Love: Weddings: Julie Martinez and Charlie Bowles

Back home in the city after a day of teaching honors English at Abington Senior High School, Julie walked to Devil's Alley to meet friends and watch the Flyers.

Arriving first, she sat at the bar. "This handsome, confident man in a suit sidled up to me."

That was Charlie, president of the M.B. Funding Inc. commercial finance firm, also there to watch the Flyers and also earlier than his pals. There was Julie, attractive and sitting by herself. "I was not expecting anything more than a five-minute pleasant conversation, but five minutes led to an hour."

Charlie's friends arrived, but, following guy code, they did not approach.

"Do you want to stay here and have another drink, or would you like to go somewhere else and have dinner with me?" asked Charlie, who grew up in Swarthmore and is now 46.

Julie texted her friends that they should make plans without her. Charlie never suspected she was waiting for anyone. "She was so in the moment," he said.

At Tria Taproom, they discovered a mutual love of sports. Julie, who grew up in Willow Grove and is now 38, played lacrosse at Upper Moreland High School. She had a full lacrosse and field-hockey scholarship to James Madison University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English before earning her master's in education from Temple. She coached varsity lacrosse at Abington for 10 years.

Julie liked Charlie's positive, upbeat attitude. She was floored to learn that his father had died of pancreatic cancer in 2005 and that he'd recently lost all his belongings in a house fire.

"It put so much into perspective for me," she said. "He made me feel like I wanted to be a better person."

Charlie, who holds an economics degree from West Chester University, channels his positive energy into raising money for animal rescues.

Julie, who had donated her free time to coaching and mentoring kids, was never interested in animals until she dated a man who raised money for them and lived with shepherd/collie mix Chase and cats Sammi and the late Jingles.

Their third date was a rescue benefit Charlie organized, where she met his family and friends. "She held her ground with them after knowing me for just two weeks, and everyone loved her," Charlie said. That's when things began to get serious.

Within five months, she left her Rittenhouse apartment and moved to Old City with Charlie.

Julie had this robe - terry cloth, covered in appliqué rubber duckies, and no longer so white after 18 years, even when fresh from the wash. "I'm going to get you a new robe because I can't take it anymore," Charlie would tease.

In October 2014, after a few trips to the jeweler, a special lunch with Julie's dad, and calls inviting her five best college friends to town, he asked the Bloomingdale's salesperson for the nicest robe the store had.

When Julie got home from school and errands, Charlie presented the robe. She laughed, slipped it on, reached into the pocket and pulled out a ring box. "Oh my God, was I supposed to see this?" she asked.

Charlie was already kneeling, with Chase, Sammi, and Jingles sitting around him.

"It's the most incredible feeling when everything you ever wanted for yourself is happening," Julie said.

They celebrated at Le Castagne with friends and family: Julie's mom, Diane; dad, Rick; and brother Matt; and Charlie's mom, Gerry; sister Bernice; and brothers John and Tommy.

The weekend after their engagement, the couple saw, loved, and booked the Downtown Club for a Sept. 25 wedding. Five days after that, Pope Francis announced he was coming to Philadelphia that weekend. Both the couple and the Cescaphe folks felt up to the logistical challenge, but at the end of June, the Vatican said Pope Francis would speak at Independence Park, so the Secret Service said the venue must close.

The alternative dates were Super Bowl weekend, which neither thought a good idea, the start of March Madness, which would have made the groom and his friends very sad, and Jan. 22.

"Watch, there will be a blizzard," Julie said.

She was right.

But all that was the easy stuff.

This is the hard stuff: When Julie and her mom shopped for her wedding gown, Julie noticed Diane's left eye was drooping, and her speech a little slurred. That May, Diane was diagnosed with stage II non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. From June through September, Julie and her dad didn't miss a single chemo appointment. And it was working. At her second-to-last scheduled chemo appointment in September, Diane and her family were told she was on her way to remission and recovery.

Then on the morning of Sept. 19 - six days before their original wedding date - Charlie's cell lit up with a call from Julie's dad. "I had to wake Julie up and tell her that her mom had died," Charlie said. No one knows what went wrong, but had the wedding not been rescheduled by the Pope, it would have been postponed by grief.

On Jan. 22, the snow didn't fall heavily until the unique and personalized ceremony, written and officiated by actor Colin Hanlon - Julie's best friend since eighth grade, when she played Peter Pan and he Captain Hook.

Julie's dad loves the guitar, and Julie and Charlie had asked him to play at the wedding. "My mom was so excited that we asked him, and he would practice the song, and she would listen."

After his wife of 43 years died, Rick wasn't sure he could get through the song, and Julie understood. But in front of 185 guests, Rick played John Denver's "Annie's Song," for Julie and Charlie, and for Diane.

Charlie made his late father his best man. When Charlie Sr. would have given a speech, Charlie read a letter he wrote to his dad about how his life turned out.

The reception featured tons of amazing food and Julie's favorite DJ: DJ Dee Jay.

By the end of the night, eight inches of snow had fallen and more was coming. The couple and many of their guests walked the block to the Hotel Monaco, where many were snowed in for the weekend.

The couple's first dance was to Frank Sinatra's rendition of Diane's favorite song, "Time After Time." Charlie soaked in every second. "I remember looking at her, dancing with my wife after we had had our wedding canceled, and she lost her mother, and then having this blizzard on our wedding day, and I said, 'This is our perfect moment.' "

"For everything that had happened, we were able to focus on our love, and all of our friends and family," Julie said. "As imperfect as the circumstances were leading up to that day, it was, by far, the most perfect day."

A bargain: Cescaphe was introducing a new craft beer bicycle cart, and in exchange for photos of the couple posing with it, the cart and the beer were free.

The splurge: The bride's Louis Vuittons.

Ten days in Capri this summer.

Officiant: Colin Hanlon, best friend of the bride.

Venue: The Down Town Club, Philadelphia.

Catering: Cescaphe Event Group, Philadelphia.

Photography: Sharyn Frenkel Photography, Hatboro.

Videography: Visual Rose, Lancaster.

Flowers: Beautiful Blooms, Philadelphia.

Dress: Amsale gown from Elizabeth Johns, Ardmore.

Music: Siena Strings quartet, Trevose; DJ Deejay, Philadelphia.

Do you have the date? Email us - at least six weeks before your ceremony - why we should feature your love story: weddings@phillynews.com. Unfortunately, we can't respond individually to all submissions. If your story is chosen, you will be contacted.

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