Weddings: Barbara Willey & Robert Iannozzi Jr.

They met in first grade at Lansdale's St. Stanislaus Elementary in 1981. Assigned to seats across the lunch table four years later, Barb and Bob became friends.

That friendship grew through high school at Lansdale Catholic. They went to movies, met each others' families and went to prom together, all as very good friends.

Barb, who grew up in Lansdale, earned her nursing degree from Gwynedd Mercy University, and Bob, raised in Hatfield, earned his in pre-law from Villanova. After college, Barb worked at what was North Penn Hospital; Bob stayed at Villanova to earn his law degree.

They were still best friends whose dates were with other people, but slowly, new feelings crept in - feelings they hadn't discussed.

One night when they were out together, Bob flirted - not with Barb.

She was angry that he would flirt with someone else when they were clearly, if slowly, heading toward something together. He was angry that she was angry when their situation was so nebulous.

There were previous disagreements, but nothing like this.

"We went dark," Bob said.

"We didn't speak for eight years," said Barb.

Barb, now 41, became an operating room nurse at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia. Bob, now 40, became a real estate attorney with Dischell Bartle Dooley in Lansdale, where he is now a partner.

Each dated, but nothing stuck.

In summer 2011, Barb visited St. Stanislaus Church, and there was Bob's dad, tending a rose garden. Bob Sr. had always liked Barb. "Are you dating anybody?" he asked.

Bob Jr. was in the kitchen when his dad rushed in, smiling with his news of Barb. "Why don't you get back in touch with her?"

"Nah," his son said. "Too much time has passed. Barb forgot about me."

His mom, Rita, was not having it: "She didn't turn her back on you, Bob. You turned your back on her."

Bob knew she was right.

That night, he typed three single-spaced pages telling Barbara how much he missed their friendship. He had planted the roses his father was tending at church, and each had gone into the earth with a prayer to the Virgin Mary, he wrote. One prayer was that she come back into his life.

Barb read and reread the letter. "I cried like a baby. I held it. I carried it with me."

The day she got it, she was flying to New Hampshire for a funeral. She called her best friend from the airport. "Look, if I die on this airplane, tell Bob that I love him, and that I was always thinking of him."

Barb called Bob as soon as she was back in town, accepting his apology and offering her own. She had missed him, too. She had also prayed that they'd find each other again.

"Then we started laughing," Bob said.

"It was almost like no time had elapsed, like nothing ever happened," Barb said.

"I can't describe how good it felt," Bob added. "Like coming home again."

Barb was dating, and Bob had a girlfriend. As best friends do, they turned to each other for advice. After Bob's relationship ended, he heard himself tell Barb to "get rid of the bum!" she was dating and realized he had lost all objectivity.

This time, his feelings grew faster than hers. Barb was scared.

"I felt like a schoolboy," Bob said. "We would have these wonderful dates, and at the end, I wanted to kiss her, and I got a handshake and a hug."

At a wedding in January 2013, she looked up at him as they danced to Elvis' version of "Unchained Melody," and Bob thought, "The hell with it!" and kissed her.

"I haven't been the same since," Barb said.

Bob accompanied his brother to look at a house for sale in Hilltown, Bucks County. Bob couldn't stop thinking about living there with Barb, so he bought it.

On Labor Day weekend 2015, the couple drove to the Barto shrine of St. Padre Pio, their families' favorite saint. They brought two roses from the church garden and laid them at the shrine, then wrote intentions - requests they asked the saint to carry to God for them. "Please help her say yes," read the note Bob slipped beneath the gate. He turned to Barb and knelt. "You complete me," he said. "Will you spend the rest of your life with me?"

Barb knew about the Labor Day picnic at Bob's parents' place. She didn't know that he had sought her dad, Joseph's, blessing, and that he and her mom, Suzanne, were waiting with everyone to celebrate.

The couple married at the church they grew up in, the one that ran the elementary school where they met. The most nontraditional part of their traditional Catholic ceremony was the pack of priests who married them: Msgr. Joseph Murray, who led the church when they were kids, officiated. He was assisted by St. Stanislaus' current monsignor, the St. Stanislaus priest who led them through wedding prep classes, a former parish priest who remains a good friend, and the current priest at Villanova University.

Marie, sister of Bob's late friend Joseph, sang. Sister Thomasina, who taught them as children, played the organ, and the couple's first-grade teacher, Miss Spanier, was among their 220 guests.

Red roses adorned the altar and made up the bride's bouquet.

At the entrance of their reception at the William Penn Inn, guests were greeted by two photos of the couple, one recent, one from their 1992 prom. The caption: Then. Now. Thank you for joining us as we begin forever.

After dinner, the Hegeman String Band, with whom Barb had danced for a decade, arrived in full regalia.

Their guests left the dance floor only when the couple cut their cake.

Bob loves the moment from It's a Wonderful Life when the newlywed George and Mary drive off as everyone they love waves. "When we looked up from the cake, and everybody in that hall was gathered around us, that was our It's a Wonderful Life moment," he said.

"I never felt love from that many people all at once," said Barb.

Wagner's "Bridal Chorus" began, and the church doors opened. "She walks in, and the sun is streaming in through the stained glass behind her," Bob remembered. "I thought, 'This is for me, she's coming down to me. I'm the guy at the altar,' and all of those false starts and insecure nights didn't matter. Later, I told her, "I'd do it all over again if I could guarantee it would end with you."

As she knelt with Bob at the altar, Barb looked up at the familiar crucifix. "It was the same cross I had prayed to as long as I could remember. I looked up at it to pray for my family's health, for getting a good grade, and ultimately for finding the right person who would make my life complete. I said that one a lot, but it just wasn't happening," Barb said. "Now we were there, looking up at the same cross together. This overwhelming feeling came over me, and I could tell he felt it too. That's when I knew my prayers had been answered."

A bargain: Barb's off-the-rack dress was 40 percent off. Bob scored a pair of vintage Waterford crystal toasting glasses for $40 at auction.

The splurge: City Rhythm Orchestra - the couple loves Sinatra and swing and hired a 17-piece band to do it right.

A dozen days in Riviera Maya.