High school sweethearts Eurika and Jesse met in a pre-calculus class and have been together ever since. Their romantic proposal played out inside a teahouse at a Japanese garden where Jesse, an electrical engineer, proposed to his bride in Bahasa Indonesia, her native language. According to Eurika, a graduate student in experimental psychology, the couple waited almost six years to get married, “because we wanted to finish school and have a stable income before we started planning.”
The couple chose an outdoor ceremony and an indoor reception, both at Grand Island Mansion. They tackled some DIY projects, including designing their invitations, save the dates and menu cards. Since more than half of the 140 wedding guests only spoke Spanish, the couple decided to have a semi-bilingual ceremony so that everyone would feel included. “We wrote our own personal vows but also recited the traditional vows in both English and Spanish,” Eurika says, noting that Jesse’s mom read a Bible scripture about love in Spanish, while the bride’s mother read the same scripture in Bahasa Indonesia. “We included the English version in our programs for a few of our guests who spoke only English.” They also held a unity candle ceremony to signify “uniting our lives and joining together both families.”
The bride walked down the aisle to Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon in D”—which is one of the couple’s favorite songs—performed by The Camellia String Quartet. Eurika didn’t hear anything except her heartbeat—she was taking in the moment. When Jesse heard the song, he was overwhelmed with emotion.
“I honestly just completely lost it,” he says. “She looked breathtaking. I gave a big bear hug to my soon-to-be father-in-law and quickly looked back into my bride’s eyes. For a moment there, time stood still. I will never forget how she got more beautiful the closer she got to me.”
Since family is so important to both the bride and groom, they decided to carry photos of their deceased grandparents, “so it really felt like they were there with us,” says Eurika, noting that she pinned the photos in her bouquet while Jesse pinned the pictures to his boutonnière.
While the wedding day was sentimental in parts, it was also lots of fun. The bride, groom and their guests danced to traditional Mexican folk songs, and Jesse admits that one of his best memories was the music. “Besides watching my wife walk down the aisle, my favorite memory was when we karaoked that night,” he says. “We had zero energy left but somehow I got enough to serenade my wife with her favorite Backstreet Boys’ songs. It was an awesome and fun way to end our wedding day with our family and friends.”
—Kristen Castillo
