I Do!: Kayla Bettineschi and Matthew Klein, of Island Park

Kayla Bettineschi and Matthew Klein met 10 years ago when they were part of a large friend group and knew each other for six years before they started dating.

During the pandemic, Bettineschi, 33, a fire department administrator, said she joked that it was time for Klein, 38, who works in law enforcement, to be her boyfriend. “We couldn’t go anywhere, so I went to his house,” she said. “We didn’t need to go on dates — by the time we went on dates we’d been a couple for a year.”

After they’d been dating for two years, their engagement on Sept. 9, 2022, was a no-frills event, Bettineschi said. “We got engaged in the living room. It was sweet, and I was happy to be engaged,” she said.

They married Nov. 16, 2024, at the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead with seven attendants each and 250 guests. A friend served as their officiant.

Klein’s only requests for the wedding were that it “not be something cookie cutter and that there be cannoli filling in the cake,” Bettineschi said.

To make that happen, the couple danced under a hanging fiberglass shark, and the cake, of course, had cannoli filling. They also hired a caterer to distribute cannolis on the dance floor at the end of the evening. “It was a fun touch,” Bettineschi said.

A surprise guest at the reception was the New York Mets mascot, Mr. Met. Klein, a huge fan of the team, “was actually shocked,” Bettinseschi said. “He picked up Mr. Met and spun him around in a circle, and Mr. Met was in all the pictures. It was one of my favorite things about that night.”

Also celebrating were the couple’s pugs, Walter and Clancy, who were dressed in tuxedos and met them as they walked up the aisle after the ceremony.