Elaine & Jonathon
Wedding Party
Elaine Ubando
Bride
Elaine and I met through a campus ministry while in college. As a result, I learned a lot about her beliefs. However, Elaine’s strongly held beliefs are not limited to Christian Orthodoxy, as I would find out. I suppose it was the systematic and direct manner that she expressed these views that turned one coffee into a second and a third. Even more so, I found that we would arrive in a similar place, intellectually, by very different paths. This started as respect and blossomed into admiration and warmth. There was a comfort in this that extended to any idea or thought we shared. As I found myself adoring her mind, being away from her laugh and smile became less tolerable. Apparently, she thought I was really cute, so we resolved that marriage was the best option. -Jonathon
Jonathon Gast
Groom
Who is Jonathon? What is Jonathon? What could possibly define the essence of a creature so deeply wonderful yet strange? There are perhaps too many things to know about Jonathon. I will share just one. When Jonathon I first started dating, we began sending each other daily texts. Each message would include an alliteration made with the day of the message. I do believe I wrote at least once, “Have a Twinkling Tuesday.” We may have done this even when if we were going to see each other that day. I stopped this alliterating a while ago. But Jonathon? No, he hasn’t stopped. Jonathon Gast has sent me a text message with an alliteration at the end of it almost every single day for the last four and a half years. Just yesterday he wished me a “Mulberry Monday.” That is my Jonathon. -Elaine
Katrina Hendershott
Matron of Honor
My big sister is an incredible woman, wife, and mom but I would like to spend some time remembering the world we had when we were little people. My sister and I would often be stuck at home during summer so we had to entertain ourselves. She was my cat and meowed around the house. We would pretend to do ballet at the “barre” (a silverware cabinet). We would play Life (I was always a doctor (100k/year!). We played card games and I always lost. We ate taquitos for lunch (I am pretty sure it was one of the few things my mom trusted us to “make.”). We also argued over how fractions work (I now know that 1 ½ fish sticks is not 2 ½ fish sticks, even if you technically have two pieces and one of them is a half piece). Family is ever-changing. The memories are not. And I love these ones.
Ian Healy
Best Man
What does every mad scientist need to make it in the real world? A humble, kind, intelligent, patient, forgiving, and ethical friend. Well, I wanted to have a bit more fun, so I opted for the one who didn’t emphasize ethics. Ian and I met during T-ball and played a number of sports together. However, it wasn’t until middle school that our friendship began to flourish and only more so in high school. We shared almost every class and my goal everyday was to elude boredom. By highschool Ian moved beyond the status of witness to my deeds to being thoroughly involved. By college we became roommates and shared a pair of majors. I don’t believe this brought us closer together, but merely showed how close we had become.
Kendall Giron
Bridesmaid
Kendall and I met during our first year at Thornton Junior High School in my hometown of Fremont, CA. When we met, I never thought that we would foster a relationship to transcend high school graduation. But it did! What was that life-altering factor that changed it all, you ask? None other than the power of Unlimited Text Messaging. At some point during our high school tenure, my dad decided to finally give into AT&T and gave the whole family unlimited texts. I then bothered all of my friends that did not have such luxuries with annoying and costly (cents on the text) messages. Unintentionally, of course. Kendall was the only one that had the reciprocal luxury of unlimited text messaging and thus our friendship was born. The story now continues...in Levina’s bio!
Scott Roepke
Groomsman
If I had to describe our overall relationship it would be that we are fellow travelers in a desolate land. I hope you will pardon my hyperbole, but graduate school can certainly feel like a desert with the oasis being positive social interactions. He came to a Bible Study that I was holding on Wednesdays we found that we had plenty in common, bizarrely so. Our eclectic knowledge base and willingness to talk about anything for 3-4 hours straight made this a natural fit. We began meeting for coffee on Saturdays to discuss any and everything but seemed to gravitate around Tolkien and space exploration. It was clear that for the both of us, it was a welcome respite from data and deadlines.
Levina Salazar
Bridesmaid
When Kendall and Levina first began inviting me to hang out, I was particularly elusive. They would ask me to go out and for reasons that I cannot explain, on days when I had absolutely nothing going on, I declined. (Today we may call this experience social anxiety) Did they ever stop inviting me? No. And I am so, so incredibly grateful. There are times when my cup overflows and not with love, peace, or joy but with the murmurations of a life perceived under-lived at the ripe age of twenty five. It has been a blessing and a gift that I have two people to sit with who know me, care about me, and are just looking to share stories over a cup of boba (or even two half cups. Different flavors, of course). Here’s to many more years of boba, creepy hills, creating stories, and telling them.
Daniel Gast
Groomsman
As my older brother, Dan has known me longer than I have known him and longer than I have known myself. My earliest memories involve Legos and narrative one-upmanship as we imagined more and more ridiculous worlds to play in. We progressed by inventing many games that we were less than good at with the satisfaction coming from the number of rules and compounding complexity. This mixture of creativity and competition would be modeled by Dan and thoroughly pursued by me. The further development that something to be imagined is something to be created clearly got me to where I am. While we ranged from co-conspirators to test subject and mad scientist (we traded roles periodically) it is the definition of brother to me.