Meet the newlyweds, Beth and her husband Scott Wimsley of Huntingdon Valley. They were married on June 18th.
Like any couple, they were just hoping it wouldn't rain.
"That was the only thing that we were hoping for the whole week, 'I just hope it doesn't rain!'" said Beth Wimsley.
And it didn't, and everyone was happy as they traveled on their rented limo bus.
What they never planned on was the limo bus carrying the wedding party breaking down on Roosevelt Boulevard as they were on their way to the reception, less than 5 miles away.
"And the guy turns around and says, 'We're stopped, we're done.' And I said, 'What do you mean, 'we're done'? And he says, ' The car won't go anymore,'" explained Scott Wimsley.
They were stranded in the parking lot of United Refrigeration.
"I thought we were going to end up having our reception in the parking lot," said Scott. "We had no idea how we were going to get 20 people to the reception hall."
On any given day, SEPTA buses travel up and down the Roosevelt Blvd on daily routes. With schedules to keep, it was highly unlikely that a driver would stop and take the time to investigate a wedding party stuck on the side of the road.
But Jay Sowel did.
"I see a wedding party, and I said to myself, 'That is a really weird place to take wedding pictures,'" Jay Sowel said.
Sowel decides to investigate, and the desperate party pleads for his help.
The wedding party tells Sowel they needed to get to South Hampton.
"Well, that's what I do," said Sowel. "I drive buses, so everyone jumped on."
To Thank Sowel, the wedding party decides to sing Tiny Dancer, one of his favorite songs.
"I was like, 'Wow! No-one is going to believe that I have 20 people from a wedding party on my bus singing Tiny Dancer to me'. That was the highlight of my life," said Sowel.
They were an hour late, but the couple says Sowel got them to their wedding reception.
"We were extremely happy, we were so lucky that Jay was driving the bus," Beth said.
"But I give all the credit to SEPTA. I mean, there was no problem, they invited 20 people on, and they dropped us off where we wanted to go," said Scott.
The president of the limo bus company, Elegant Arrivals of Bethlehem tells us they plan to reimburse the couple for their troubles.
But the moral of the story is, if you're limo bus breaks down, you better hope Jay Sowel is around the corner driving a SEPTA Bus.
