Katarina Luz Mayers and Robert Andrew Lin married on July 28 at Holy Family Catholic Church in South Pasadena, California. Reverend Peter Donohue, President of Villanova University, officiated. Mr. Howard Cheung, former choir director of the San Marino Chamber Choir who taught the couple for six years, traveled from Taiwan to conduct “This Marriage” by Eric Whitacre, a piece that the couple sang in high school.
With a red carpet theme, the wedding showcased the musical talents of the couple and their families, including a surprise duet entrance of “A Whole New World,” a violin and piano performance of “Amazing Grace” by the groom’s father and sister, and a cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” by the bride’s cousin and San Marino High School graduate Lianna Gutierrez.
Wedding guests included former mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter and friends and family who traveled from seven countries and 12 states. The wedding party featured Maid of Honor Sarah Raffety, the bride’s pre-school best friend; Jean Choo, graduate school best friend; and Juliana Studer and Lauren Puig, her college best friends. Best Man Richard Lee met the groom at Huntington Middle School, where they played in the orchestra. Groomsmen included San Marino High School graduates Justin Wang and Tae Kang, and Jeremy Lai, a graduate of nearby Pasadena Polytechnic.
Ms. Mayers, 29, is the press secretary and director of digital media at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. She graduated from Villanova University and received a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs where she served as student body president, representing her cohort comprising 68 different countries.
She is the daughter of Mark and Bernadette Mayers of San Marino. The bride’s father, who is retired, was the senior vice president of international banking at City National Bank in Los Angeles. The bride’s mother retired earlier this year after serving the U.S. Department of Defense as an auditor for 30 years.
Mr. Lin, 29, is a software engineer in New York for BlackRock. He graduated from the University of California, Irvine, where he studied business economics. The groom is the son of Eric and Linda Lin of San Marino. The groom’s mother is an executive assistant in Rowland Heights for First General Bank. The groom’s father is a seafood exporter based in China.
Ms. Mayers and Mr. Lin met in 2001 at Huntington Middle School in San Marino after he moved from New Jersey to the West Coast. They were both in the same honors math class, but it wasn’t until Robert auditioned for the San Marino Chamber Choir in 8th grade that their puppy love began. When they moved on to San Marino High School, they traveled to Italy for a choir tour. As each other’s first boyfriend and girlfriend, they shared their first kiss in Rome. Mr. Lin is convinced that the kiss occurred in the Vatican though Ms. Mayers, a Catholic, questions the validity of such sacrilege!
They drifted apart the summer after freshman year, but still shared the stage during school musicals and choir performances, including the musical “Fame” and a stint at Carnegie Hall. They went their separate ways for college, Mr. Lin staying in Southern California, and Ms. Mayers moving to Pennsylvania. The couple continued to see each other every year back in Los Angeles during the holidays and choir reunions.
Fast forward to a July 4th party in 2014 at the home of a mutual high school friend. Ms. Mayers and Mr. Lin naturally went to the piano and soon found themselves entertaining the guests with Maroon 5’s “This Love.” They remembered what brought them together in the first place. After many texts and phone conversations, the couple formally reconnected in June 2015, when Ms. Mayers lived in Washington, DC and Mr. Lin lived in Pasadena. The long-distance ended when they decided to move to New York City in the summer of 2016 so that Ms. Mayers could attend graduate school at Columbia University.
In May 2017, the couple traveled to India for the first time to attend the wedding of Ms. Mayers’ close friend. Mr. Lin proposed at the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra.
The couple has traveled around the world together to Austria, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. They just returned from their honeymoon to Zambia and Zimbabwe.
