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Love: Meghan Masterson & Carmen Lex Jr.

March 20, 2015, in Washington Township, N.J.

Meghan Masterson and Carmen Lex Jr. (Rebecca Barger Photography)
Meghan Masterson and Carmen Lex Jr. (Rebecca Barger Photography)Read more

Hello there

Meghan was at an off-campus party in another Widener University student's basement. So was a guy she'd gone out with a few times, but was just not interested in.

Mr. Not Right was in pursuit, and Meghan wasn't up for setting him straight. "I was trying to get away from him, and so I went up to the first guy I saw and said, 'Can you just please talk to me right now?' "

"All right," Carmen said, figuring it was always good to meet someone new, and that he might as well see what was up with this woman.

That night? Not much. The guy she was trying to avoid took the hint, Meghan and Carmen exchanged screen names, and Meghan joined her friends.

Carmen and Meghan said hi whenever they ran into each other online or on campus. A few months later, on a Friday night during Widener's 2006 spring carnival, their usual hello turned into a longer talk. There was a kiss.

In the sunlight of Saturday, Carmen walked right up to Meghan and tried to kiss her again, in front of everyone. "He tried to kiss me in public! Like we were dating!" she said.

"She gave me the cheek," Carmen remembered. "That made me back off a little bit, but then we started talking more."

There were more group gatherings, then came summer break. Plans for a real first date were delayed because Meghan needed a tonsillectomy. Ten days later, Carmen was getting ready at his parents' house in Logan Township, Meghan at her parents' house in Washington Township. She was brushing her teeth when she started bleeding profusely. Her brother called Carmen and told him not to come over. Her mother called the ambulance.

A week later, Meghan's throat had healed, and Carmen made it all the way to the front door.

"You're going to hate me," Meghan told him when she answered. "My sister just went into labor. I have to go."

Carmen didn't hate her. He did wonder whether the fates were conspiring against him, but that was OK. "I'm always up for a challenge," he said. "And the times we hung out when we were at school, we really just clicked."

Meghan was determined to give this new thing a shot, too. "I just really liked him. I thought he was funny and cute and easy to talk to. I knew I wanted to see more of him."

They went to the movies a few days later, and by the end of that summer, before her sophomore and his junior year, both were certain they'd met "the one."

After her graduation in 2009, Carmen and Meghan got their first baby - golden retriever Logan. In 2012, they bought their Woolwich Township home.

How does forever sound?

Meghan, who is now 28, is an ICU nurse at Inspira Medical Center in Woodbury. Carmen, now 29, is a certified financial planner with Valic Financial Advisors.

One night in November 2013, they were preparing for vacation in Sedona, Ariz. However, Carmen wasn't in his sock drawer to pack, but to plot. He called Logan - aka the Sock Monster - and gave the dog a sock with a little box inside.

"I wanted him to walk over to Meghan, and then she would see there was something in the sock, and look to see what it was," he said. But Meghan walked into the kitchen, close to the one thing Logan loves more than socks - snacks.

Sock Monster dropped the sock. Carmen picked it up, and took out the ring. "Meghan, I love you so much. Will you marry me?" he asked from the kitchen floor.

On their way to the airport at 5 a.m., they dropped in on Carmen's early-bird parents, Carmen Sr. and Kathy, to share the good news. Before boarding, they called Meghan's parents, Jim and Dottie.

It was so them

Carmen and the groomsmen spent the night before the wedding at his parents' house, sprawled out in the family room on air mattresses, eating snacks and watching basketball. "It was just like my childhood, and it was really special to me," he said. The guys all got ready there the next morning.

In the week leading up to the wedding, weather forecasters said it might rain, or it might snow. The couple prepared for rain - wiping out a few Targets' supplies of matching umbrellas. The bride sought divine assistance, placing a small statue of the Virgin Mary at her window to ward off the rain.

Looking out the bay side windows of their church during the ceremony, the couple saw not rain, but big, fat snowflakes. "It almost looked like Christmas on the first day of spring," Carmen said. "It was beautiful," Meghan said.

She's Irish; he's Irish and (mostly) Italian. They married in a Catholic ceremony a few days after St. Patrick's Day. A bagpiper hired by her mother bookended their ceremony with songs. Their Mass was celebrated by Father Mike, who had baptized the bride and also presided over her two sisters' weddings. Songs were sung in Italian, with an Irish blessing sung during the Sign of Peace.

Carmen felt blessed by the presence of his good friend Mark, who is battling Hodgkin's lymphoma. Mark needs to avoid large groups of people while undergoing treatment, so the couple wasn't expecting him. But there he was at the ceremony, and Carmen was so happy and honored to see him.

Their reception for 300 was as informal as the ceremony was formal. "It was just a big party," Carmen said.

"It was all fast songs so that everyone was on the dance floor all night. It was pretty crazy," Meghan said.

Awestruck

The couple was dancing with Meghan's nieces, Meghan holding Ava's hand and Abby perched on Carmen's shoulders. "I'm sorry for ruining your first date," said Abby, whose birth postponed the couple's plans. Carmen thought back to that day, and about all that had happened since. "It made everything go full circle, from where we came from, to where we were that day," he said. "It made me realize how special it is to not only have my family that loves me, but another that has accepted me, as well, and to be there with the woman I love and all of them."

Another dance had the couple and their guests holding hands and forming two concentric circles. As an old Italian song played, one circle moved one way, the other in the opposite direction. "Everybody was passing each other, and I was holding Carmen's hand, and thinking how it was just us and everyone who loves us," Meghan said.

Discretionary spending

A bargain: The next-door neighbor of a groomsman has known Carmen since he was a kid. He gave the couple a deal on a photo booth that saved them half of what they would have paid with another vendor.

The splurge: Carmen, who has a hard time finding suits that fit properly, had a tuxedo custom made. "I did look pretty dapper," he said. "He did!" the bride agreed.

The getaway

A mini-moon in Orlando and Clearwater, Fla., to be followed by a two-week trip to Italy.

Love: BEHIND THE SCENES

Officiant: The Rev. Michael Matveenko, Church of Saint Charles Borromeo, Washington Township.

Venues: Holy Family Church, Washington Township; the Ballroom at the Ben, Philadelphia.

Photo: Rebecca Barger Photography, Jenkintown.

Music: Bagpiper: Michael Hannigan, www.njbagpiper.net. Mass: Barbara and Shauna Dever, Pitman. Reception: Events by GM, Sewell.

Dress: Oleg Cassini, purchased at David's Bridal, Deptford.

Groom's attire: Custom tuxedo, Steven Wasserman, Your Custom Clothier, Cherry Hill.

Flowers: Sunshine Flowers, Gloucester City.