‘The first day of the best part of my life’

Seven years ago, Newport Beach Mayor Ed Selich met Lynn Hackman. She was a friend of a friend whom Selich said he naturally couldn’t forget.

“We’d see each other here or there, and say we should get coffee or a drink sometime,” Selich said Saturday, outside of a Corona del Mar Church. “We never got around to it for some reason.”

For five years, Selich said, “I thought about her all the time.”

Then one day two years ago, Selich and Hackman finally got around to it and went on a date.

That one date turned into many, and eventually led to Selich standing outside this Corona del Mar church Saturday, wearing a tan suit and sunglasses.

“It’s the first day of the best part of my life,” he said.

In front of an intimate group of about 20 family and friends, Selich and Hackman exchanged wedding vows.

It was a quiet affair, a woman by the front of the church played the harp with only the first few rows of pews occupied with guests.

It was like Selich and Hackman’s relationship, his daughter Alexandra said, and was “easy and natural.”

Perhaps they were saving their energy for the reception, which was sure to be a more lively celebration at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club later that evening.

Selich said they were escorted by Sheriff’s Department Harbor Patrol boats shooting their fire hoses with friends on land welcoming them in with blasts from their air horns.

According to family, this could’ve been the married couple’s favorite part. They share a love of boats and pulled up in Selich’s boat, Fast Eddy.

“They’re fun and energetic together,” Alexandra Selich said. She remembered her dad at first telling her, “I think I really like her.”

“She’s just absolutely delighted to be together with her best friend,” said Walter Hackman, Lynn’s father. “She seems very happy.”