Finding love and adventure together

June 24, 2023, in Springfield, Delaware County

Lauren studied at Temple, lived near campus, and saw no reason to venture very far from home or school for a fun night out with her four roommates. Then in 2015, one roommate started regularly crossing the Schuylkill.

“Stop ditching us and going to Drexel,” Lauren kidded her friend, Erica. “No, you have to come and meet these guys,” Erica said of the crew she visited — her high school friends from Lancaster.

Somehow, Erica persuaded Lauren and the others to make their way to a Drexel party in West Philadelphia, where Lauren met Alex — one of Erica’s friends from back home. “There was some interest on day one, for sure,” remembers Alex. Lauren found Alex interesting, too.

The two friend groups had so much fun together that from that night on, one or the other was always crossing the river. Lauren and Alex spent every outing getting to know each other better.

“She has this funny and spontaneous personality that is so much fun to be around,” said Alex. “She was pretty magnetic.”

Lauren, who is from Media, liked the kind way Alex treated everyone around him. “He is such a kind human,” she said. “He’s also fun and he loves to dance.”

A few months after they met, Alex thought Restaurant Week was a fine excuse to invite Lauren to dinner. “I’d been crushing on her pretty good for awhile, and I thought it was time to see where this was going,” he said. They had a great time together at Tequilas, and Lauren found Alex’s approach delightful. “I thought, ‘Wow! He actually asked me out on a date and we went to a real restaurant.’ I was intrigued.”

They hadn’t been dating long when Lauren left to teach English in Guatemala for six weeks. She had no cell service, but some places had WiFi, allowing her and Alex to exchange email letters.

Lauren returned to a relationship that quickly grew serious and a seriously adventurous birthday present: a skydiving trip.

“I had never done anything remotely like that before, but I thought Lauren, who was going to Guatemala, was an adventurous person and she had talked about it once, so it seemed like a great idea,” Alex said.

Lauren’s interest in skydiving had been more theoretical, but with tickets in hand, what could they do? They jumped out of an airplane together.

Their adventures since have involved many airplanes, but no more jumping out of them, said Alex, now 29. They have included zip-lining in Costa Rica and scuba diving in Colombia.

Lauren, who is now 30, teaches English as a Second Language in an area school. Alex works in finance, in investment management. In 2019, they got an apartment together in Center City. Six months later, due to the pandemic, they both worked from home, at opposite ends of the kitchen table. Thanks to class by Zoom, Alex learned the names of all of Lauren’s students. “We would do our best to alternate who was making a call from the table and take turns,” Alex said.

In October 2021, the couple left for North Cape May, where they planned to visit with Lauren’s parents at their beach house and join her brother, Daniel, and his girlfriend, Jess, for tastings at some local wineries. Daniel and Jess met them at Lauren’s parents’ place, but then at the first winery, “Daniel came out with this elaborate story of why he had to leave,” Lauren said. “It was strange. We had had these plans for awhile.”

Alex suggested a walk along the bay. Lauren wanted to go back to the house and change from sneakers to flip-flops, but Alex clearly did not want to make that short trip. “You can walk barefoot on the beach,” he suggested.

She did — but not silently. “Man, I wish I had flip-flops on,” she was saying when Alex stopped walking and turned toward her.

“There’s a reason I brought you out here,” he said, pulling an engagement ring from his pocket. “You know that I want to be with you forever. Will you marry me?”

She said yes, and they headed back to the house — Lauren could not wait to share the news with her parents. “Mom,” she called out when they got inside. “I’m back here cooking,” her mother called from the kitchen. Alex and Lauren walked to the back of the house, where 20 people started cheering, including both sets of parents, grandparents, and siblings.

The couple were married at Springfield Country Club in a traditional Episcopalian ceremony by the Rev. Ernest Galaz, pastor of Lauren’s family church, Christ Church Media. A reception for 175 followed.

Lauren and Alex wrote their own vows. “I said ‘You’re my person, and my favorite thing to do is just go on walks with you,’ ” Lauren said. “I also promised that Alex could play as much golf as he wants.”

“I promised to be the best version of myself for her, to try to get a little bit better every day,” Alex said. “I also joked about how she can be so tired that she can’t even open her eyes, yet awake enough that she can ask me to refill her water.” He promised to always get Lauren’s refills.

The couple took their first married dance steps to “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Their band, EBE Maui, then played Motown hits, classic wedding dance music, and, for the last song of the night, “Dancing On My Own” — the Phillies’ victory anthem.

“There are a few moments when we were dancing that I tried to freeze into my brain as little pictures, and one of those was during ‘Dancing on My Own,’ ” Lauren remembered. “All of our guests were dancing on the outside of the dance floor and we were on the inside, and then the band encouraged everybody and they flooded into us. We were surrounded on the dance floor by everybody we cared for.”

This is also among Alex’s favorite wedding memories, he said.

The couple spent two weeks in Cartagena, Colombia, where they spent mornings relaxing by the pool and afternoons taking a dip in the ocean. They both love Colombian food, so they took a cooking class together.

“Things never get stale when you have a partner with whom you like to try new things, explore, and just do life,” said Alex.

After all the wedding planning and two weeks of honeymoon adventure, Lauren and Alex plan to spend the immediate future enjoying some quiet and each other’s company at their home in Conshohocken.

“I love that even after a challenging day, I can come home and know that I’m going to be with somebody who will acknowledge that things can be challenging, but will also relieve that stress,” said Lauren. “Alex is able to be goofy and fun and I know when I get home and hang out with him, the world’s going to melt away.”