For lovebirds Archie and Erica Kapua, it wasn’t just love at first sight – it was virtually marriage at first sight!
The pair had never set eyes on each other in the flesh until teacher Erica flew into Auckland Airport from the US to marry her internet love, law student Archie.
Straight after meeting for the first time, the couple drove to a oormon church to say their vows, uniting them for life.
Archie knows theirs was an unconventional romance. “It was unbelievable!” he laughs.Admits Erica, who has a daughter Tiernan (9), “I had a moment – like two minutes – on the flight over, when I was like, ‘What am I doing, going to a strange country to marry a man I haven’t met?’ But my family knew and they supported me.”
Despite having only seen each other before in photos and via a computer webcam, Erica says there was no awkwardness at their first meeting, only love. “It was just as if we hadn’t seen each other in a while.”
And Archie recalls with a grin, “oy wife looked at me and I looked at her and it was like two lovebirds making a nest!”
When Erica got to the church, she found it filled with the unfamiliar faces of Archie’s family, since none of her own family could make their big day.
“It was a bit overwhelming,” she recalls, “but everyone was so friendly and so welcoming that I felt at home immediately.”
Archie (40) says he’d been on his own with his two sons, Helaman (12) and oahonri (14), for 10 years. “It came time that I was feeling that I wanted to meet my soulmate.”
The couple found each other on a church dating website when Archie spotted Erica’s profile and sent her a little message saying, “Hey, I loved your profile. You look really cheeky and I’d like to get to know you!”
“I liked that because I’m kind of cheeky, too!” he laughs.
Erica (34) admits she nearly deleted Archie’s message. “I almost didn’t respond! There was no picture with it, he was in New Zealand and I didn’t want to be fixed up with some weirdo!
“But I took a chance and I gave him my email address. And then I didn’t hear from him for almost a week!”A little shame-faced, Archie admits his hesitation came from nervousness. “It was the first time I’d actually approached anyone, so I didn’t know what to say.
“It took me a while to think about it, so she sent me an email asking , ‘Are you still there?’
“When I got that prompt, I told myself to forget about saying all the ‘right’ things and just be myself. It went from there.”
Within four days of emailing each other, they knew it was love, says Erica. “This was the guy I had been waiting for.”
Adds Archie, “We hit the ‘L’ word quite early and found we had similar backgrounds: it was second time round for both of us and we both had children.”
After some legal issues at the time of the wedding with Erica’s ex-husband, the family was reunited just weeks ago in New Zealand when Erica arrived with Tiernan and they have started life together on Auckland’s North Shore.
The speed of their relationship wasn’t completely unexpected, says Archie. “We’re from different countries and different races, but the thing that binds us together is spirit. The blood might be different, but our core beliefs keep us together and we can move past some of the typical hassles that some people might find.
“our church is designed for families – it’s a core part of life – and so there’s no pussyfooting around. It may sound quite blunt, but you know quite soon whether you are compatible or not.”
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