Hello there
Carol and Craig met on eHarmony, an online dating site, in June 2007. She was living in New York City, he in Ardmore. They began trading e-mails, and then phone calls. One month after his profile popped up in her in-box, Craig hopped Amtrak to New York to meet her.
Carol loved that he took the time to plan a date, rather than relying on her to navigate the city for both of them. "I wanted to be somebody's girlfriend, not their tour guide," she said. They met at Columbus Circle, near the fountain, and walked to dinner. During the previous week, Carol had celebrated a birthday and completed a triathlon. Craig presented her with a book about life's journeys and a box of Marön Chocolates from Rittenhouse Square. After dinner - and after midnight - they went for a walk around the city and ended up in front of the Natural History Museum. "I asked if I could kiss her," Craig said. "She said yes. And as we kissed, the sprinklers came on."
That first date was on a Thursday. Craig was planning to spend the next day with a friend, and after, they would meet up with Carol and some of her friends. He asked if she would see The Drowsy Chaperone on Broadway with him on Saturday. Under normal circumstances, so much attention so soon would have sent Carol running away. But these were not normal circumstances. She really liked Craig.
It was smooth sailing for two months straight. Then, the miles between them started to take their toll. The couple called it quits.
In late December, Craig was in New York to go to a show and dinner with his brother's family. But he never made it to dinner. Craig called Carol and asked if she would see him. She would! And they had a fabulous time. Still, Carol said they shouldn't take it any further if the distance was only going to come between them again. She quoted a Friends episode in which Phoebe tells her boyfriend, who is about to leave the country, that she can't spend New Year's Eve with him if they aren't going to spend the next year together, too. Later that night, Craig tossed Carol's television reference back at her. "He asked if he could spend New Year's Eve with me," she said.
How does forever sound?
In May 2008, Craig and Carol had planned a trip to Chicago to celebrate his birthday, but their flight was canceled. Determined to have a good time, they drove to Washington, D.C. The two former journalists had such a wonderful time at the Newseum that they became members. (Craig, who now does internal communications for Lincoln Financial, began his career as a freelance writer for Montgomery Newspapers in Montgomery County and was also a freelancer for Creative Loafing in Charlotte, N.C. Carol, who owns her own PR firm, City Girl Media, was a broadcast producer, most recently at CNBC.)
By the time November rolled around, Carol and Craig hadn't used their Newseum memberships even once. Craig suggested they remedy that with a weekend trip.
It was nearly closing time when they stepped out onto the terrace, where they watched the sun set with the Capitol in the distance. Carol leaned out onto the railing to get a better view, when Craig asked, "What's this headline?" She turned around to see him holding a mockup of the front page of the New York Times. "It says really big - like we're at war - WILL YOU MARRY ME?" Carol remembered. All of the articles were about Carol and Craig. The guards were shooing people out by then, but one lone tourist from Iowa took the couple's photo.
The miles between Carol, 37, and Craig, 44, disappeared in April, when she moved to Ardmore.
It was so them
The wedding and reception were held at Artesano Iron Works Gallery in Manayunk. Carol and Craig wrote their own ceremony. Craig's sister, Chelsea Callicott, became an ordained minister over the Internet with California's Universal Life Church so that she could marry them.
Instead of traditional readings, the couple's wedding party read quotes from movies and famous people. One quoted Bill Cosby: "Women don't want to hear what you think; women want to hear what they think in a deeper voice." Another quoted Milton Berle: "A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong."
After exchanging vows, the couple read quotes to each other. He quoted a line from his favorite Jackson Browne song:
Well I looked into the sky for my anthem
And the words and the music came through
But words and music can never touch the beauty that I've seen
Looking into you
She quoted Billy Crystal from When Harry Met Sally . . . : "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you realize you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
The couple's dog, Cooper, a 12-year-old border collie mix, was their ring bearer.
The reception had a New York-meets-Philadelphia theme. Carol created a logo that featured both cities' skylines. Postcards were used instead of place cards, so guests sat at the Love Statue or the Statue of Liberty, for example. Treats included cupcakes from Cupcakes Gourmet in Malvern and cannolis from Craig's favorite bakery in New York's Little Italy.
There also was a cheesesteak vs. pastrami sandwich contest. The New York sandwich won, but clearly there was cheating. "I had an independent third party - my most honest bridesmaid - tally the votes, and the number was more than the number of guests!"
Awestruck
The ceremony was held in the gallery's courtyard. "When I walked in and saw Craig standing there, surrounded by all of our friends and family, it was a pretty incredible moment," Carol said. Craig got choked up a few minutes later, when he said the Jackson Brown lyric. "I kinda lost it," he remembered. "Everything was going smoothly until then, but then everyone in the wedding party started to cry."
This was a surprise
During her toast, Carol's friend Stephanie, a bridesmaid, revealed a two-year secret to Craig. That first night, when he came to New York to meet Carol at Columbus Circle? Stephanie and her husband, Andrew, stalked them. They were perched four stories above, at a bar with windows overlooking the Circle, so they could check him out from the beginning. Then, they followed the couple to the restaurant. Stephanie was just trying to keep her girlfriend safe. "I was totally cool with it," said Carol.
The reveal produced a collective gasp from Craig and the couple's 130 guests. Then Craig burst out laughing, and the rest of the room followed his lead.
Discretionary spending
A bargain: With the assistance of one of her bridesmaids, Carol designed the invitations and had them printed by a letterpress printer in California. "It was 60 to 70 percent cheaper than if I had walked in a stationery store and ordered letterpress," she said. Carol also estimates the couple saved more than $700 by serving cupcakes instead of wedding cake.
The splurge: On Carol's first dress-shopping attempt, she fell in love with a Monique Lhuillier at a sample sale. "It was about 200 percent more than I wanted to spend, even on sale," she said. Hesitant over the price tag, Carol left the store without the dress. Then she looked it up online and saw that it was in demand. Aha! Justification. "I knew I could sell it afterward," she said. It felt like a minor miracle that the dress was still there the next day. And demand or no, "I have no intention of selling it."
The getaway
Ten days in Italy.StartText
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Behind the Scenes
Officiant
Chelsea Callicott, sister of the groom
Venue
Artesano Iron Works Gallery in Manayunk
Catering
Peachtree & Ward of Willow Grove
Photography
Gerard Tomko Photography, Hatboro
Music
Sound Investment Band of King of Prussia
Dress
Saks Fifth Avenue, New York
Invitations
Mercurio Brothers Printing, Berkeley, Calif.
Do You Have the Date?
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