After a Marathon First Date, a Warp-Speed Romance

“As corny as it sounds, when I was talking to Jason I felt like I had known him my entire life,” she said. He felt it, too. “At one point he said he felt like he had already been in my presence. I didn’t want to be overly forward, but I confidently said, ‘Well, why don’t I be in your presence?’”

Their first date, on June 14, 2020, was dinner at his house in L.A. It lasted six hours and ended with a kiss. Within a week, they had said “I love you.” By the end of June, Ms. Chexnayder had packed up her new apartment and moved into Mr. White’s house. Each was getting good at confronting raised eyebrows about their age difference and the warp speed of their love affair.

“We recognized it wasn’t commonplace, and we talked about it,” Mr. White said. “Then people started telling us that when you see us together, you get it. It makes sense.”

On July 18, 2020, just a few short weeks after they had been living together, Mr. White proposed on the floor of his bedroom while putting together a night stand for Ms. Chexnayder’s side of the bed. “I said, ‘This life is only going to be perfect if you’re in it with me,’” said Mr. White. Her yes, like everything in their relationship, came fast. But their wedding at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, Calif., took more than a year to plan.

On Dec. 31, 2021, Ms. Chexnayder and Mr. White were married by their friend Teron Beal, a songwriter and photographer ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion, in front of 130 vaccinated guests. When they said they missed the 20 guests who canceled at the last minute because of Omicron, they meant it.

“We got the best piece of advice from our wedding planner, Slomique Hawrylo, which was, don’t feel obligated to invite anybody,” Ms. Chexnayder said. “Just invite the people you want to bring into your marriage. That helped us to be really intentional about who was there. And it became the most magical evening.”