Weddings: Nicole Yohn and Jason Goodspeed

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Smart and science-minded, she's not so great at physics. Nicole is pretty, so when her eyes darted to his paper in 2007, Jason let her take a good look.

Then a sophomore biology major at Denison University, Nicole soon realized junior biochemistry major Jason would make an ideal lab partner. "He sat in the front row and he asked so many questions," she said.

Not only did Jason, who grew up in Fairlawn, Ohio, and Nicole, from Kent, work well together, they enjoyed each other's company. At the end of the semester, he suggested dinner, and the two hit TGIFridays.

The conversation was so good "we didn't want it to end," Nicole said.

"Maybe I was a little better at physics, but she is intellectually my match," Jason said. What really got him: "Whatever is important to her, she will put herself on the line and dedicate all her energy, time, love, and focus on that person or thing."

Takes one to know one, says Nicole. "He's the most compassionate person I've ever met. He would drop everything if a friend or family member needed something."

They've been together since Date One, although not always geographically.

After his 2009 graduation, Jason worked as a lab tech at Tulane University for a year. He then moved back to Ohio to earn his master's in pharmacology from Ohio State University. By then, Nicole was in Philadelphia, where she is now a doctoral student in neuroscience at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

For six years, the couple saw each other mostly on FaceTime.

In August 2014, when Jason was finishing his degree, they met for a week in Savannah, Ga.

On their second day in town, they walked to Forsyth Park and the fountain that's one of Savannah's best-recognized symbols. Jason's mojo was thrown off by a hovering man who was seemingly gearing up to ask for cash. They walked a little farther, beneath the branches of large trees.

"Nicole, you know that I love you, right?" he asked. "Yeah," she said. "I love you, too!"

She hugged him and was surprised to feel his heart beating against her. Before she could ask why, he knelt. "Nicole will you –"

"Yes!" she interjected, pulling him up to his feet for another big hug.

They enjoyed their romantic secret for most of the week, telling only their tour guides on a kayak trip to Tybee Island. The couple wrote "WE'RE ENGAGED!" in the sand, and the guides took a photograph that became their Facebook announcement.

In January 2015, Jason moved to Philadelphia, joining Nicole in Graduate Hospital, where they still live. He's a science writer who specializes in grant writing for the biotech industry.

In addition to her studies, Nicole is an indoor cycling instructor.

How many Philadelphians does it take to get a couple married during a blizzard?

For days, the couple had unsuccessfully willed winter storm Jonas to stay away. The day before their wedding, just hours before the reception for 50 family members and friends, their planned venue was first to cancel. Then the officiant. Then the makeup artist.

The couple wasn't mad - who could be mad at people who didn't feel safe driving or asking their staff to drive in two feet of snow? They were determined.

Nicole called Amber, her contact at the Hotel Palomar, where the couple and their parents planned an elegant post-ceremony dinner. Amber and hotel event planer Erin promised to find a perfect spot for the couple and their six guests: Nicole's parents, Michael and Lisa; Jason's dad, Gary, and stepmom, Karen; and his mom, Rose Marie, and stepdad, Tom.

Nicole ran to the florist who was making her bouquet and Jason's boutonniere. The original venue, a museum, needed no adornment, but the hotel space would require something to frame the spot where the couple would stand. Pure Design delivered, figuratively and literally, with two huge, all-white arrangements it brought to the hotel that night, in case the weather got worse - which it did.

Nicole, now 27, and Jason, 29, hurried to get dressed and meet their friends and family for the night-before reception at their favorite neighborhood restaurant, Los Camaradas.

Everyone was eating, drinking, and taking selfies for the guest book when the couple learned their original officiant could not make it through the snow.

She emailed the beautiful, custom ceremony, and Jason's stepmom, Karen, said she'd get ordained online. Never having married people before, Karen called Journeys of the Heart officiant Susan Harte seeking advice, which Susan gave free.

The next morning, makeup artist Jessica, from Daneene Jensen Associates, said she couldn't get to the hotel. At 9 a.m., Nicole's dad said he'd bring Nicole to Jessica, and they grabbed the makeup kit she'd dropped off the night before and were off. Blocks away from the destination, they skidded into a snowbank. Strangers with snow shovels materialized and dug the car out, offering Nicole good wishes and turning down cash. Moments later, the car was struck by a snowplow, and Nicole and Michael gave up.

During their ordeal, Nicole's mom lamented the wedding predicament to a couple on the elevator. Both New Jersey lawyers, the man, Grey, said he'd been ordained and would happily marry the couple and file their paperwork.

Back in her room, Nicole opened the makeup kit and FaceTimed Jessica, who guided her through the application.

The couple's photographer - who with her husband's help had dug out her car and traveled the short distance to the hotel - documented the signing of the marriage license and the legal ceremony, led by Grey.

Music played on someone's iPad, and Karen led Nicole and Jason's beautiful ceremony about their love and lives together. She and the other parents each read a blessing.

One thing went off exactly as planned: The Palomar put on a fancy dinner for the couple and their parents with hor d'oeuvres, champagne toasts, and a wedding cake from Whipped.

Everyone who had to cancel refunded their day-of costs.

"We felt like people all around this city were going above and beyond for us, and that was so nice," Nicole said. "It was also about making do with what you have. I wouldn't change anything about it."

"There were so many fires we kept putting out, I wasn't sure we were going to get married on the 23rd because it was not clear whether Mother Nature would allow it," Jason said. "When Nicole's father walked her into the room, I knew we were really going to get married." It was an amazing, triumphant feeling.

"When I put the ring on Jason's finger, it meant so much," Nicole said. "I had been wearing my engagement ring, and I was so excited for him to be wearing his ring, to accept a ring from me."

A bargain: For the bouquet, boutonniere, and those emergency flower arrangements, Pure Design charged just $400.

The splurge: The work of Asya Photography would have been "worth every penny" even if Asya hadn't assigned herself the role of blizzard-wedding-coordinator. "She's amazing," Nicole said.

A week in St. Lucia.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Officiants: Ceremony written by Intentional Weddings, Narbeth; legal ceremony performed by: Grey Dimenna, a New Jersey attorney; wedding ceremony performed by Karen Tinley, stepmom of the groom, with free advice provided by Journeys of the Heart, Jenkintown
Venue: Day-before reception: Los Camaradas, Philadelphia; ceremony and family dinner: Hotel Palomar, Philadelphia
Photography: Asya Photography, Philadelphia
Flowers: Pure Design, Philadelphia
Dress: Jill Stuart for BHLDN

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