Love: Lauren Lubarsky & Matthew Tanzer

Hello there

All that 12-year-old Lauren wanted in early summer 1999 was to go home to Dresher.

It was her first year at Camp Ramah, a Jewish summer camp in the Poconos. "I cried every night because I was homesick," she said.

Sticking it out changed Lauren's life - and Matt's. But that would take a while.

That summer Matt, who is from Wilmington, was an 18-year-old, second-year counselor.

As fall approached, Lauren's homesickness was replaced with new friendships that brought her back each year through 2002. Matt remained a counselor all that time, but they have no specific memories of each other from those days.

They saw each other at camp reunions through the years but never said much beyond hello.

After earning a business degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Matt took a business analytics job at Shire Pharmaceuticals and moved to Chinatown. Lauren earned a psychology degree from Penn State Abington, became a research coordinator at Drexel University, and moved to the Art Museum neighborhood.

In spring 2009, when Lauren was 22, her mother decided it was time for Lauren to start dating nice Jewish boys and bought her daughter a subscription to JDate. Lauren and her roommates were scanning the bachelors when she spotted Matt's bio. "He is so cute! How is he single?" Lauren exclaimed. Her roommate told her it would be weird to contact someone she kind of knew in real life through a dating site.

Matt, who was then 28, never saw Lauren's JDate profile because she was younger than the age range he set.

Two weeks later, they saw each other at a Northern Liberties bonfire in celebration of the Jewish holiday Lag B' Omer.

They established their counselor-camper status from Camp Ramah, but that was about it. "I was on a date with another girl," Matt said.

Lauren sent Matt a Facebook friend request. Soon after, she got some very good news.

Her best friend Hannah's older brother, Isaac, is part of the Camp Ramah crowd and has been friends with Matt since they were boys. He was also his fraternity brother. Lauren, now a project manager at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, had often spent Memorial Day with Hannah at her family's Shore house. Somehow, Matt had never been invited. But that year, he was.

"When she heard I was going, she arranged for an invitation," Matt says. Not so, says Lauren. "I hadn't gotten a formal invitation, but it was always expected that I would be at the Shore house on Memorial Day."

The two decided to carpool. The conversation in the car flowed so smoothly and was so frequently punctuated by laughter that by the time they arrived at the Shore house two hours later, there was mutual interest.

The first night, a large group of friends had a barbecue and played games in the backyard. Lauren and Matt took a walk on their own and ended up going into the house and out onto the second-floor balcony, overlooking the ocean.

The sparks flew, and Matt ignored his friends' text-message pleadings to come back because the flip-cup team needed him.

How does forever sound?

In April 2011, Matt, who is now 31, met Lauren's father for coffee. He asked for his blessing to marry his daughter, then swore him to secrecy.

That evening, Matt stopped on the way to the couple's Center City apartment for flowers. Lauren, who is now 25, gave him a puzzled look when she saw the huge bouquet. His timing seemed strange, since they were leaving town the next day.

"What are these for?" she asked. "Well, they're for our anniversary," he said.

"You think these will last until the end of May?"

"No, they are for the anniversary of the day I propose to you."

Silence.

"Wait, what did you just say?" Lauren asked.

Matt took out the ring and asked Lauren to marry him.

"Absolutely!" she said. They called her parents, Nadine and Neil, and his, Daniel and Hinda, and many other family members and friends to share the news. Then they packed for Miami Beach.

It was so them

Joel Seltzer, the rabbi who married Matt and Lauren, was also a groomsman. "He was in my year at Camp Ramah. We became friends in 1990 when we were both 9 years old," Matt said. Two weeks before the wedding, Joel accepted the position of Camp Ramah director.

The reception for 228 included a 20-minute horah - the traditional Jewish dance during which the couple are lifted on chairs and their family and friends dance around them. "It was epic," Matt said, adding that the band was selected based on the fabulous horahs they lead at friends' weddings. "It just got the party started the way we wanted to."

This was unexpected

The bride's parents bought the couple a special piece of artwork on a trip to Israel last summer as a wedding gift. From far away, it looks like a Jewish wedding scene. But the picture is made of tiny words of a ketubah - the Jewish marriage contract.

Awestruck

The couple was photographed before the ceremony. Matt stood on the golf course and could hear Lauren's footsteps getting closer. He somehow followed the rules and waited for her to tap him on the shoulder. "I couldn't believe how unbelievably gorgeous she looked in her wedding dress," Matt said. "It was very emotional. It was like, 'OK, this is it.'?"

Before the start of the ceremony, Matt's male family members and friends sang traditional Jewish songs and shared drinks at the Tisch. Then they sang and danced him down the hall, to where Lauren was waiting, in Eastern European Jewish tradition. "I heard them, and I knew Matt would be there in the middle of them," she said. "I thought, 'This is what we've waited for.' "

Discretionary spending

A bargain: The photographer gave the couple a photo booth with a photographer, backdrop, and props. Friends and family loved it, and because the photographer was testing new equipment, it was free.

The splurge: The ketubah, made by Deborah Kaplan. It has images of the lake and outdoor synagogue at Camp Ramah and landmarks from Philadelphia and Jerusalem. It cost at least three times as much as a ketubah from a template would have, but the couple say it is worth what they paid and more.

The getaway

Three nights at The Lodge at Woodloch in the Poconos, with a 12-night trip to Hawaii in May.

Officiant

Rabbi Joel Seltzer, formerly of Temple Emanu-El in Providence, R.I.; he recently accepted the position of director of Camp Ramah in the Poconos.

Venue

Green Valley Country Club, Lafayette Hill

Food

Green Valley Country Club

Music

Sally Mitlas Orchestra, Jenkintown

Photography

Asya Photography, Philadelphia

Videography

TLJ Studios, Norristown

Flowers

Petal Pushers, Huntingdon Valley

Dress

Arielle Bridal, Ambler; dress by Maggie Sottero

Invitations

By Invitation Only, Dresher

Planner

Sarah Marquis, with Green Valley Country Club