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They're on track for wedded bliss

E-mail|Link|Comments () May 16, 2009 05:22 PM

The bride and groom smiled after stepping off the train. The conductor even had a boutonniere.

By Bella English, Globe Staff

If marriage is a journey together, then a Massachusetts couple picked a fitting place for their wedding today: a commuter train rolling through the suburbs west of Boston.

Lauren Richey, 36, and Scott Miller, 40, got hitched aboard Train P556, heading inbound from Southborough to the Wellesley Farms station on the Framingham/Worcester Line. The Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad said it was a first.

Dozens of spectators applauded as the train rolled into the station this afternoon and the wedding party, in high spirits, stepped off. With Richey in white holding a bouquet of bright flowers and Miller in a tux, they posed for photos as a bagpipe band played before heading off to the reception.

For Richey and Miller, there was a special significance to the train. It's where the couple met in May 2005, the Globe reported today.

Richey, a veterinary pathologist, noticed Miller five years ago and called him "Bike Man" because he always brought a fold-up bicycle aboard. She wondered if he was a bike messenger. Then one day, he sat down right in front of her and she struck up a conversation.

It turned out he wasn't a bicycle messenger but a drummer who works in the music technology division of the Berklee College of Music.

Thus began conversations about everything from jobs to music, books and friends. Other train regulars would join in: "BlackBerry Joe," "Neck Pillow Guy," "Boots Girl," "Barbershop Dave." For an hour each weekday morning over the course of a year, the couple talked. Richey was going through a divorce and not looking. Miller had a girlfriend.

Still, Richey loved Miller's long, curly hair; he had a great smile and was cute, she thought. As for Miller, he loved her long, dark hair and expressive hazel eyes.

By 2007 her divorce was finalized and his relationship had ended. One day Miller brought her flowers on the train. They began dating, and a year ago he proposed in Acadia National Park in Maine.

The couple live in Miller's house in Southborough and still ride the train together. Their wedding had a train theme, with an invitation that looked like a commuter rail ticket, and a program that looked like a train schedule, among other things. Two of the ushers will be friends they met on the train: "Class Ring Guy" and "Train Stephanie."

Martin Finucane and Jonathan Wiggs of the Globe staff contributed to this report.