The Pop Shop Bride

Roses and lace, a poufy white dress, maybe a horse-drawn carriage. Typical images conjured by many a bride-to-be.

Not for Selena Saez. When Carlos Rodriguez slid an engagement ring on her finger, only one image popped into her mind.

The Pop Shop.

This past Saturday, April 23, Selena Saez not only became Mrs. Carlos Rodriguez—she became The Pop Shop Bride.

The couple welcomed 75 friends and family members at The Pop Shop Creamery this Saturday, to celebrate one of Collingswood's most unique weddings to date.

"We didn't want a big, fancy wedding that we couldn't afford," said Saez of the couple. "We wanted to keep it laid-back, fun and low-key, because that's how we are. We're not pretentious."

While Rodriguez, 36, and Saez, 34, live together in Cherry Hill, neither is a stranger to Collingswood.

"We go to Collingswood every other weekend," said Saez with a laugh. "If you ask us what we're doing, it's always, 'Oh, we'll be in Collingswood.' My aunt and uncle have lived here for years, so I've been coming here for 15 years or so."

And because The Pop Shop is the couple's favorite borough attraction, it was the first venue Saez thought of for her wedding day.

"The food at The Pop Shop is just, mmm. Carlos and I both love diners, and The Pop Shop reminds us of that old, 1950s style atmosphere we love," she said. 

But after Rodriguez proposed, Saez was unsure whether the restaurant would be a wedding-friendly location.

"We had gone to The Pop Shop for dinner the night before, and when we got home, we started talking about the wedding. We both thought it would be really cool to have it there," she said. "But at that point, we didn't know they had a banquet room available for private parties. But when I went online, I found out there was party room, and I was just thrilled."

Lois Cortney, The Pop Shop's party planner, said the Rodriguez wedding was the second she's ever organized at the restaurant. 

"The first wedding we had here was very small, maybe 30 or so guests. So this wedding was much larger, and there was a lot of detail involved," said Cortney. "We started planning Carlos and Selena's wedding last October (2010). She just wanted it to be fun."

The Pop Shop's Creamery space—a private room that sits just off the restaurant's main dining room on Haddon Avenue—holds 100, and comfortably accommodated the 75-person Rodriguez wedding.

"I was surprised the bride chose a menu that was so typical 'Pop Shop,' food," said Cortney, adding that only four servers and one bus-person handled the buffet-style spread. "Just cheeseburgers, mini-ice cream cones, milkshakes and such. I think her guests got the full essence of what (The Pop Shop) is about."

But food and location weren't the only nontraditional aspects of the wedding. Saez and Rodriguez—who said their "I do's," at a church a few blocks away—had no bridesmaids or groomsmen. No bouquet was thrown. Chocolate Easter bunnies and candies were given as favors, in honor of the Easter weekend.

The Rodriguezes even opted to dismiss wedding cake, instead serving cupcakes to all.

According to the groom, the uncommon wedding couldn't have suited the couple more perfectly.

"We're like children, easygoing and laid-back. We just like to have fun," said Rodriguez of the duo. "And The Pop Shop is just that. The (restaurant's) owner told us that's why they opened it, for kids. It's perfect."

The guests agreed.

"I thought this was a really unique and eclectic, colorful wedding," said guest Pat Agin, of West Berlin. "Everything about it was lighthearted and fun. It matched their personality."

Saturday afternoon, that personality was unmistakably present in downtown Collingswood. It was visible through the windows of The Pop Shop Creamery—as the Rodriguezes glided across a black-and-white checked floor, their first dance as husband and wife.

It spilled out onto the streets, pulsing down Haddon Avenue.

From The Pop Shop to the heart of Collingswood, love was in the air.