Hello there
On Jen's birthday, in late summer 2004, her friend Becky suggested a trip to a Margate sushi bar. "She told me Tomatoe's was the place to meet older, more mature guys," Jen said.
Steve, who was with his pals Chris and Greg, immediately caught Jen's eye - even though he was just a year her senior. The girls wanted to talk to the boys, but weren't particularly brave. They tried to subtly inch closer to where Steve and his buds were standing. "It was obvious," Steve said. But he liked what he saw. "We went over and started talking."
That talk led to eight months of dating bliss. But then Steve got sad. He had been planning to work abroad for the Peace Corps, and was stunned when he was told he would have to wait one to two years for an assignment. He felt that his life was in a holding pattern, so he told Jen he was leaving Atlantic County and his job teaching sixth graders in Upper Township, to move to North Jersey and "find himself."
Jen, who was then finishing her master's in counseling psychology at Rider University, did not want to break up. But she knew Steve could not focus on a relationship until he sorted things out. And her life was also up in the air, as she had applied to jobs across the state.
Jen found a job close to her Burlington County home as a K-8 counselor for Delanco Township schools. Steve began teaching conflict resolution and leadership skills at Millburn Middle School in Millburn Township, Essex County. He also joined the National Endowment for Democracy and the Foreign Policy Association.
In early 2007, Steve had an epiphany: "I'm not going to go around the world working for NGOs and saving people, like I thought," he remembered. "I'm going to focus my skills a little more locally."
That summer, Steve began work on New Jersey: The Movie, an award-winning documentary that takes a tour of the state's treasures while exploring the North-South cultural divide between hoagies and subs, the Eagles and the Giants.
He also began thinking about the girl he had left in South Jersey a year-and-a-half earlier. Dating other people made him really miss Jen, and he began Googling her. On Dec. 7, her new MySpace page popped up. He sent her a message.
Like Steve, Jen had dated but found no one special. "Seeing him on MySpace . . . felt like one of those movies where you actually get a second chance for a happy ending," she said.
They met for dinner in Collingswood, then attended a party together. They spent New Year's Eve in Hoboken at Mulligans, an Eagles-crazy haven, and by the time the clock struck 12, they were a couple again. Thus began their Jersey Turnpike romance.
How does forever sound?
In late June 2009, Steve asked Jen to go on a field trip with him and Jersey Movie collaborator Bob Barnett - the guy behind www.westjersey.org. The three drove to a large stone marker on the boundary between the former provinces of East and West Jersey, near present-day Princeton Township. "The whole hitch was we were taking Bob to dig for artifacts," Steve said.
Jen was reading the plaque on the stone while Bob and Steve went behind it. "Hey Jen! I found something!" Steve called over. "Wait, I'm reading this," Jen said. He pleaded. She went.
"I'm so gullible and oblivious," Jen said, "that I say, 'Hey, there's a box there! I wonder what's in it?'"
Steve got down on one knee and showed her.
Bob snapped photos, then split. Steve had arranged for a limo - equipped with champagne - to whisk the couple off to a New Hope B&B.
It was so them
Jen, 32, and Steve, 33, held their wedding at two Atlantic City casinos.
The ceremony was at Harrah's, on a balcony overlooking the pool. The domed glass ceiling and tropical plants gave it "a beachy feel without worrying about the rain," Jen said. Also adding to the ambience: The guests were told to dress casually, and sundresses, khakis, and flip-flops abounded.
The reception was at Showboat Casino's Club Harlem Ballroom. The couple loved the dark hardwood floors and the glowing star cutouts in the ceiling.
Each guest table was named for a casino.
This didn't happen at rehearsal
The couple's officiant asked the guests to express their support for Steve and Jen's union loud enough for the World Cup watchers gathered around TVs near the pool to hear them. They succeeded. "I saw people down below looking up," Jen said. "Thank God the U.S. didn't get eliminated before our wedding ended, or there would have been boos during our ceremony," said Steve.
Awestruck
Steve and Jen agree their first dance was special. First, the two of them swayed to "Ain't Never Had Nobody Like You" by M. Ward, and, unlike their practice sessions, it went perfectly. Then, at the DJ's urging, most of their 115 guests joined them on the dance floor to Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel." "For me, that just put the exclamation point on our first dance," Steve said.
Jen was pretty psyched at the end of the night, when Steve passed out blow-up guitars and everyone jammed on air guitar.
Discretionary spending
A bargain: The shuttle prices the couple got through Harrah's, which also owns the Showboat Casino. It cost $42 for a 14-passenger limo shuttle for the wedding party, compared with about $150 from a regular limo rental place, Jen said. And the 30-passenger shuttle was $480 for the whole night, compared with $1,200 for five hours. Steve was thrilled with the $35-per-plate charge for dinner - less than half of what they were quoted by more traditional wedding venues.
The splurge: Jen's dress. "Being older, and thinking I was never going to get married, this is the one thing I wanted not to be frugal about," she said. She gave herself a $1,500 limit. The dress she loved was $1,900, but on sale for $1,600. Close enough, Jen thought.
At home
Their turnpike romance has become a turnpike marriage. Jen, now a counselor at Riverside High School in Burlington County, still has her condo in Edgewater Park. Steve, still teaching in Millburn and making films - the next will be about ice hockey in the United States - has his place in Maplewood. The couple splits their weeks between the two homes, but their goal is to someday have just one, in Lambertville.
The getaway
Two and a half weeks in Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, and Bosnia.
Behind the Scenes
Officiant
The Rev. Idalia Craig of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Glassboro
Venues
Ceremony: Overlooking the pool at Harrah's Atlantic City.
Reception: The Harlem Ballroom at Showboat Casino
Catering
Showboat Casino
Photography
Courtney Keim, Atlantic City
Music
Michael Fusco and Summit Soundz, Summit, N.J.
Flowers
Darlene Rumbus at Art of Flowers, Ventnor City
Dress
Paloma Blanca Bridal Gown from the Bridal Garden, Marlton
Invitations
Laura Ashley from Exclusivelyweddings.com
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