Weddings: Erin Oldfield & Kyle McGettigan

On the June 2015 eve of her friends' wedding, Erin was with the bridal party at an Iowa City bar, thinking she might like to know the one friend of the groom who was a stranger.

Just as bride and bridesmaids decided to call it a night, the man with the bright blue-green eyes left the guy's pool game. Was he coming to say hello to her?

Nope.

Kyle hadn't noticed Erin. "The bride was leaving, so I went to say goodbye."

But notice her he did, once bride Brady introduced them. First, he and Erin traced the particulars: Erin knew Brady from her childhood in Marion, Iowa. She now lived in Des Moines and worked in cybersecurity crisis communications. Kyle, who is from Villanova, had met groom Jake playing Call of Duty online, then became close friends with him and Brady when they moved to Philadelphia for a few years. Kyle still lived in Philadelphia and was an IT company training content manager.

Their conversation quickly blossomed beyond the basics.

"He is a delightful mix of someone who is super-easygoing but yet has a little bit of a Philly edge and style," Erin said. "And I loved his cheesy one-liners."

"She is so beautiful and so smart - she's sharp!" Kyle said. "She's also passionate about many things and really loved the area we were in - which is where she went to college."

At midnight, Erin suggested the group abandon the bar for milk shakes and pie at a diner. Soon after, the groom needed to call it a night, but he wanted to encourage what was plainly happening between his friends. "Can you give Kyle a ride back to the hotel?" he asked Erin.

Outside her door, they kissed. In the morning, he texted, then brought coffee. They arrived at the wedding together - their togetherness so obvious the bride's mom said, "I thought you weren't bringing your boyfriend," and Erin awkwardly explained that, indeed, she hadn't, they had broken up months ago.

They met up the next day for brunch with friends, whom Kyle convinced to return his rental so he could spend his last few hours in town with Erin, walking through Iowa City.

Erin didn't know quite what was happening, she just knew it felt different from how anything ever had before. Kyle knew. "On Day 1, it was, 'It sucks that she lives in Iowa.' On Day 2, I thought, 'It's going to be difficult because she lives in Iowa,' " he said. "By Day 3, I didn't care that she lived in Iowa."

After a tearful goodbye, she picked up shih tzus Beast and Belle at her parents' house. "Did you meet someone?" her dad asked. "How did you know?" Erin asked incredulously. "I was young once," he said.

A week and a half of Facetime and share-your-day picture texts later, Kyle asked Erin to be his girlfriend.

She had once worked in D.C., and, before the wedding, had a D.C./Philadelphia trip planned with a friend. She went early and stayed late to spend time with Kyle - time that included celebrating Kyle's dad's birthday. Returning for Kyle's birthday in August, she met his whole extended family. Then he flew west for the Iowa State Fair and met hers.

It was obvious to everyone things were moving quickly, a fact that friends and family worried about until they saw them together, Erin said.

The week of the fair, she heard from her former boss in D.C. He wanted her back, and she could work remotely, from Iowa or anywhere.

Before Kyle went home, she told her family she would soon be doing life science and bioscience public relations for the Howard Consulting Group and moving to Philadelphia. Just before Thanksgiving, she and the pups joined Kyle, who recently became a database manager at Newtown Square's LHK Partners, in Fishtown.

In January, Erin, who is now 32, thought it sweet that Kyle, 31, wanted to celebrate the seven-month anniversary of the day they met.

"I took her to Jerry's Bar - the first place I took her when she visited Philadelphia the first time - and we had the most amazing dry-aged rib eye steak for two," Kyle remembered.

"We had this corner to ourselves, and through the big picture windows we watched snow flurries falling outside," Erin said.

When their plates were cleared, Kyle began talking of all that had transpired between them in so short a time. Erin said she had enjoyed every second of it and started to cry.

"That's when I got down on one knee next to her, and asked her to marry me," Kyle said.

"Holy sh-!" Erin said three times before finding the word yes!

Both ceremony and reception for 73 were held at the National Society of Colonial Dames of America. They were wed by their pastor at Beacon Presbyterian, Pastor Karen. The vows they wrote included a thank-you to Kyle's Grandma Stella. Stella credits the marriage to her prayers that her grandson would meet his true love, said to the Blessed Mother over candles lighted at St. Timothy's Roman Catholic Church. A reading from the Book of Ruth alluded to both the bride's willingness to relocate and the friendship and loyalty that the couple considers the foundation of their love.

Beast and Belle brought the couple their rings.

The garden cocktail hour featured the "Erin go bragh," a drink with vodka, elderflower liquor, and rhubarb bitters, and the "Manhattigan" - a Manhattan with chai vermouth. Both drinks were invented for the couple by Erin's sister Andrea.

Before the reception, Erin changed from wedding gown to a flowy satin number appropriate for the tango she and Kyle began when they reached the front of the room, shocking everyone who knows Kyle.

"I am not a dancer," confesses Kyle. He had taken an uncharacteristic and maybe improbable chance and worked hard with Erin to create something beautiful - a tango as metaphor. "I was so proud and happy afterward, with everyone clapping for us, sitting at the front of the reception next to my bride."

The couple sat with her parents, Joy and Alan, and his, Kevin and Tina. Kyles' mom and Erin's dad gave toasts that underscored for Erin how lucky she and Kyle are. "It was this palpable feeling of being cocooned by the people who are so close to us, and officially becoming part of each other's families."

A bargain: Rent the Runway didn't have the original dress the bride ordered. She didn't see the two replacements it sent until two days before the wedding, but she liked both more than the original. Erin wore one to the rehearsal dinner and one for the ceremony. She had also rented the tango dress. Total rental cost: Less than $400.

The splurge: Kyle's black-and-graphite tango shoes cost $300. "They have interchangeable soles to select depending on the surface I'm dancing on so I can glide," he said. "I didn't know this existed until the month before the wedding, but then I had to have them." Yes, there will be more tangoing.

After a few days in Philadelphia with her parents, the couple drove to New York City to see The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, then headed north for three days of ferry rides and picnics in Portland, Maine.

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Officiant: The Rev. Karen Rohrer, Beacon Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia.

Ceremony and reception: National Society of Colonial Dames of America, Philadelphia.

Food: Miles Table & Catering, Philadelphia.

Photography: Carolyn Woods, Kealy Creative, Silver Spring, Md.

Flowers: Flower Express, Bala Cynwyd.

Dress: Ceremony, Halston Heritage Dress; Reception, Nha Khahn, both rented from Rent the Runway.

Music: DJ Jamie Grimble, 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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