Hello there
At the end of summer 1999, JB, then 15, knew he would soon be home in Upper Gwynedd and back at school. So he was looking forward to spending one of his last nights in Sea Isle City on the boardwalk with his friends - as he did every summer night - when his parents gave him bad news.
"I was forced to go to this family friend's barbecue."
Rick and Jill told their son he only had to stay at the McElroys' beach shindig for an hour, and his intent was to stay not one minute longer. But then someone introduced him to a bunch of girls.
"I thought there was one girl who was a little cuter than all the rest," he said.
That girl was Megan, then 13. Her parents, Patti and Joe, were also friends with the McElroys.
JB was a hit with the girls. "We were all trying to get this cute, older boy's attention," Megan said.
JB spent the whole time talking to Megan.
But this was her family's last Shore night before heading back to Fort Washington.
"Even though our houses were only 20 minutes apart, when you don't have a license, it seems a lot farther. And there were no cell phones then," Megan said.
They said goodbye with no expectations.
One year later, at the same party, they saw each other again. This time, Megan and JB vowed to see each other back in Pennsylvania. There were phone calls, and moms and dads took turns driving them to movies and high school football games. But neither Megan, a high school freshman who played on soccer and basketball travel teams, nor JB, a junior who played ice hockey and lacrosse for North Penn High, had a lot of time for dating. They broke up after six months, with no hard feelings.
More than two years later, in December 2004, JB's friend Bryan found Megan, then a senior at Gwynedd Mercy Academy, online. "Instant Messenger was huge then, and people would just find old friends and talk," Megan said. Bryan suggested that he, Megan, and JB, who was studying international relations at St. Joseph's University, get together for a snowboarding trip to Blue Mountain in the Poconos.
"He always knew that we liked each other, that it was just a matter of timing and maturity," JB said.
That's probably why when they got to the mountain, Bryan eventually disappeared, leaving Megan and JB alone to snowboard together.
"We both consider it our first date of the second round," JB said.
Despite four years when they lived in different states, Megan and JB have been a couple ever since. After St. Joe's, JB went to law school, and is now in his last year at Rutgers. Megan majored in accounting at Boston College. She now works at Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Center City.
How does forever sound?
In October 2009, Megan, who is now 24, and JB, now 26, had just returned from a shopping trip to buy things for the home Megan had recently purchased in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood.
They were heavily laden with bags as they walked in the door, and when, out of the corner of her eye, Megan saw JB get down on the floor, she thought he was picking up something she had dropped. When he began talking about love, Megan looked directly at him and saw exactly why he was kneeling.
Don't ask either of them what JB said. Megan's memory was erased by a flood of emotion. And JB said he was so nervous, he hardly knew what he was saying.
It was so them
The couple had five bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen. "I have four brothers. He has three brothers and a sister," Megan explained. "We wanted all of them to be part of the wedding." And so Matt, Mike, Tommy, and Colin (Megan's brothers) and Toph, Tim, Brennan, and Leanne (JB's sibs) were.
Each bridesmaid escorted two groomsmen down the aisle. "I don't think they minded," JB said.
Bryan, the friend who suggested the fateful snowboarding trip, was also a groomsman.
The wedding was held at St. Alphonsus, the church Megan grew up in. The reception for 225 took place at the North Hills Country Club. That beach barbecue where Megan and JB met as kids wasn't the first time their mothers had seen each other. They actually had spent their own childhood summers together at North Hills' swim club. And both sets of parents held their receptions at the country club, too.
This didn't happen at rehearsal
The thing about siblings is, they know everything about you.
That explains why JB's brother Brennan, Megan's brother Tommy, and their sister-in-law Brittany entered the reception wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles masks, wielding swords, and spinning pizza boxes, in homage to the couple's childhood obsession.
Awestruck
Megan will never forget the sense of excitement and relief she felt when the priest proclaimed her and JB a married couple. "We start walking back up the aisle, and all the pressure's done. Now it's just fun, and we're married," she said.
JB is still thinking about their first dance, to "In My Life" by the Beatles. "There was just something special with everybody watching," he said. "It just kind of hit me and felt real at that moment."
Discretionary spending
A bargain: The North Hills Country Club was about 20 percent cheaper than other venues the couple considered.
The splurge: Photographer Gabriel Fredericks of Philip Gabriel Photography. "We fell in love with his pictures on sight," JB said. They happily paid about twice as much as the prices they saw for other photographers.
The getaway
The couple, who live in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood, spent 12 days in Hawaii.
Behind the Scenes
Officiant
The Rev. Stephen Moerman, St. Alphonsus Church, Maple Glen
Venues
St. Alphonsus and North Hills Country Club, Glenside
Catering
North Hills Country Club
Music
The Heartbeats, Philadelphia
Flowers
Primrose Extraordinary Flowers, Dresher
Gown
Nicole Miller, Philadelphia
Photography
Philip Gabriel Wedding Photography, Newtown Square
Invitations
Printed by family members who own a printing business