The bride wore a sequin silk gown with golden sneakers. The groom, a bedazzled tux. They became husband and wife in the bitter cold of Market Street — in the middle of the Mummers Parade.
Juliana Bonilla, 25, and Stanley Wells, 32, met online three years ago. And they never envisioned their love story would include a storybook Mummers Parade wedding. But on Thursday, the pair, who marched with the Hegeman String Band, officially tied the knot as part of a Mummers Parade performance.
The wedding was a first, said Kelliann Gallagher, captain of Hegeman. At least in the string band division, anyway, she said. At least that anyone had ever heard of.
The Mummers Day matrimony had come together by chance, explained Gallagher, who served as the officiant.
Back in October, the South Philly string band was finalizing its parade plans when it struck Gallagher that a real wedding would be the perfect ending to their Las Vegas-themed routine.
“Of course, one of the aspects of Vegas is the little white wedding chapel,” said Gallagher. “So we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we can get someone to actually be married on New Year’s Day?”
They just needed a couple.
Evie Pastor, who serves as sergeant-at-arms for Hegeman, thought of her recently engaged daughter, Juliana. She had grown up around the Mummers, and her stepfather, Jon Pastor, plays first alto saxophone in the string band.
After all, Bonilla, of South Philadelphia, and Wells, of North Philadelphia, who both work as home healthcare aides, had a very Philly courtship. Their first date three years ago was at a Delaware Avenue eatery, where they watched the Eagles play.
She had fallen for him immediately.
“He was a gentleman,” Bonilla said of Wells.
He was drawn to her beauty and humor.
By October, the couple who have a daughter, Kehlani, 2, had already picked out a venue. Bonilla, who is shy and nervous in front of large crowds, was hesitant when her mother asked about a Mummers wedding.
“I don’t like all the attention on me,” she said.
But the more she thought of it, the more the idea grew on her. It would be special. She would be marching anyway. But this year, instead of a parade marshal, she’d be the bride.
“It was something different,” she said.
Her nerves grew as the parade drew close, and it had nothing to do with Wells. It was about the crowds and the television cameras that would be filming the band’s performance — and her wedding.
She found a long-sleeve gown with a long train and a Mummers vibe. And on Thursday morning, she and Stanley posed in front of the band’s Second Street clubhouse, showing off their golden sneakers.
They practiced their vows on the bus ride to Market Street, where the bands would perform before the judges. The bride packed a flask of Southern Comfort to warm herself against the cold — and to calm herself about the crowds.
And then they waited on Market Street — for hours — due to delays caused when the String Band Division called off its competition because of punishing winds. Many props were destroyed, and five people were sent to the hospital Thursday morning, Mummers officials said.
While no longer competing, the bands would still march.
By 4 p.m., Hegemen String Band finally begun to inch toward the bright lights and crowds at City Hall. As Jon Pastor played “Can’t Help Falling in Love” on his sax, Bonilla and Wells stepped off the band’s bus.
Taking each other’s hands before Gallagher, who would officiate in a bedazzled Elvis get-up, they wanted to at least exchange their vows in the quiet moments before the performance.
“I promise to stand by your side, to support and cherish you in all the seasons of your life,” Wells said.
“I promise to love you without condition or expectation, exactly as you are today and every day after.”
Then, with a showman’s touch, Gallagher shouted, “Stay tuned for the rest of the wedding.”
That took place a short while later, as the band performed its routine under the stars of Market Street. Braving the cold and the crowds, the couple strutted to the front of the line, each holding aloft signs saying, “I do.”
With that, Gallagher pronounced them man and wife to the grandstand cheers.
Evie Pastor began to cry.
“That’s enough, get a room,” joked a parade emcee, as the couple’s kiss lingered.
With that, Juliana Bonilla and Stanley Wells, now husband and wife, strutted down Broad Street, the bride’s nerves finally eased by the overwhelming emotion of the moment.
“I’m glad its done with,” she said. “I can get warm now.”
