In the 16 years that Clayton residents Kathy and Phillip Costello have been married, they’ve been through a lot.
Both had previously been married to other people. 20 years ago, Kathy had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis that robbed her of fine-motor coordination, along with the things she used to do as a minister to make people happy, like singing and ventriloquism. At one point, she was unable to walk, and it took her six weeks to recover that ability. While it never truly goes away, she has learned to live with it over the years.
“Since all the things that made her happy were taken away from her, she decided she was going to marry them (couples),” Phillip said. “Which meant she was going to marry them and I was going to fix up the yard.”
The couple later opened a wedding business in their backyard called Once Upon a Time Gardens, where Kathy, a 63-year-old ordained minister, helps marry people and Phillip, 71, works as a designer.
They eloped to Las Vegas in 2005, surrounded by around 20 family and friends. This past March, Phillip was ushered into the emergency room after having a bowel blockage, which led to him learning that he had stage four colorectal cancer. Phillip recalled that the doctors told him it had been forming over the past five years, since his last colonoscopy came back clean. The reason it was stage four was because the cancer had metastasized and spread to his liver and his lungs as well.
When Wish Upon a Wedding Outreach Director Paul Costello found out his father Phillip was diagnosed with stage four cancer, he encouraged him to apply to Wish Upon a Wedding, a Chicago-based nonprofit that provides weddings and vow renewals to couples in the U.S. facing serious illness or life-altering health circumstances.
“I told them, as I tell every couple, ‘Go apply. Let the board decide.’ And [the board] said, ‘Yes! This is exactly the kind of couple we want to marry’,” Costello said. “This is a very sick person; he could have another five years, that’s not the point.
“The point is while we’re still here, have some joy.”
Kathy and Phillip will renew their wedding vows on Dec. 14 at the Mansion on Main Street in Voorhees. While the couple has been married before, and have married many people over the past decade, this will be the first big celebration of their marriage that they’ve had together since their elopement.
Since 2010, Wish Upon a Wedding has granted more than 160 ceremonies and vow renewals to couples nationwide facing serious illness or life-altering health circumstances. Weddings can take anywhere from two to six months to plan, depending on the severity of the illness.
With vendors who agree to volunteer their services, Wish Upon a Wedding is able to grant weddings at no cost to couples. They include a ceremony scheduled between Sunday and Thursday, a guest list of up to 50 people, a wedding planner and hair and makeup for the bride.
“They do this for nothing out of love for the couples,” Costello said. “That amazes me. It amazes me every time it happens.”
Wedding planners Katelynn Zaccaria and Brittany Lawrence, owners of the wedding planning and design company Olive Street Events in Philadelphia, are participating in Wish Upon a Wedding for the first time, and have worked with Kathy and Phillip on their wedding service.
“It’s really meaningful,” Zaccaria said. “We’re extra grateful to be a part of this given the organization’s mission. We’re really happy to be able to participate in this.”
Wish Upon a Wedding seeks eligible couples to grant wishes to. To learn more or apply, visit https://www.wishuponawedding.org.
