Love |

Married

Oct. 20 at Le Bec-Fin, with Rabbi Gregory Marx officiating. The 75 guests enjoyed a cocktail reception before the ceremony. An eight-course tasting menu designed by chef/owner Georges Perrier followed the vows, and the night was capped with a 1930s-style ball.

They met

On move-in day at Vermont's New England Culinary Institute, 2004. Katherine, now 25, was struggling with a television set. Joshua and his dad, Richard Berman, tried to come to the rescue. Even though the Berman men dropped the television down a flight of stairs, Joshua, now 26, and Katherine quickly became friends.

But Katherine said no to anything more. Her mother, Victoria, had died of breast cancer in August 2002. Her father, Steven, had died of a stroke a decade earlier, in January 1992.

Katherine was honest with Joshua - she told him she did not want marriage or children, and would never date him. So he never asked her on an actual date. But he always came up with a new restaurant for them to try or movie to see.

"He proceeded to date me without ever telling me," she said. "I had a line firmly drawn in the sand, and he proceeded to tunnel under it."

He asked

Approximately 75 times. And Katherine always said yes, joking. On April Fool's day 2006, Joshua proposed again. "I hung up the phone, and it felt different," she said. "I didn't realize I'd fallen in love with him or even that I was dating him until my best friend said, 'You're such an idiot! You've been in love for over a year now!' "

On Sept. 5, 2006 - Joshua's 25th birthday - he proposed for the last time, complete with roses and a ring box.

9 to 5

Katherine, originally from Houston, is a biochemist who analyzes building materials by day. She also designs and creates wedding veils and baby clothing from handmade lace. Josh, who grew up in Lower Gwynned, is taking time off from his catering work to pursue a career in massage therapy.

Making a home

The couple lives in Ambler.

First steps

To "The Continental" performed by the Slicked Up Nines.

Doing it their way

With the help of wedding planner Sarah Doheny, this couple created an evening straight out of the 1930s. The bridesmaids wore custom-made black-and-silver gowns from a Badgley Mischka pattern. They and the bride wore waves and pin curls in their hair. The bride and groom arrived separately in a 1929 white Rolls-Royce. A swing band entertained.

Katherine's white silk dress, with its high neck, caped front and low back, was chosen for her before she had even met Joshua - by her mother.

"My mother knew she was dying, and she wanted to make sure she was involved," Katherine said. "She picked out the pattern from Vintage Vogue. It's very, very special."

The bride is very close to Debbie Emmerson, the English nanny who helped raise her. Emmerson flew in to give Katherine away, and the couple observed an English tradition in her honor: After the vows, a dirty chimney sweep kissed the bride and shook hands with the groom and the entire wedding party for good luck.

Bloopers

Once Katherine began wedding-dress fittings, weight started coming off, and on the day of her wedding, the dress didn't fit. "I had safety pins holding up my custom-made dress," she said.

Katherine says

"Do it for the joy, and not for anything else. Enjoy the day - you only do it once if you do it right."

Honeymoon

Ten days in Italy, where shopkeepers who learned they were on their honeymoon poured Champagne and presented gifts.