfield, Ill., had heard stories from friends about chat rooms. On a whim, she decided to see whether it merited the hype.

“I guess I had nothing else to do but talk to the friends that I had just seen for hours and hours,” recalls the 27-year-old interior designer. “I remember we had dial-up back then, and I’d get scolded by my parents if I was talking too long because it would use up our phone line.”

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Hundreds of miles away, Steve Casazza, then 15 and a sophomore in Long Valley, N.J., also was logging on to a chat room for the first time. “It was the thing to do to rebel against your parents,” says the 28-year-old, who manages defense trade policy at General Atomics.

Intrigued by Steve’s screen name, (cazaz71288), Alissa (wyliebird3) decided to private message him outside the chat. Their conversation was easy, and they quickly became online pen pals, exchanging messages about once a week.

Unlike such apps as Facebook and Snapchat that are popular with teens today, chat rooms offered anonymity. So Steve and Alissa fibbed and said they were 16, each wanting to sound more mature. To stay safe, they used fake names and locations.

As the year progressed, their conversations became longer and more frequent. Online, they felt comfortable sharing worries and concerns they wouldn’t normally share with family and friends.

“She’s the most genuine, generous and selfless person that I’ve ever met ... I had guy friends, but the things that I talked about with Alissa were things that made me feel emotionally vulnerable,” Steve says. “I felt safe discussing them behind the screen.”

They kept their online communication hidden from their parents for two years. “I swear, I was a very honest child up until that point. I consider it my rebellious phase,” Alissa says with a laugh.

After a year of talking online, Steve and Alissa decided to reveal their real information, and they graduated to regular phone calls. But they still went to great lengths to keep their connection a secret from their parents, buying calling cards so long-distance fees wouldn’t appear on their home phone bills.

“I would save up all of my money from my babysitting jobs,” Alissa says, “and then bike over to Walgreens to buy phone cards.”

But in winter 2005, when Steve began dating offline, Alissa realized her digital connection had developed into a real one. They decided it was time to tell their parents, who took the news shockingly well and mutually agreed to let the kids meet in person.

Their parents, Steve says, “discussed the two scenarios of how this could play out. One, we would meet and decide this was all for naught and go our separate ways. Or two, the worst-case scenario, we would realize we were compatible and destined to years of a long-distance relationship and heartache.”

For Christmas, Steve’s parents surprised him with a round-trip plane ticket to Chicago in late February to meet Alissa. As soon as they locked eyes at the airport, they were inseparable for the entire trip. “I just kept touching him and saying, ‘You’re real! You’re really real!’ ” Alissa recalls.

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Because of the distance and age difference, they agreed to stay together in a long-distance yet open relationship. Steve left for George Washington University in Washington, and two years later, Alissa enrolled at the University of Minnesota. They visited each other often but dated other people. The separation, however, led to jealousy, fights and, ultimately, a breakup during Alissa’s junior year in 2010.

“At that point, we talked almost every single day,” she says. “It was terrible.”

But the pair reconnected in 2011 after Alissa suffered a harrowing night her senior year. Doctors think she was slipped a drug at a bar in downtown Minneapolis. She was physically unharmed but emotionally distraught. When she awoke at the hospital the next morning, the first person she asked for was Steve.

“I needed him ... more than my parents, more than anyone, really. I wanted Steve there and I wanted his help,” she recalls. “I realized then ... that I loved him and needed him in my life more permanently.”

Soon, they agreed to be exclusive, and, in July 2013, Alissa moved into an apartment with Steve in Southwest Washington. It was a decade in the making, but they were finally in the same city and able to make a home together.

In October 2014, Steve decided to pop the question after a week-long vacation in Iceland. Tipped off by a friend that Alissa was predicting a wedding proposal during the trip, he decided instead to surprise her with an at-home proposal over a candlelit dinner.

“Do you want to go on another adventure?” he asked, taking a knee.

Steve and Alissa exchanged vows Sept. 25 in the Kogod Cradle theater at Arena Stage. Steve’s jiu-jitsu instructor, James “Jay” Coleman, officiated in front of 100 guests. “As soon as I saw her for the first time in her dress, I just lost it. Tears, quivering lip, the works,” Steve says. “I ended up stealing the tissue in her hand.”

After the ceremony, the celebration moved across the street to Cantina Marina, where decorations had a travel theme to reflect the couple’s interests and history. A few days later, they boarded a plane for a week-long vacation in Belize.

Looking back, Alissa credits the foundation they built as teenagers for the success they’ve shared in their relationship as adults.

“Steve and I were never looking for a relationship. We just wanted to connect with somebody. But lucky for us, it grew into much more,” she says. “Back then, I felt like I could confide in him about anything and everything. I still do.”

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