NEWLYWEDS Kai Van Farnhill and Mila Ivanova fell in love when they first saw each other -- although they had "met on the net" three months earlier.

Bride Mila, from Bulgaria, first met Kai, who works as a web designer for Newsquest Digital Media, in a "chat room" on the internet in December 1998 while she was working for the Lloyds Register of Shipping in Bulgaria.

She visited him at his Darwen home last March for a week and the couple, both 25, quickly decided to marry.

Kai said: "When I first saw her photograph I thought she was gorgeous, then when I met her it was love at first sight."

Kai and Mila married at Blackburn Register Office on Saturday, and held a reception at the Greenfield pub, Cranberry Lane, Darwen.

They plan to visit Bulgaria later this year for another ceremony and celebration with Mila's family.

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