Weddings: Filiz O'Brien and TJ Leigh

Moments after they met, they danced.

It was November 2007, and Filiz and TJ were students at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, out with mutual friends at a little joint serving sushi by day and dance tunes by night. Their friends couldn't believe that two people who shared not just friends, but interests and world view, had never met. One voiced the conclusion the group reached: "You guys should really talk."

They did, in the short, loud bursts the setting allowed. Then, "TJ decided to salsa dance with me in the middle of this bumpin' club," Filiz recalled.

The next morning, he called with a lunch invitation to an oceanside restaurant where they ate little and talked much. TJ grew up in Wyncote. While Filiz had lived in Jupiter, Fla., since her junior year of high school, she had spent the eight years in Lansdale, where her family is from. The two of them were soon spending every moment they could together.

"She's very independent," TJ said. "I liked her and looked up to her at the same time."

"He very sincerely cares about everyone," said Filiz. "I always need to think about being a better person, but for TJ, it's naturally ingrained in him."

They were cautiously smitten. Filiz, who earned her bachelor's degree in ceramics, had applied to grad school at Georgetown, while TJ had another year left in his marketing and management program. "We knew we didn't want to see other people," he said, "but we didn't know how far it could go."

After Georgetown wait-listed Filiz, she decided to stay at FAU another year to study art history and give herself time to figure out her professional life and her love life.

That summer, she interned at Cooper Hewitt, part of the Smithsonian Institution, in Manhattan. TJ stayed on Long Beach Island and worked at Farias Surf & Sport, as he had every summer since he was 15. They enjoyed city and Shore together, then headed back to FAU. After graduation, TJ landed his job as group-operations account manager at Gate 1 Travel in Fort Washington, and Filiz's best graduate-assistant offer came from Drexel, where she earned her master's in arts administration.

"I feel like the universe led us back to Philadelphia," she said. For a time, TJ lived at home in Wyncote, and she with her sister, Ayla, in Warrington. Less than a year of daily commuting persuaded the two to live in town, and in 2010, they rented a Fairmount apartment on the block where they still live with a former street cat named Pierre.

Filiz worked in membership and visitor services for the Philadelphia Museum of Art until last year, when she became Opera Philadelphia's membership manager.

The couple love to ski and snowboard, and they travel annually to Vermont to do so. On a Friday morning in February 2015, the top of Stratton Mountain was as beautiful a setting as TJ knew it would be, but way more crowded than he'd hoped. That afternoon, he suggested the Polar Bear trail - a challenging black-diamond slope. TJ stopped halfway down, and Filiz followed him off to the side of the trail. "Something's wrong with my board," he told her. But really, he was getting to a different kind of diamond, which was in its clamshell box, inside a cardboard box, inside a drawstring bag that was connected to the key hook in his cargo pocket, and zipped and Velcroed in for good measure.

After the unpacking delay, TJ knelt. "Will you marry me?" he asked.

"Filiz looked like the kid from A Christmas Story, bundled into her jacket and gloves," said TJ, who is now 29. "She said yes, but she couldn't get her glove off to accept the ring."

Meanwhile, both of them were having trouble standing still on the steep slope. "I'll give it to you at the bottom of the mountain," he told her. She was off. "I was crying in my goggles the whole way down," said Filiz, now 30.

In the warm lodge, he put the ring on her finger.

Their phones buzzed with good wishes the whole drive back to Philadelphia.

The couple wed at Material Culture, where the abundance of colorful rugs and the Mediterranean reception menu were nods to Filiz's Turkish heritage.

Filiz's dad, Jack, died in her early childhood. She walked down the aisle solo until TJ met her halfway, and they walked together to the altar.

TJ's cousin Zach, whom the couple deemed "the most holy of the cousins," officiated. Two friends, both named Alex, read love-song lyrics, including the Bouncing Souls' "True Believers."

At the end of the ceremony, the Alexes surprised the couple by leading all 135 guests in singing Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."

The newlyweds walked back down the aisle through a shower of confetti.

Rather than the typical toast, TJ's parents, James and Jacqueline, did a Polish blessing, dipping a piece of bread in salt to symbolize preservation of the marriage and sharing it with the couple.

Filiz's mom, Incigul, and her Aunt Leyla and Uncle Jim, who helped raise her, performed a rap that told the couple's story to the rhythm of some classic '80s jams.

One by one, the wedding party walked down the aisle ahead of the bride until she was alone at the back. "That's when I almost started crying," Filiz said. "You're the last one, and everyone is waiting for you. It was very exciting, and I couldn't believe it was happening."

TJ had similar feelings when he and his sister, Amanda, a bridesmaid, locked eyes. "She was on the verge of crying, and I had to hold back my tears, too," he said.

And then it was time for TJ to meet Filiz in the middle of the aisle. "All my attention was on her at that point."

Filiz could see both joy and confidence in his steps toward her. "My nervousness melted away when I saw him."

Best bargain: Jacqueline, whose new daughter-in-law calls her "crazy talented," made the bride's headpiece and veil and the couple's cake.

The splurge: The venue wasn't the least-expensive place they considered, but it was the most perfect place.

The couple plan to travel abroad later this year, destination to be determined.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Venue: Material Culture, Philadelphia
Catering: Chef Aliza Green, Material Culture
Photography: Maria Mack Photography, Philadelphia
Dress: Designed by Anna Campbell, purchased at www.preownedweddingdresses.com
Flowers: Eventricity
Music: DJ Greg Schubert of Untouchable Entertainment Group

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