Erin Kaempfer and Aaron Lamay

Aaron Lamay had just arrived in California when he first saw Erin Kaempfer at a party in February 2010. He tried to strike up a conversation, but she seemed uninterested. A few weeks later, they met again by accident at a restaurant and he mentioned that she’d been a little rude to him. “It wasn’t a great start,” she said.

They got to know each other playing Farmville on Facebook, and he felt they were getting closer when they started sharing pictures of their kids. Kaempfer has two children, Jasmine Navas, 14, and Anthony Navas, 12. Lamay has a son, Elijah, 11.

When they finally arranged a date and shared a first kiss, “it gave me butterflies,” said Kaempfer, “and they never went away.”

Kaempfer, 35, is a teacher with the Los Angeles Universal Preschool Program in Lancaster. Lamay, 32, is a U.S. Navy lieutenant junior grade stationed in Port Hueneme. He proposed in November on a jetty at Leo Carrillo Beach.

They married March 19 at the Pointe Vicente Lighthouse in Palos Verdes. Eighty-nine guests attended the ceremony, officiated by Mary Jean Valente of A Ceremony of the Heart. They celebrated at a tented reception, where tables were decorated with seashells and white roses. “It was just like a dream,” said the bride.

– Maxine Nunes, Custom Publishing Writer