First comes friendship, with Kevin serving as Ashley’s closest “guy friend” until senior year. The two start dating. Next comes SCU. The big day: March 25, 2017, they tie the knot in Mission Santa Clara, with Dorian Llywelyn, S.J., presiding.
It was the first nuptial Mass at Santa Clara for Fr. Dorian, who arrived at SCU in August 2016 to serve as executive director of the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education. He soon befriended Ashley’s mother, Lisa Mitcheom, who serves on the advisory board of the Center and assists the Thriving Neighbors Initiative for San Jose’s Greater Washington area.
It wasn’t long before Ashley’s mom suggested that Fr. Dorian officiate her daughter’s wedding. Dinner was arranged at local Italian eatery Mio Vicino for the priest, the couple, and the parents.
“We clicked with Fr. Dorian right away,” Ashley recalls. “He truly cared about our story and marriage, and we had such a great time getting to know him. He kept us entertained with hilarious anecdotes of some ceremonies he had performed.’”
During their first year at SCU, Kevin lived in Swig Hall, and Ashley next door in Dunne. The proximity suited them, as the couple had just graduated from De La Salle and Carondelet in Concord—Catholic high schools with campuses across the street from each other.
After living in Menlo Park for four years, the newlyweds are now based in Danville, closer to their families, including Ashley’s sister, Lauren (Mitcheom) Jenkins ’10, and her husband, Spencer Jenkins ’11. Ashley credits the close-knit Santa Clara environment for strengthening the sisters’ sense of “togetherness.” “We have lasting SCU friendships with Broncos who have graduated before us and after us,” she says.
Among the 250 guests at the wedding were Kevin’s grandparents, Lorraine and John Leatham ’60, who married young and lived on campus while John attended SCU, attending Mass together in the Mission—which made the couple’s own Mission ceremony all the more meaningful.
During the reception at the Menlo Circus Club, they displayed an SCU flag at the bar—a trend alumni report popping up at Bronco weddings near and far. Ashley and Kevin, plus more than 30 Santa Clara friends, made sure to snap a photo with the banner to commemorate their University years together.