Love: Jodi Salberg & Adam Diekow

Her Match.com profile revealed a woman as passionate about fitness, food and career as he was. When Adam read that Jodi also shared his love of dogs, there was no way he couldn't message her.

The man from Ithaca, N.Y., who then lived in Northeast Philadelphia, and the woman from Manalapan, N.J., then living in Roxborough, e-mailed and chatted on the phone a bit, when Jodi suggested they just meet up, already. Adam, who manages Le Meridien Philadelphia's events and beverage program, and Jodi, who teaches third grade at Kensington's Hunter Elementary, met face to face at Manayunk Brew Pub in March 2012.

"We had really good chemistry," said Jodi, who is now 29. "We had a lot to talk about."

"We just connected from the very first date we had," said Adam. By Date Four, both knew this was serious - partly because it was sometimes quite silly.

"She would push me into a trash can or a tree, and I would do the same thing as well," he laughed. "We are both very playful." But also, "I felt like I found someone I could really talk to. She understood me, and listened, and was not judgmental."

"Exactly what he said," Jodi agreed.

That summer, Jodi spent 10 days in Israel. Not even a week after her return, Adam was leaving town to join his family on vacation in Aruba. She was still overseas when he told his mother, Hilary, how wonderful Jodi is, and lamented how much he missed her. Mom had a solution: Jodi should come to Aruba.

Jodi was nervous - she'd only met Adam's mother and sister once or twice. But she missed Adam, too. She got herself a flight to Aruba, and Jodi and Adam, his sister and brother-in-law and mother, all shared the one-bedroom, one-bathroom timeshare for eight days.

"It was kind of amazing that we were able to make it through in those tight little quarters, and all get along very well," Adam said.

Jodi added, "If I wasn't right for Adam, or Adam wasn't right for me, I think we would have found out on that trip!" It was also great for both to learn that she got along so well with his family.

When they returned to Philadelphia, "she just started coming over more and more, and then we were basically living together" in the house they still share in the Northeast, said Adam.

One day's gorgeous spring weather in April 2013 inspired Jodi to call her man, and suggest they meet for happy hour after he finished work.

"Why don't you come home first and change?" Adam suggested. Jodi thought this was a little strange, but agreed.

As usual, the minute she stepped over the threshold, Gwen the Beagle ran down the stairs to greet her. But what was this card attached to her collar with a ribbon?

Jodi was not thinking what might seem obvious.

"The last time he surprised me, he gave me a dustpan," she said.

Adam is by nature more neat and tidy than Jodi, and the dustpan was his playful way to say that doing everything together includes cleaning together. It's a good thing they have a similar sense of humor! Jodi laughed, and Adam gave her a second surprise: flowers.

So Jodi wasn't sure what awaited her in that card. She found a sweet verse, with a handwritten "Will you marry me?" at the bottom. She looked up, and Adam was on one knee, and asked her again.

The couple was married by Wayne Siet, who was cantor at Jodi's childhood synagogue, led the youth choir she sang in, and led the funeral of her late grandfather, Jerry. Jodi's something borrowed was a diamond bracelet lent to her by her grandma Sheila.

The chuppah canopy was a tablecloth given to Adam's mother by her late parents, Ida and Ray, when she married Adam's dad, Norman. Adam's sister used the cloth as her chuppah as well.

The reception for 140 was held where Adam works: Le Meridien. The table names, displayed in custom frames of purple and cobalt blue, were all the couple's favorite restaurants, including Zahav, where they ate on the date they realized they were in love.

Right after waking on the morning of their wedding, Jodi read a card from Adam: For the first time in my life I am truly happy and love myself, and that is because of you. "I just broke down," Jodi said. "The words in the card really touched me; they were really special." After the ceremony, the hotel rushed the couple into a suite with a bottle of champagne. "It was nice to take a step back, just the two of us, and enjoy our first moment alone, married."

Adam is no dancer. "I have no rhythm at all. It's really quite pathetic," he confesses. So he was a mass of nerves when Rascal Flatt's "Bless the Broken Road" began, but then Jodi was in his arms. "Being there in the moment, seeing how beautiful she was, how perfect everything was, all that stuff just left. It was just her and I." Adam was less nervous when he and his mother danced to Boyz 2 Men's "A Song for Mama." And then his mama waived Jodi over to join them. "There I was with two of the more important people in my life," he said.

A bargain: Jodi used the same wine bottles that Adam's sister used at her reception to help create the couple's centerpieces. The bottomless bottles were placed over LED candles, and the couple's florist surrounded them with flowers.

The splurge: The 10-day honeymoon at Zoetry, in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. It's rare for these worker bees to take so many consecutive days off, and the resort was way higher-end than their usual. It was the trip of a lifetime, said Jodi.

Officiant: Cantor Wayne Siet of Temple Shaari Emeth, Manalapan Township, N.J.

Venue and Catering: Le Meridien Hotel, Philadelphia

Photo: Rebecca Barger Photography, Jenkintown

Music: Brian Latocha of Toner Sound, Aston

Dress: Designed by Stefan Jolie, purchased from Bijou Bridal, Ardmore

Planner: Judith Campbell of Campbell Studios, Philadelphia