Jennifer Dunmore and Joe Spicer

After a year of commuting, Jennifer Dunmore pretty much knew what to expect each time she rode the Metrolink train from her home in Riverside to her job in Los Angeles — multiple stops at a variety of stations, familiar and not so familiar faces, interesting and not so interesting conversations and a lot of time spent gazing out the window listening to music through her headphones.

That is until one day in May of 2004 when a very tall, very good-looking, very distinguished man entered through the train’s sliding doors at the City of Industry stop. He briefly looked around before resting his gaze upon Dunmore.

The attraction between the two was immediate. But their first conversation wouldn’t occur as fast. The pair whose eyes would immediately seek out each other from that day forward aboard the crowded Metrolink train would have a heck of a time for the next few weeks getting seats close enough to even introduce themselves.

Before long, even the other passengers and some of the train crew, who could see the pair constantly eyeing each other, started making efforts to get Dunmore and Joe Spicer together.

“There was a buzz among the other passengers that we would make a cute couple, so then every day the train crew would leave the seat next to me open as the train approached Joe’s stop in the City of Industry,” said Dunmore, 28, a senior finance manager. “But every day someone would grab the seat before Joe could.”

Then one day, Spicer boarded the train a bit more determined and a lot faster than in the past and it was on that day that he finally managed to quickly plop his briefcase down and claim the seat next to Dunmore.

Seven years later the Playa Vista residents would claim each other as husband and wife during their outdoor wedding on April 9 at Maravilla Gardens in Camarillo. Surrounded by 125 friends and family members, as well as dozens of fresh fuschia roses, gerber daisies and brilliant purple lisianthus, Dunmore floated down the aisle wearing a strapless, mermaid-style chiffon gown designed by Jenny Yoo.

At the end of the aisle stood 31-year-old Spicer gazing into Dunmore’s eyes much like he did the first time he saw her on the train.

“My most memorable moment during our wedding ceremony was when our officiant read Jennifer’s response to the question ‘What will it mean to be married to Joe?’” said Spicer, a managing director at a real estate investment firm. “Jen said so many sweet things about me that it was hard to keep from getting emotional.”

– Kim Kabar, Custom Publishing Writer