A pair of travelers made a connection that lasts
By Tanya Bricking Leach
Advertiser Staff Writer
Truth be told, there's been a little dark humor associated with Aiko and Martin Fajardo's wedding.
People have joked that it's a "day that will live in infamy" for them. They mean no disrespect. They're just glad to have a little happiness associated with Dec. 7.
It's the day the Aiko Thompson married Martin Fajardo.
(By coincidence, it's also the day Aiko's brother and his wife married. And the day Aiko's sister and her husband married.)
One might think that would be an odd day in Hawai'i to get hitched, with the attack on Pearl Harbor being such an indelible memory. But for the Fajardos, it was fitting because it's the day they met in 2001 at a party at the University of Hawai'i dorms. On that day in 2003, they tied the knot at St. Catalina Seaside Chapel at Sea Life Park in Waimanalo.
(Aiko might have explained this all to you already if you attended this weekend's Wedding Expo, where she stood in her photographer's booth chatting with brides-to-be, talking up the institution of marriage and the thrill of having your picture taken, subjects about which she is not shy.)
"We are definitely one of those couples that you love to hate, especially if you are single," she said.
"We are definitely the best of friends," added her husband, Marty, "and it shows in the way we are with one another."
It must be that whole lovey-dovey thing they've got going on.
But that was a slow-to-develop phenomenon.
They lived across from each other at the UH-Manoa apartment dorms and had mutual friends.
Marty says he noticed her across the courtyard and was instantly attracted. He began to try to find ways to be in her company. The more he got to know her, the more he wanted to be with her. So each day, he edged closer to romance.
Looking back, Aiko says it was meant to be from the start. She thinks back to the time her sister read her tarot cards before she met Marty. "It just foretold what happened," she said.
Their stars crossed when Aiko, 23, who was born in Hawai'i and grew up in Oregon, moved here for school and happened to make a connection with Marty, 26, a New Yorker who came here to get away from big-city life.
She is now a project assistant at an engineering company, and he is an account coordinator for a destination management company. They live in Makiki. And they still talk about love with stars in their eyes.
Tanya Bricking Leach writes about relationships for The Advertiser. If you'd like her to tell your love story, send the details to tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or call her at 525-8026.
