Neal Santos and Andrew Olson are in love with Philadelphia almost as much as they are in love with each other – and it was their compelling love story for one another and the City of Brotherly Love that won them a wedding aboard the “Love Train.”
Each year near Valentine’s Day, the City of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program organizes the wedding of one couple on a privately chartered train tour of its “Love Letter” mural project. The event, now it its fifth — and potentially final — year, will for the first time feature the wedding of a same-sex couple; Santos and Olson, two longtime Philly residents, were selected among a number of applicants for the Feb. 8 wedding.
The couple, together since 2009, operates an urban farm together next to their West Philly home, in addition to maintaining their own careers. Together since 2009, they decided to tie the knot about two years ago but the self-described workaholics kept putting the wedding off, preoccupied largely by the time and energy required to maintain Farm 51, their Kingsessing-area urban farm and market passion project.
The Love Train contest seemed to be just their style, said Santos, 28.
“The murals along the El are such an ode to Philly, where we fell in love,” he said. “It just fits our personalities: kind of a celebration of Philly, of our love for Philly and for each other.”
“I have always loved the murals,” Olson, 35, said. “We often take out-of-town visitors to look at them. They’re a sweet pick-me-up every time I see them.”
Santos said he has also covered the murals in his work as a photographer.
“I love how the murals take something that is every day, like a black wall, and turn it into something beautiful. It is a lot like what we did with the farm: turning a vacant lot into something people can appreciate.”
The couple said Philadelphia’s blue-collar roots and vibrant communities are a good fit for them.
“Its people are a little more honest, authentic, compared to other places I have been,” said Santos. “The community really responds to people who work hard. There is a slice of life here that is attainable for those who want to work for it. Your creativity is the only thing that limits you here.”
“It feels like the ‘real’ world here,” Olson added. “There’s diversity. It’s very approachable to me. At least in our little bubble in Southwest Philly, we have really found a community hat has embraced us, even though they may not know what to make of us.”
Santos, a Jersey City native, and Olson, from Hockessin, Del., met through the online dating site OkCupid. Despite only a 50-percent match, they decided to meet for dinner and drinks at St. Stephen’s Green in Fairmount .
“Despite the low match, I think we had a mutual understanding that there was a connection, that there was still chemistry to be explored,” said Santos.
“Maybe we weren’t the best-matched in the beginning according to the website,” Olson said. “But as time went on, I think our compatibility became more apparent.”
The two dated for about a year, living separately. Olson had an apartment in a house right next to what is now Farm 51 and owned an organic urban flower farm in Mantua called Chicory Florals — which he still owns today— while Santos was working as a freelance food photographer for City Paper, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine and Philadelphia Daily News.
With help from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s City Harvest program, Olson and Santos began clearing the lot next to Olson’s house and planting vegetables, herbs and flowers, which they now sell at their weekly farmstand.
“We started the farm together, and our relationship escalated from there,” said Santos. “As we grew this organic farm and were constantly around each other and working together, we really got to know one another.”
“Sometimes the only way he would pay attention to me is if I was covered in dirt,” Santos joked.
“We’re both hard-working to a fault,” Olson said. “That makes us understand each other in a lot of ways. Plus, he lets me bring home stray pit bulls and keep plants in the bath tub.”
Working on the farm also helped Santos as a food photographer.
“I got to learn about how to grow all this stuff, what kind of aspects go into food production, that I never really thought of as a food photographer before.”
In 2012, the couple bought and renovated the house adjacent to the farm. They are proud dads to four dogs, three cats, some chickens and two turtles.
Both Santos and Olson admire the other’s work ethic, and their respective passions: photography and horticulture.
“I am really drawn to the fact that he is capable with his hands,” Santos said, “and anything he puts his mind to. He’s not bad-looking either.”
“I tend to be the more introverted one,” Olson said. “But Neal’s way with people has really impressed me. He’s also extremely hard-working.”
The decision to finally get married stemmed from a mutual understanding, instead of a traditional kneel-on-one-knee proposal.
“The proposal just happened naturally,” Santos said. “I think we both knew after a certain point of dating each other that it was going to happen.”
But the issue of who actually “proposed” to the other is still a point of humorous contention between the couple.
“I’m not sure who sent the text,” Santos said. “I think it was me, but Andrew will say it was him.”
“I sent him a text, half-joking, half-serious,” Olson said. “Maybe his actual response to it is the more important part.”
The Love Letter tour is a privately chartered, slow-speed, guided ride amid the 50 “Love Letter” rooftop murals along the Market-Frankford SEPTA line in West Philadelphia, painted by world-renowned street artist Stephen “ESPO” Powers.
The Love Letter tour is available year round — mostly on weekends — but the special Love Train event is only noon-3 p.m. Feb. 8.
This year’s event is in collaboration with PGN, Wired 96.5 FM, Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Cakes by Maryellen, Yards Brewing Company, William Way LGBT Community Center and SEPTA.
The wedding will be performed by the Hon. Daniel J. Anders, Philadelphia’s first openly gay male judge, and followed by a reception at the Loews.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://muralarts.org/interact/blog/love-train-find-love-septa. To learn more about the couple’s urban farm, Farm 51, visit www.farm51.wordpress.com.