David Allman and Regina Martin exchange wedding vows as Linda Tunnell of United Methodist’s Mumford Chapel in Cochranton officiates. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) |
Reginas friend RACHELLE is in the photo, not the minister.
| By JOLAYNE GREEN Contributing writer |
Attire was farm casual, and the bride wore boots.
Floyd the pig and Abby the tabby kitty mingled with the human guests.
It was a wedding that went to the dogs -- well actually a horse, pig, cat and assorted other animals.
The recent nuptials of Regina Martin, 54, and David Allman, 58, certainly weren't run of the mill. That's because the animals had the run of the chapel along with 190 guests on Jan. 13.
Oh, and the chapel was actually the barn at Cochranton's Hog Heaven Rescue Farm , which is owned and operated by the bride and groom.
"It was a fun wedding in the barn, replete with a resident pig and two horses," said Hog Heaven volunteer Sue Mallick of Conneaut Lake. "The bride looked lovely, and a fun time was had by all."
Theirs is a love story that began on the streets of Pittsburgh in the 1980s as Pittsburgh police officers. Martin was the first female motorcycle officer, Allman a sergeant. He was married to another officer and later became a widower in 1995. She was a single mom raising a son alone from the time he was an infant. Both being in the department, their paths crossed through mutual friends.
"We would be many places together but separately," Martin said. Still, Martin had to break a few of her own rules for them to date.
"I never dated cops, and I never dated smokers, and it taught me never to say never," she said.
Allman also had to get used to a passion of hers, motorcycles.
"If he was going to be a part of my life, he had to have a bike," Martin said.
On a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Bora Bora, Allman proposed on Valentine's Day, but it would take them 10 years to get to the altar.
Hindering their plans was a law that meant Allman would lose his widower's pension, a substantial amount of money, if he remarried. They felt the loss of that money would mean the loss of the their dreams of running the nonprofit Hog Heaven.
For the couple, the recent ceremony only made their partnership official, and surprised the many people who thought they already were married.
"I had always known we were married under God's law, and someday we had to do it under man's law, and that's what we did," Allman said.
Before that, though, one has to back up in the story.
The pair met with a financial planner with the goal of planning their future -- to retire and move to a farm in Washington County.
"I was raised in the city, but my heart was in the country," said Martin, a self-professed tomboy.
A friend told them instead about Cochranton, a place they'd never heard of. They found a farm, traded in their Harleys for fencing and an animal trailer, and retired north.
"You can't really haul animals in a Harley," Martin said.
Having experience with animal rescues in Pittsburgh and a soft spot for animals, Martin and Allman turned their property into a safe haven for large animals in 1998.
The farm's mission is to rescue, rehabilitate, and foster abused, neglected and unwanted hoofed animals with the eventual goal of adopting them out into "forever homes."
It's not just a job but a way of life, and that's why, when it came time to marry, neither could think of any place else to do it.
"I would never have it any other way," Martin said. "This is our home, the beat of our heart. It's where we live and breathe, and what we worked very hard at. It would have been very pretentious to have it anywhere else."
When the pension law was changed earlier this year, the couple decided to marry. Time also became of the essence because Martin's parents' health was failing.
It became clear her father wouldn't make it to the wedding, but it was a shock when he died the day before it. Still, her mother was able to make it and her father's fun-loving spirit was felt.
"My dad was always the life of the party, so when the horse in the stall took a good hefty pee, I said to David, 'That's Dad,'" Martin said.
That wasn't the only reminder the wedding was anything but average. The centerpieces were made of carrots, apples and wheat grass, and they made nice treats for the four-legged guests after the wedding.
Friends helped the couple prepare the barn, and Allman applied stall freshener to take care of any objectionable smells.
Other details were more typical. Decor included lights, tulle and arbors. The bride and groom opted to wear a white dress and tuxedo. Vows were traditional, and the bride's son gave her away.
"He put his hands in the air and said, 'finally,'" Martin said.
With 150 or more animals to care for, it was back to work rather than take a honeymoon. Though the day-to-day life doesn't feel any different, being married finally just feels right.
Calling the day superb, Allman said he was glad they did it their way.
"I married my soul mate, and it was the appropriate thing to do, on the appropriate place at the right time," he said.
Last changed: February 23. 2007 7:04AM