Love: JENNIFER BIRKENMEIER & MICHAEL J. KEENAN

When Mike saw Jenn for the first time, she was wrapped in a pink shawl for warmth in the late-September chill. He waved hello right away. She spit up.

It was 1982, and Jenn's parents had brought their 2-day-old baby to meet the Keenan family. Jenn's father, Richard Birkenmeier, and Mike's father, Mark Keenan, had met in 1976 when both were in a local police academy, and after graduation, they became officers in Lower Merion Police Department. Mark and his wife, Malla, had asked Richard and his wife, MaryBeth, to be little Mike's godparents. And the Birkenmeiers asked the same favor of the Keenans. The couples would half-joke about how great it would be if their first-born children were to marry each other.

In March 2006, Mike stopped by Jenn's house - to see her mother. Jenn, who is now the Haverford School's assistant director of admissions, was upstairs working on a paper for her graduate degree when she heard them talking.

"She came downstairs, and from the moment I saw her, it was never the same," Mike said.

Jenn felt it, too. "I call it electricity across the room," she said. The sparks weren't there just three months earlier, when the families had exchanged Christmas gifts.

"We couldn't stop looking at each other, and smiling, for some reason. And we don't know why," Jenn said.

Jenn told her mother she had a crush on somebody. Mike Keenan was MaryBeth's first guess. "Call it mother's intuition," she said.

In October 2007, Mike and Jenn took a trip to Sea Isle City. Jenn thought the whole point was to visit her maternal grandparents. When they got to the beach, the grands started clapping. "I was thinking they were excited to see us," she said.

Then Mike suggested a walk. It was windy and chilly, and the sun had set. But Jenn said OK.

Mike and Jenn had gotten serious shortly after they started dating. Sometimes she would ask: "Do you think we'll get married?" His answer was always: "Someday."

That day on the beach, Jenn began talking about a wedding they were going to attend. "Do we HAVE to talk about weddings?" Mike said, pretending he was choking.

Jenn told him briskly she'd never bring it up again until he proposed.

Mike apologized. "Whenever we talk about getting married, I always say 'Someday.' Do you ever get mad at me?"

"No," Jenn said. "That's just your way of answering."

"Well," Mike said, "what if someday were today?"

Jenn, 25, and Mike, 28, were married at the same place where Jenn's maternal grandparents, one pair of Mike's paternal great-grandparents, and Mike's parents were married.

Nearly every member of their families was involved in one way or the other. To Jenn and Mike, the traditional unity candle ceremony didn't just symbolize the two of them joining, but the official forging of two families that had enjoyed decades of friendship.

That moment was bittersweet, because Mike's father wasn't there to see it. He had died of cancer in 2001.

To remember Mark Keenan and other family members who had died, Mike and Jenn arranged their loved ones' wedding photos over the mantel at the reception.

Mike and Jenn are very much into country music, and a lot of it was on the DJ's playlist. And they were ready to dance.

"Much to the amusement of our friends, we took a bunch of lessons," Mike said. "We wanted to do something grand and spectacular." They waltzed around the room to Rascal Flatts' "Everyday." And there was a lift.

During the rehearsal, Father Tracy and the liturgy coordinator said that the best man, Mike's brother Stephen, could not just hand the rings to the groom - they had to be on a nice plate.

The rehearsal dinner took place at a hibachi restaurant, so everyone had one of those little divided dishes for sauces. One went missing.

During the ceremony, Stephen produced the rings - each resting in its own portion of the divided dish.

Then, when the couple walked outside after the service, they were greeted by the superintendent and two officers from Lower Merion's police department - where Mike is a patrolman - with lights and sirens blaring.

For Jenn, the biggest moment was walking down the aisle to Mike. "All I remember is seeing his face. It was like no one else was there."

Mike was supposed to be repeating after the priest. But between looking into Jenn's eyes and realizing they were married, he forgot. "I had to ask him to repeat what he said."

A bargain: Jenn bought her dress 10 days after the engagement. The sight of her in the white dress, lacy at the top but otherwise simple satin, made her mother and sister cry. The fact that it was discontinued and therefore half-price made Jenn smile.

The splurge: The photos. The bride's sister works for the wedding photographer, so the couple got a family discount. But they paid for an upgrade.

The couple, who live in Havertown, spent a few days in Cape May after the wedding. They were to spend a week in the Dominican Republic's Punta Cana this month.