Kathryn Brady and Matthew Quigg

Katie and Matt were still in high school when they met in 2000.

He did not make a great first impression.

Katie was a freshman at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, a Catholic school for girls in Flourtown. Matt was a sophomore at La Salle College High School, a Catholic school for boys in Wyndmoor. Both were mock-trial team members.

During a scrimmage between the two teams, Katie was a witness, and Matt an attorney.

"When he cross-examined the witness before me, he made her cry," Katie remembered. "It was completely unnecessary. This was just a practice."

Katie steeled herself for her turn in the witness chair. "I thought he was such a jerk," she said. "I hated his guts."

The next year, the two schools staged a play together - Thornton Wilder's Our Town. When Katie was reintroduced to Matt at an early practice, she did not remember him and could not figure out why he was acting sheepish around her. "My friends reminded me where I had met him the first time," Katie said. She decided not to bring up the mock-trial incident, and she was friendly so Matt would know she didn't hold a grudge.

Rehearsals weren't all that demanding for Katie and Matt, who both had bit parts in the production. They talked a lot, and Katie discovered he was actually a really nice guy who takes competition very seriously.

On opening night, during the wedding scene on stage, Matt asked Katie on a date. They went on a haunted hayride.

After high school, Katie and Matt both went to Boston College, where she majored in biology, and he in history and philosophy.

The two have never had a split, or even a break, since that first hayride.

"We make it a priority to have our own lives and do our own things," Katie said. "We have our own groups of friends, and that makes it more enjoyable when we are together." This philosophy was especially important in college, Katie said, because it allowed them to grow into their adult selves without growing apart. "He played rugby, and he spent a lot of time with the rugby team at parties and such," she remembered. "All my girlfriends hung out and we did our own things."

In July 2007, Matt told Katie he wanted to take her someplace special, someplace she had never been before, to celebrate her graduation from college. When they arrived at the Moshulu - the ship-restaurant docked at Penn's Landing - the waiter told them there were fireworks that night, and they were welcome to go out on deck and watch before dinner.

Katie looked skyward but saw Matt reach into his jacket. He was obviously trying to take something out, but he was shaking and having trouble. "He got down on one knee," Katie said. "He had memorized a speech, but I can't tell you one word of what he said. And I didn't actually say yes. I couldn't speak. I just nodded my head and cried."

After graduating from college, Katie, who grew up in Horsham, and Matt, who grew up in Jenkintown, headed homeward. The former mock-trial competitors both earned law degrees, he at Temple, she at Drexel. Katie, now 25, is a law clerk at Exelon Corp. in Center City. Matt, now 26, is an assistant district attorney in Montgomery County.

Katie is mostly of Irish descent, and Matt is 100 percent Irish - his grandparents were immigrants. They commemorated their shared heritage with an Irish-themed wedding.

At the reception for 230 guests, the tables - sprinkled with green rose petals - were named after counties in Ireland. The band played some Irish tunes, and the heart and hands of the claddagh - the Irish symbol for love - graced the invitations and programs.

Katie's father, Francis, is usually a man of few words. So Katie was shocked when he made a beautiful, funny, and rather lengthy toast to the couple.

Matt's parents, Michael and Barbara, walked him down the aisle, and the three stood waiting until Katie walked in with her father and mother, Joan. As Katie and her family made the same trip, "Everyone started crying," she said. Katie kissed her parents before they left the altar. Matt kissed Katie's mother. The ritual called for him to shake hands with her father, but Matt gave him a big hug instead.

A bargain: The invitations. Katie bought the invitations online, and got a complete set, including thank-you cards, for $400. The same set would have cost at least $1,000 in a store, she said.

The splurge: Hiring the David Christopher Orchestra and increasing the cost by about a third by including a Frank Sinatra impersonator. Old Almost Blue Eyes was a little thank-you gift to both sets of parents, who helped pay for the wedding.

The couple, who live in Montgomery Township, enjoyed a long weekend on Cape Cod.

Officiant
Msgr. Philip C. Ricci, pastor at Mary, Mother of the Redeemer Catholic Church in North Wales

Venues
Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and Normandy Farm, Blue Bell

Catering
Normandy Farm

Photography
Wellington Photography, Chalfont

Videography
TLJ Studios, Norristown

Music
The David Christopher Orchestra, Ambler

Florist
Valleygreen Flowers & Gifts, Lower Gwynedd

Invitations
Ashton Fine Stationery, www.ashtonfinestationery.com

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