Love: Diana Landers and Brendan Black

As Diana walked with two friends across Temple's main campus in spring 2008, another student rushed over to greet her pals with it's-been-so-long enthusiasm.

Brendan, who grew up in Oxford Circle, had known Lauren and Kristi since he attended North Catholic and they Little Flower. Diana, also a Little Flower alum, hung out with Lauren and Kristi back then but knew she had never met Brendan.

Now that she had, Diana felt an instant attraction. Brendan was handsome, but that was just part of it. She liked his energy, his outgoing personality, his goofy friendliness.

"It was nice meeting you," was all she got before the kinesiology major darted off to class.

"Who was that?" Diana asked her friends. "I need to know everything about him."

That June, Diana, Lauren, and Kristi spent a weekend at a Wildwood condo. Kristi walked out to grab a few things at the store,but quickly returned - with Diana's crush. Brendan, who was visiting friends at the Shore, just happened to walk by.

"Who are you, again?" Diana asked him, all cool. When he turned to check out the balcony, she and her girlfriends high-fived.

Brendan put off his return trip to Philadelphia to join them at a house party, and there he learned more about Diana, a biology major who had grown up in Port Richmond. He soon was crushing, too. "She is one of those people who is always smiling, and her smile is kind of contagious," he said. "She is so happy, and that makes me feel happy."

They shared a few drinks, and then a kiss. As they talked, Brendan absentmindedly picked up a Magic Marker and drew a smiley face on his wrist. Diana admired it, so she drew one on her wrist, too.

Everyone found a chair, a couch, a corner to crash in. The next morning, Brendan absolutely had to head home. "We made our smiley faces kiss, and then I left."

They chatted on AOL Instant Messenger, but Brendan spent most of July visiting family in Ireland, where his mom had grown up. When he returned, they had their first real date, walking around South Street, then by the river.

"We've been together ever since, no breaks," said Brendan.

Always together in the romantic sense, they were largely physically apart for years. After graduating from Temple in 2010, Brendan earned his doctorate in physical therapy from Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. Diana graduated from Temple in 2012, then earned her doctorate in pharmacy at the South College School of Pharmacy in Tennessee.

How did they get through it? "With a lot of sad movies and ice cream," said Diana.

They also Skyped for at least an hour daily, constantly texted, sent each other old-school physical letters, and saw each other during holiday and summer breaks.

By July 2014, Brendan, who is now 27, had finished his three-year program, moved back to Philadelphia, and landed his job at Fox Rehabilitation.

One of his Irish cousins was getting married, so he and Diana, now 26, planned a vacation in London and Northern Ireland around that event. Brendan secretly made additional plans, set to unfold at the Pomeroy church where his parents, Christopher and Bridget, had wed 30 years before.

At each airport, he made some excuse so Diana went through security just ahead of him. If a certain piece of metal set off the detectors, he didn't want her to see what security would find. "I did not want to propose in the middle of a body scan," he said.

A few days into the trip, before his cousin's wedding and their visit to the church, they walked into a coffee shop near the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. As soon as their phones hit the WiFi, they buzzed and buzzed with messages from her parents, Ernie and Bonnie.

"I needed to call home immediately," Diana said. "My grandfather had unexpectedly passed away."

Diana was extremely close to her Dziadzi Stanley, and the loss hit her hard. Brendan drove them to his aunt's house in Belfast. "We spent the next 10 hours trying to get an emergency flight home," he said. They left the next morning, a week ahead of schedule.

The funeral was Thursday. The Sunday after, Diana had to go back to school in Tennessee, and they wouldn't be together again for three months. Brendan couldn't wait that long.

"I convinced her to go to some food-truck festival thing at Eakins Oval," he recalled. They ate, and he asked her to walk to the Art Museum. Diana felt no particular need to trace Rocky's steps with the tourists, but Brendan said, "Please," so she did. They were standing at the top of the steps with their backs to the city when Brendan asked a group of girls to take a video.

Before that could make Diana suspicious, he asked, "Will you marry me?"

"Shut up!" she said, thinking her goofball of a boyfriend was joking around.

His eyes said this was no joke, so she said yes.

Later, Brendan told her about his original proposal plans, and that their families, including her grandfather, were in on it. She felt great knowing Dziadzi knew.

After Diana, who is now a pharmacist for CVS/Target, graduated in June, the two bought their home in Port Richmond. Their backyard touches her Babci Irene's.

The couple wed at the church Diana grew up in, St. Adalbert's Roman Catholic. Their officiant, Father Kilty, had been Brendan's track coach in high school and his professor during his first year of college at La Salle University. Lauren, one of the friends who helped get these two together, was a bridesmaid.

The newlyweds walked back down the aisle together to a church full of people singing the Polish song "Sto lat" to wish the couple 100 years of happiness.

The 180 guests who celebrated with them at Lucien's Manor included residents of London and Ireland, cities across the United States, and lifelong Philadelphians.

Their first-dance song, Etta James' "At Last" was a nod to those lonely days at grad school in different states. The LOVE ice sculpture represented their favorite city - the one they live in together.

This is a couple who were more worried about interrupting their own wedding with the giggles than with tears, but wedding vows are a powerful thing. "We both had to take breaks," Diana said. "I kept looking at him and thinking about every single word I was saying."

"I had to work very, very hard not to cry at the altar," Brendan said. "The priest said, 'Repeat after me,' but at one point, although I heard the words he said, my mouth just wouldn't work. He said it again, and again my mouth wouldn't work. The third time, I held up a finger to show him I just needed one minute. Then I got it."

By then, everyone was crying. "I don't think I have to worry about you guys," Father Kilty told the couple.

A bargain: DJ Mike skillfully blended authentic Polish songs with Irish tunes and Top 40 - and cost about 30 percent less than others the couple considered.

The splurge: Brendan was giddy to learn that Studio Nine Photography had a drone. "I'm usually a pretty stingy person, but that was $750 more, and we had to get it."

The couple finished the trip they had started in summer 2014, staying several days with Brendan's Granny Annie, who could not travel for the wedding, and walking through the church where his parents wed. Then they spent a week in Rome.