A bride gets her dream cemetery wedding at her beloved grandpa’s gravesite

When Sabrina Gandara was a little girl, her Grandpa Joe used to tell her that some day when she got married, he would walk her down the aisle.

So right after saying “yes” to a proposal from her boyfriend Andrew Rodriguez, Gandara started to cry.

Grandpa Joe passed away in 2007.

But then she got an idea.

Gandara and Rodriguez wed last Saturday at Fairhaven Memorial Park cemetery — standing on Grandpa Joe’s grave.

“This is the next best thing,” she said. “He’s here, right under my feet.”

Sabrina Gandara’s grandfather Joe Gandara had promised her he’d walk her down the aisle at her wedding.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

He wasn’t the only deceased relative in attendance. Between the bride and groom, they have 15 loved ones buried at Fairhaven in Santa Ana.

Several dozen living family members also attended the Dec. 14 nuptials.

“Some of my family think I’m really weird for doing this,” admitted Sabrina, who is 34.

But then it was Grandpa Joe, an outspoken “character,” who always told her to live life on her own terms, “to be the shepherd not the sheep.”

Sabrina Gandara and Andrew Rodriguez share a laugh, as Gandara’s uncle Ben Figueroa presided over their nuptials.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

The bride’s uncle Ben Figueroa performed the ceremony under cloudy skies just as a murder of crows swooped and cawed. The bride and groom arrived in a gleaming silver 1948 Chevy Fleetmaster. The wedding party, and most of the guests, wore black, although it wasn’t required.

Fairhaven’s general manager Ruth Velez said that in the nearly quarter century she’s worked there, the memorial park’s Waverley Chapel has hosted weddings, but she’s never seen one graveside.

The only decorations were framed photos of the bride’s Grandpa Joe (in his Korean War uniform) and Nana (buried nearby), as well as photos of Rodriguez’s grandparents, Gonzalo and Amelia Rodriguez.

Sabrina Gandara is greeted by fiancé Andrew Rodriguez, as she arrives in a 1948 Chevy Fleetline to their wedding ceremony at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

The groom said he embraced his bride’s wedding venue request from the beginning.

“No, it’s not the norm, but at the same time we’re not normal,” said Rodriguez. “We think outside of the box.”

The couple, both of whom grew up in Santa Ana, met five years ago while working at Target. Both wore black Converse high-top sneakers for the nuptials; he with a tux and she with a strapless black-and-white lacy gown.

Gandara said Fairhaven has always felt like home to her. She goes there about once a month with her aunt or sister or cousins.

“It’s a peaceful place for us,” she said.

Sometimes they bring a thermos of coffee and donuts to her Nana’s grave.

“We don’t bury our loved ones and forget about them,” she said. “We come see them, come talk to them. It’s like they’re gone but they’re not really gone. They’re still with us.”

The bride Sabrina Gandara lays her bouquet of white roses at her grandpa Joe Gandara’s grave at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

Before the newlyweds climbed back into their Fleetmaster to head to their reception at American Legion Post 72 in Anaheim, the bride laid her bouquet of white roses and babies breath on Grandpa Joe’s headstone.

“My grandpa would be very happy today,” she said.

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