Ride of a Lifetime

Only a fairytale beginning of Disney proportions would do for Jessica Goutama and Ken Tashiro whose union included a Cinderella-style coach, a massive nine-tiered cake and pyrotechnic displays

allways can be dark, lonely and often uninspiring places, but for Ken Tashiro, an IT engineer and the grandson of a prominent Japanese businessman, the hallway at Marymount California University will always bring back memories of that day more than 10 years ago when he first saw Jessica Goutama and was instantly smitten. After a long courtship that endured distance apart while he worked in Japan and she in Singapore, Ken planned a surprise trip to their alma mater during the Thanksgiving week of 2013. After a nostalgic stroll around the campus, he revealed to her that it was love at first sight that sparked their relationship.

Jessica, the finance director of Orix Holdings who is also the daughter of its founder and chairman Linda Goutama, recalls, “At the rose court garden, which has a magnificent night view of the Los Angeles harbour, Ken went down on one knee and proposed.”

Which girl has never wished to be a princess? For Jessica and Ken, who celebrated many special occasions at various Disneyland theme parks, the best way to realise this childhood fantasy was a fairytale union in Disneyland.

At their wedding solemnisation ceremony at the beautiful Rose Court Garden of the Disneyland Hotel in California, Jessica made her grand entrance Cinderella-style, inside a ‘crystal coach’ complete with horse and liveried