Two chief petty officers who grew up a mile from each other in the Bronx tied the knot in July when they held their wedding next to the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn.
“We came to New York to get married and start a family,” said Chief Yeoman Loureann Laureano, a high school graduate of Evander Childs Educational Campus.
Even though they grew up so close, they met while hanging out with mutual friends in Washington D.C. eight years ago.
The chiefs currently serve together recruiting and mentoring Future Sailors at Navy Recruiting District New York, but built their relationship while serving aboard different aircraft carriers in Norfolk, Virginia.
“We had been engaged since 2012, but due to deployments, ship schedules and work, it was hard to get to this point,” said Chief Aviation Support Equipment Technician William Cepeda, a high school graduate of George Washington Educational Campus.
Their previous two ships, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) and USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), shared pier locations when they were home ported on the naval base.
“It took a lot of effort from the both of us to make it work as well as always keeping in mind the current situation was only temporary at the time,” said Laureano.
The pair said separation was the biggest challenge for a dual-military couple.
The Sailors were both selected for promotion and went through chief petty officer initiation in 2016, though again in separate duty stations.
Laureano said she wanted to experience recruiting duty and now they are able to work and be around their families.
“We’ve always wanted to have a nautical themed wedding and when we saw The W Loft we fell in love with the place to the point where we changed our Memorial Day weekend wedding to July, because The W Loft was available,” said Laureano.
The venue in next to the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn has waterfront views of the Manhattan skyline and was the perfect size for them.
“Just like any other normal couple, we have had hard times due to being in the Navy, but somehow we have made it work and today we are happily married and looking forward to starting a family,” said Cepeda.
Navy Recruiting District New York covers 7,700 square miles and includes NYC’s five boroughs, Long Island and the northern half of New Jersey. The recruiters’ mission is to recruit, mentor and ship the most highly qualified men and women for service in America’s Navy.