Lisa Spoelstra wore a pretty floral-print dress. She was dressed up Sunday evening, but not in the flowing purple gown she planned to wear at her best friend’s wedding.
Spoelstra, 26, knew she was destined to be in Kate Donahue’s wedding almost from the time they met at Kellogg Marsh Elementa
ry School in Marysville. From first grade on, they were close as sisters.
“I was her maid of honor. I’d known that pretty much forever,” said Spoelstra, who now lives in Los Angeles.
Sunday’s event at the Space Needle had everything a young couple dreamed of for their wedding. The view was gorgeous. A dramatic ice sculpture — birds atop a heart — decorated the buffet. Loved ones shared hugs, and some tears.
Donahue and Jesus Sanchez Vasquez planned to be married July 17, 2011, at the Seattle landmark’s 100-foot SkyLine Level, near their home on Queen Anne Hill. Instead, guests taking the elevator to the party carried tickets to the “Life Celebration for Kate and Jesus.”
“We wanted to make it a celebration of their love,” said Tom Donahue, Kate’s father. “We knew this day was going to come. This is not about the loss, it’s about the love,” his wife Michelle Donahue said.
Kate Donahue, 25, and 28-year-old Sanchez Vasquez died in January after a fiery attack at a family dinner in Puerto Rico. Sanchez Vasquez had taken his fiance to his homeland for New Year’s to meet his family. His uncle is the suspect in the gasoline-fueled fire, which killed the Seattle couple, the suspect’s mother and three other family members.
Justin Sanchez Diaz has been found fit to stand trial in Puerto Rico on six counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder, according to The Associated Press.
The would-be groom’s father and sister, Pedro Sanchez and Patricia Sanchez Vasquez, were among Sunday’s guests. Both suffered burns, and 24-year-old Patricia shook hands wearing a burn protection glove.
“We are one family today,” Michelle Donahue said.
The engaged couple had many ties to Snohomish County. Jesus Sanchez Vasquez was a mechanical engineer who worked in Everett for the Boeing Co.
“He worked for Boeing research and technology,” said Dario Valenzuela, a Boeing colleague who studied engineering with Sanchez Vasquez in Puerto Rico. “We’re all from the same university,” said Valenzuela, 28, who sat near a Space Needle window with other Boeing friends.
In a somber voice, Valenzuela said “I was going to be the best man.” He was also in Puerto Rico for New Year’s, and spent time with the victims at the hospital. Sanchez Vasquez died Jan. 4 in Puerto Rico. His fiance, who was flown to Miami for treatment of extensive burns, died Jan. 6.
Valenzuela described the tragedy in a word: “Shocking.”
Joel Lopez, a 27-year-old Boeing engineer, also worked with Sanchez Vasquez in Everett. “He was always a spontaneous and happy guy,” Lopez said.
Tom and Michelle Donahue and their son Keenan, Kate’s younger brother, plan to move to Seattle from Walnut Creek, Calif. They spent many years in Snohomish County, living in Marysville and Arlington.
After Kate Donahue’s freshman year at Arlington High School, they moved to Arizona, and later to California. Kate Donahue became a nurse and worked at the Group Health Capitol Hill campus.
“It is extremely sad,” said Richard Spoelstra, Lisa’s father. “Of all the friends my kids have had over the years, Kate was my all-time favorite,” the Arlington area man said.
Justin Stein, 23, grew up in Mukilteo and is a close friend of the Donahues. Kate was “the big sister I never had,” he said.
Patricia Sanchez Vasquez, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recalled meeting the woman her brother planned to marry. “I had seen my brother with other girlfriends. With Kate, he gave his whole heart,” she said.
“It was magic,” Michelle Donahue said of the relationship her daughter and shared with her fiance.
Patrice Moore, the young woman’s aunt, also traveled from California for Sunday’s event.
“We knew this was going to be a sad day,” Moore said. “You can’t do this alone. This is about looking for the joy in life.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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