Tempesta and Asconi pose as their characters in the wedding play in 2006. (CBC)A Vancouver couple who have wed each other more than 60 times are tying the knot once again, but this time it's for real.

Ashlee Asconi and Giovanni Tempesta were actors in the Vancouver production of the long-running play Tony n' Tina's Wedding in 2006, when they pledged themselves to each other in matrimony three times a week.

"We've married 60 some-odd times before," said Asconi.

And Tempesta had already played Tony in the play for nine years before Asconi joined the cast. By then, he had been fictionally hitched about 500 times to a series of different Tinas.

"I've had a lot of practice," said Tempesta. "I know what I'm doing."

He said he realized Asconi was the woman for him about two weeks after she took the bride's part in the play.

"Oh, my God, amazing," he recalled. "The thunderbolt hit me, hit my heart and it was just like, 'This is the one.'"

The couple will say their vows in earnest on Friday.

All of the couple's pretend weddings now are providing some confusion for the bride-to-be.

"I'm actually really nervous," she said. "We had our rehearsal … I was giggling through the vows because I kept thinking about Tony and Tina."

The bride and groom will be able to keep it real when the time comes, said Asconi's sister, Candace, who will be one of the bridesmaids.

Ashlee Asconi says she got a bit confused at her wedding rehearsal as she recalled how many times she's married Giovanni Tempesta before. (CBC)

"This is the one that counts," said Candace Asconi. "When the two of them were playing Tony and Tina, they were two characters. Now it's going to be Ashlee and Giovanni — it's going to be totally different."

And this time the audience will be made up of more than 120 family members and friends.

Tony n' Tina's Wedding was first performed in 1988 in New York. Productions of the play are active in 10 North American cities, three of them in Canada.

With files from the CBC's Maggie Zelaya