Loving fun and family
Allison and James are hunting for a Delco house to fill with dogs and babies.
Allison Mintz & James Tomosky
Oct. 7, 2022, in Havertown
Hello there
James had planned to spend the night in his parents’ camping trailer, parked at a campground just outside Sea Isle. Then his buddy, Steve, called with an invite to join him and some others at his family’s West Wildwood Shore house. It was 1 a.m., but James was wide awake and bored — and Steve had said his good-looking friend Allison was there.
By the time James arrived in the wee hours on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend 2015, almost everyone was asleep. He found a spot for himself on the couch. When everyone woke up later that morning, the group went to breakfast. James and Allison sat next to each other. “He’s really cute, really nice, and really funny,” Allison thought to herself. James had reached the same conclusions about her. When they got to the boardwalk, he asked her to ride the Great White and the Great Nor’Easter roller-coasters with him, and they talked between rounds of carnival games.
The two exchanged numbers at the end of the weekend and then, for the next several weeks, ran into each other at both city and Shore. “It took about a month for him to finally ask me out,” said Allison, who grew up in East Lansdowne and Havertown and is now 30.
“I had to work up some courage,” said James, who is from East Lansdowne and is now 31.
Their first date was at Dave & Buster’s. “I play guitar, so I love the Guitar Hero game,” said James. “Allison beat me in Mario Kart, and she’s pretty good at Skee-Ball, too.”
“We had so much fun,” said Allison, and the fun hasn’t stopped since. Allison still lived at home then and James had an apartment in the city. “The first summer we were dating, we went to almost every big concert in Philly,” she said. “We saw Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Hall and Oates. He took me to my first Eagles game.”
They became exclusive quickly, said James. “It was only a week or two until we locked it in together.”
Not long after that, James and Allison met a mixed-breed puppy they named Theo. Allison is a nanny. The year after they met, James began the apprenticeship that led to him becoming a union carpenter. He works for Component Assembly Solutions in Philadelphia.
In 2017, they moved together to their Morton apartment.
“I love how much fun she has whenever we do anything,” James said. “I love how caring she is — she still makes my lunch for work every day. She likes all animals and loves Theo — if it was up to her we would probably have 10 or 15 dogs. She is awesome with kids. I just love everything about her.”
James is also very caring, as well as very patient, Allison said. “I love that he’s a little more mellow, because I’m a little more bubbly and outgoing — he’s my calm. He has a lot of nieces and nephews and I saw how great he is with all of them and that meant a lot to me. I love that he loves to have fun, and that when he’s not having fun, he’s working extremely hard.”
The engagement
In July of 2021, James suggested spending a day on the Ocean City boardwalk with his parents, James and Anne Marie, and Allison was as excited as he predicted. “I kept talking a mile a minute — ‘Let’s go to that store! Let’s do the rides!’ ” she remembered.
Just before they reached 13th Street, James turned to Allison and said, “I need to ask you something.”
“All of a sudden my mom and my sister — who I thought were at home — were walking toward us,” Allison remembered. “And my mom’s fiance, Joseph, was there, too.” James knelt and Allison’s sister — pro photographer Ashlee Mintz — started taking pictures.
“What are you doing?” Allison asked her boyfriend.
“I love you,” James said. “Will you marry me?”
“Oh my God, of course!” said Allison.
Unforgettable
Before their wedding ceremony, a classic Rolls-Royce that had once belonged to Joe Frazier brought Allison and her mother, Donnalee, to The High Point — the couple’s Malvern reception venue — to see James and Theo for the first time that day. “I felt so nervous and excited for both of them to turn around so we finally could see each other,” Allison said. “It was just the best feeling.”
Waiting with his back turned toward the car, James felt the same way. And then Allison taped him on the shoulder. “My heart was pounding, and then there she was, looking so beautiful. I was so happy to see her in that moment. And it was awesome that Theo got to be there, too.”
It was so them
The couple rode together in the rented Rolls — a surprise gift from the bridesmaids — to Sacred Heart Church in Havertown. Allison’s mother walked her down the aisle. Her father, Michael, died of bone marrow cancer when Allison was in middle school. In lieu of favors, the couple made a donation to Be the Match. The Catholic ceremony included a full Mass.
The couple celebrated with 100 guests at The High Point. After the first-look pictures, Theo went home, but his likeness appeared on the cocktail stir sticks and napkins. Guests played corn hole and enjoyed a champagne wall and mac and cheese bar during the cocktail hour.
At the reception, instead of a traditional photo booth, the couple had a 360 video booth. The band Back to Life played as the couple took their first married dance steps to Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You.” “We took dance lessons,” said James. “We might need another lesson or two, but we did alright!”
Honeymooning
Plans to go to Fort Myers, Fla., were thwarted by a hurricane. But the family for whom Allison is the nanny surprised the couple with a trip to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, where they snorkeled with sea turtles.
What’s next?
Allison and James are hunting for a Delco house to fill with dogs and babies.