Mexico — Blog — SPOKEN BRIDE

Modern aesthetics meet old-world charm in this intimate celebration inspired by the colonial architecture of a city in the heart of Mexico. Sunshine fades to starlight as the bride and groom dine and dance beneath swaying palms, pampas grass, and soft string lights to the sounds of a mariachi band.

Jayme and Aaron knew their relationship was a result of God’s perfect timing. While Jayme was born in South Korea and raised in South Dakota, she eventually moved to Seattle in 2018 with stops in Los Angeles and San Francisco along the way.

Aaron was born in Southern California, growing up both there and in Aguascalientes, Mexico, before also moving to Seattle.

Their modern fairytale began through an online dating match and flourished due to their mutual love for God.

Despite ever-changing wedding plans in the midst of a pandemic, Jayme and Aaron focused on remaining rooted in the sacrament.

From the Bride:

Aaron and I were a match made in God’s hands because God moved us across the continent to meet each other.

When we met, Aaron was a practicing Catholic, and I was a non-denominational Christian. We prayed over the decision to date because we wanted to make sure we were a fit for marriage.

Through prayer, we both knew that we were meant to be. Our values, major life goals, and love for God aligned perfectly. Aaron proposed to me in April of 2019.

During our engagement, I decided to convert to Catholicism. When we took our premarital courses, we scored highest in the areas of commitment to God, covenant, and teamwork.

But these were not just scores. They were the very areas that we prayed over and practiced in order to root our love in God.

As we prepared for our wedding, we were adamant about incorporating all of the Mexican wedding traditions into the Catholic ceremony.

Our nuptial Mass was held in the historic Templo de San Marcos in Aguascalientes, Mexico. This was a Church Aaron grew up going to and took over 30 years to build. Its beautiful colonial architecture matches the downtown area of Aguascalientes where most of the buildings were built over 60 years ago.

Aaron’s baptism madrina (godmother) was our madrina of the lasso, which was placed around us during our nuptial Mass. Aaron’s brothers and sister were our padrinos and madrinas (godparents in Latino communities) of the 13 arras, rings, and prayers during the wedding ceremony.

Aaron’s sister and grandmother were the Madrinas de Peticiones (Godmoms of Prayer) and read four novenas relating to matrimony and the importance of two people serving one another for life in humility and compassion.

A favorite part of our ceremony included the ofrendas and how each of the people carrying the ofrendas has made a lifelong commitment to Christ. Most of the people who carried the ofrendas to the altar were men that Aaron grew up with in Church.

After the ceremony, we and our guests were greeted by a Mariachi!

While we had one of our first unofficial dances as a married couple, the mariachi followed us in a parade style from the Church to the reception area where crowds of people were saying “Felicidades!” (Congratulations).

This is a tradition for many Mexican weddings, and it was Aaron’s top non-negotiable detail for the wedding.

Our reception was inspired by romance, Aguascalientes’ architecture, and our multicultural guest list.

Stepping into our reception felt like stepping into a floral garden. Both Aaron and I love flowers.

When we were first dating, Aaron would drive every Sunday to drop off flowers for me for the week. We wanted to incorporate this into our reception decorations.

We also wanted to make sure our guests were well fed. With different foods for different people, we decided to create a menu that was a range from spicy to non-spicy dishes and settled on lasagna, chicken poblano, and morrita chile.

We wanted to accommodate our guests who celebrated with us during a global pandemic.

We both grew up with hearts for hospitality and wanted to make sure there was something for everyone.

Three weeks before the wedding we had to change caterers, photographers, the DJ, and the venue. But leaving it all in God’s hands, God answered so many prayers through our wedding planner, who addressed these concerns and got us even better vendors than before.

We knew we were meant to be as emergencies popped up and God took care of each one with an even better option than we imagined.

Due to COVID-19, we had to trim our 120-person guest list to 75, and then down to 30. It was the wedding party and family that ended up coming for the event, but every moment was better than we expected.

From our sweet first look to dancing the night away under the stars, our wedding was a celebration of God’s perfect timing.

Since our love story began, Aaron’s grandmother suggested we regularly pray the Novena for the Nativity of Mary and it has stuck with us as a couple. We have been inspired to fulfil our duties in the Church we belong to, and although we plan to create our own family, we were recently asked to be madrina and padrino to our friend’s baby in the sacrament of baptism.

We both feel a distinct calling to serve others—much like Mother Teresa and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton—focusing on our local community in providing food resources to low-income families and educational resources to students where we both work at a tech school in Seattle.

God has brought us together from different worlds and cultures and has blessed us with the sacrament of marriage where we serve together in our community and love fulfilling God’s teachings in giving to others.

Ultimately, it didn't matter if there was a crowd of people or only two witnesses on our wedding day. The most important aspect was honoring our marriage before God. The wedding itself is the easy and fun stuff, but marriage is both beautiful and challenging.

We would rather enter holy matrimony with God at the center than worry about if the dresses were just the right color, or if we made sure to pick out someone's favorite song, and so forth.

This approach was absolutely reflected during our wedding day. We didn't have a guest book, party favors, or a photo booth. I didn't have a maid of honor—only bridesmaids.

We worried less about what our wedding “should” be like, and I am happy we were more focused on how we would stay rooted in God and prepare the foundations of our marriage.

I am so happy that I prayed that I would be concerned with the important pieces of our marriage and not the event that fades with time.

As a couple, we felt incredibly loved by all our family and friends near and far during that day. To me, as the bride, that made my heart so full after planning a wedding during a pandemic.