Poor Sebas­t­ian waited years for Sarah to feel the same way he felt about her. He even kept a big sign that read “NO” on the wall of his bed­room. His best friend walked in and saw the sign one day and asked Sebas­t­ian about it. He said that it was a reminder that Sarah’s answer was still a big fat “no”. Down the road, Sarah had a change of heart. She told Sebas­t­ian that she would be will­ing to give dat­ing him a chance but that there were no guar­an­tees. He didn’t care what the future held — she finally said “yes” and that’s all he was wait­ing to hear. He ran home and changed the sign on his wall to “Sí”. As the best man shared this story at the recep­tion, he had the place roar­ing with laughter.

Sarah and Sebas­t­ian met each other while work­ing side by side for a mis­sions orga­ni­za­tion in Lima, Peru. Though the sign had been “no” on the wall for some time, that didn’t pre­vent Sarah and Sebas­t­ian from really get­ting to see each other for who they really are. They were able to see each oth­ers’ strengths and weak­nesses as they min­is­tered to the peo­ple of Peru. So it didn’t take long before these two devel­oped a deep love for each other. The seeds had been planted years ago and now it was sim­ply time  for them to grow. It would take deep roots of love to get them through the jour­ney they’d face early into their relationship.

A short time after they started dat­ing seri­ously, Sarah was diag­nosed with can­cer, a very aggres­sive can­cer that would need surgery and bouts of chemo imme­di­ately. Before fly­ing back to the U.S. for treat­ment, Sebas­t­ian asked Sarah if she would marry him. And I don’t think he would have accepted “no” for an answer, if you know what I mean. In real­ity, they were already liv­ing out their wed­ding vows. For bet­ter or for worse. Through sick­ness and in health.

Sarah came back to that states to bat­tle her can­cer. But Sebas­t­ian had to stay in Peru and bat­tle immi­gra­tion. They both fought for each other. And they both won. They’ve proven that their love is strong and will endure. I look for­ward to watch­ing them con­tinue to live a vic­to­ri­ous life together.

Sarah and Sebas­t­ian, your love is sim­ply beau­ti­ful. It’s coura­geous and inspir­ing. It’s all together won­der­ful and we feel so hon­ored to have had the oppor­tu­nity to pho­to­graph it. We absolutely must con­tinue this friend­ship! You are two peo­ple we def­i­nitely want in our life. Con­grat­u­la­tions! Our hope is that you will keep mak­ing each other smile the way you do in these pictures.

Love, Vitaliy & Candace

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You can also view Sarah and Sebastian’s slideshow.

Kara Diaz did a beau­ti­ful job on Sarah’s hair and makeup. She looked gorgeous!

Quite pos­si­bly my favorite from the day. Sarah has a quiet inner strength that makes her absolutely beautiful.

Sarah and Sebas­t­ian opted for a “first look” and it was such a sweet moment and gave us extra time for pictures.

They were mar­ried at the Foothill Covenant Church in Los Altos. Noth­ing like a father/daughter moment before walk­ing down the aisle.

This was such a sweet idea. They had a live feed of the cer­e­mony for all of their friends and Sebastian’s fam­ily in Peru.

Sebastian’s favorite car is a Mini Cooper so a fam­ily friend arranged for them to ride off to the recep­tion in one.

Just love you guys!

If we had to pick only one pic­ture from the day to post, it would be this one. Vitaliy has gone back and looked at this pic­ture so many times. It’s one of his favorite he’s ever taken.

This was the speech I ref­er­enced above. Hilarious!

The mother and father of the bride had their own wed­ding recep­tion at this same loca­tion (Sun­ny­vale Com­mu­nity Cen­ter) 20+ year ago. I love this moment!

And we’ll end with this because it makes me smile and I hope it will do the same for you.