Hello there
From 2004 through 2006, Carrie and Brendan knew only each other's voices. Brendan worked for a Center City construction management company. Carrie worked at the auditing firm his company used, and sometimes called him for financial records.
Neither Carrie nor Brendan realized that they also frequented the same lunch spot, Old Nelson's - even though Brendan was Carrie's favorite eye candy there. "I would always see this redheaded guy who was really cute," she said. "We never spoke. We never even made eye contact. I had a boyfriend, and so I really shouldn't have even been looking!" she said.
Elkins Park native Brendan (parents Bob and Karen now live in D.C.) left his company to work for the city for a year. But in 2007, he took a job at another construction company that also used Carrie's accounting firm. "I recognized his name," she said.
It was fun to see Red at Old Nelson's again, said Carrie, who grew up on Long Island but came here for college and never left. She holds degrees from Villanova University and the University of Pennsylvania, and is working on her doctorate in mass media communications at Temple. Brendan holds a political science degree from Lynchburg College in Virginia.
In summer 2008, Brendan left the second construction company. But Carrie hardly had time to notice.
A month later, Carrie saw a familiar face on the other side of a Center City bar and stared as she tried to place him.
"I was squinting at him a little bit, and I guess he took that as his cue, because he migrated over to me," she said.
Brendan did indeed take her stare to mean "come hither."
"You look familiar," he told her.
By then, Carrie knew he was Red from Old Nelson's. But she didn't feel like confessing that she had previously checked him out. So she let Brendan begin the little game that goes, Do you work out at my gym? Do you live in my neighborhood? Were you in my English Comp class?
When he got to eating at Old Nelson's, Carrie said, "Oh yeah! I used to see you there all the time!" They soon discovered their previous telephonic work relationship.
Brendan, now 32, and Carrie, now 28, exchanged phone numbers. She had been single for just a few months and was a little gun-shy, but accepted his dinner invitation anyway.
Their first date had an awkward start. "He told me at the outset that he was not hungry, that he was just going to have beers," Carrie said. She took that to mean he did not want to buy her dinner. Carrie felt awkward eating in front of him, so she went hungry.
But Brendan cracked her up.
"I told her I had an abdominal hernia from singing 'Open Arms' by Journey on karaoke night," he remembered. The hernia part was true.
Carrie even laughed when Brendan, upon learning her last name, joked that her mother must be Mother Teresa, and he admires her work.
Brendan found Carrie charming, he admired her eyes and cheekbones, and he appreciated a woman who did not find him obnoxious.
On their second date, Brendan ate dinner - and paid for Carrie's.
How does forever sound?
The evening in early November 2009 was not very cold, but Brendan wore his puffy winter parka to the movies. Carrie thought it strange. Even inside the Old City theater, Brendan kept his jacket on. "It was the only coat I had that wouldn't show the ring box," he said.
After The Men Who Stare at Goats, Brendan subtly steered his girlfriend to a nearby narrow street she instantly recognized. "On our third or fourth date . . . it was the spot where we decided we were boyfriend and girlfriend," Carrie said.
Carrie didn't think Brendan remembered. Not even when he stopped there to tell her he loved her.
"I love you more!" she said, in the way they often kid.
"No, I love you more," he said. "And I can prove it."
Brendan took the ring out of his big coat and proposed.
As he slipped it on her finger, a gaggle of moviegoers burst into applause.
It was so them
As e.e. cummings' "i carry your heart with me" was read, Carrie mouthed the words to Brendan. To her, these words are as meaningful as her formal vows.
Carrie and Brendan, who is now an energy auditor for the nonprofit CADCOM, spent more time planning the music for their wedding than any other element.
"I insisted on playing Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance' as the first song of our reception," Carrie said. Their first dance was to Louis Armstrong's "A Kiss to Build a Dream On." Brendan made sure the Cure's "Close to Me" was played, because anything by the Cure reminds him of his beloved - a former goth kid.
An anniversary card sat on each of the 10 tables. The bride and groom asked their 90 guests to sign them, and for the next 10 years, they will open one on every anniversary.
This didn't happen at rehearsal
Carrie and Brendan never imagined that the speech by January, Carrie's sister, would be a poem that told the story of Carrie's life, from when she was growing up with Jan and their sister Annmarie, to when she told her sister about Brendan, to when he asked Jan for her blessing to marry her little sister.
Awestruck
Carrie and her father, Rosh, were heading downstairs to walk down the aisle when the day-of coordinator warned that Brendan and the groomsmen were about to walk beneath the staircase. "I backed up so he wouldn't see me, and I looked down and saw him walk by. I thought, 'OK. That's my husband,' " Carrie said. "As soon as I saw him there, that was all I needed. It was like, 'Just get me down the aisle, already!' "
Brendan couldn't wait for Carrie to walk down the aisle either, and from the moment he saw her, he never stopped smiling. "My mouth and cheeks were sore for three or four days after from the giant grin I had plastered on my face," he said.
Discretionary spending
A bargain: The reception. The couple's chosen date happened to fall during Glen Foerd on the Delaware's off-season, and the roughly 20 percent savings brought the cost within their budget.
The splurge: Carrie and her mother, Bern, fell in love with her dress the moment she put it on. Even the price tag - twice Carrie's budget - didn't dissuade them. A few days after seeing a photo of the dress at Christmas, Carrie's uncles Ed and Larry told her they wanted to buy the dress as a wedding present.
The getaway
The couple, who live in Washington Square West, spent 10 days in Barcelona.
Love: BEHIND THE SCENES
Officiant
Charles Magee, Malvern
Venue
Glen Foerd Mansion, Glen Foerd on the Delaware, Philadelphia
Catering
Conroy Catering, Philadelphia
Photography
Melissa Chinici Photography, Cherry Hill
Music
Synergetic Sounds & Lighting, Bensalem
Dress
Paloma Blanca, the Wedding Store at Liz Clinton, Andover, N.J.
Groom's formal wear:
Men's Wearhouse, Philadelphia
Invitations
www.weddingpaperdivas.com
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Love:
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