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Minjae Lee and Minh Tran Wedding

Minjae Lee and Minh Tran married in early fall 2036, before Minjae’s October 1 birthday. Minjae was twenty, and Minh was twenty-one. Their approximately two hundred guests spent the weekend at an accessible rented mansion near Baltimore. The ceremony took place on the garden lawn, with the mansion available for weather changes, medical care, rest, and sensory breaks.

Planning and Access

Minjae had proposed on December 27, 2034, using his AAC device and a simple silver ring with a small heart-shaped stone. As the wedding approached, Minh, the Lee family, Ari, and their chosen family used videos, visual aids, repeated concrete explanations, and practice sessions to make the day’s sequence predictable. Minjae understood the central promise and made his own choices about Minh, the vows, the cake, the colors, and the people he wanted beside him.

When choosing one best man became distressing because it required ranking his trusted people, the family dropped the convention. His close friends stood with him together. The couple also abandoned the custom of staying apart before the ceremony because Minh’s presence helped Minjae regulate and understand what was happening.

The group rented the mansion so guests and support people could remain under one roof. Ezra Cruz paid for the venue upgrade and insisted that the couple enjoy the luxury. The site provided step-free routes, an indoor ceremony backup, quiet rooms, soft lighting, flexible timing, accessible bathrooms, and a private room stocked with Minjae’s medications, clothing, continence supplies, comfort items, and other equipment.

Pink and blue shaped the celebration’s palette. Ari, who worked as both a baker and Minjae’s personal care attendant, helped design a cake that accommodated his dietary triggers. The finished five-tier cake had pale fondant, pink and gold sugar flowers, hand-painted cranes, a pink strawberry interior, and figures of the couple at the top.

Wedding Morning

The family kept the morning quiet so Minjae would not exhaust himself before the ceremony. Nari and Joon-Ho bathed and dressed him while he remained drowsy. Logan, Jacob, Ezra, Charlie, and other close friends later helped with his clothes, wheelchair supports, breakfast, and reassurance in low voices. Charlie took a planned nap so he would have enough energy for the ceremony.

Elliot Landry and Riley Mercer worked with the event coordinator, photographers, videographers, decorators, and other vendors outside. Charlie later checked the musicians’ setup. Ari delivered the cake and staged Minjae’s medical and personal-care supplies. Mei Tran had flown from China and prepared with Minh, Nari, Minseo, and Ari.

Shortly before the ceremony, Minjae had an absence seizure on a quiet garden path. Jacob Keller recognized it first, and Logan Weston joined him in supporting Minjae’s head and chair, checking him, and helping him recover without rushing him. Minjae chose to continue after the seizure passed.

Ceremony

A chamber ensemble made up largely of the couple’s and CRATB’s Juilliard classmates played familiar string music. The ceremony was conducted in English and Mandarin. Minseo Lee quietly translated Minjae’s Mandarin vows for English-speaking guests.

Minjae wore a soft custom formal vest and kept his fleece blanket and Tobi puppet with him until he was ready to put them aside. He used his manual wheelchair’s power-assist to travel down the aisle by himself because he wanted to reach Minh without being pushed. Minh wore a soft wrap dress with coral trim and gold floral embroidery.

The ceremony incorporated red and gold accents and an ancestral table with family photographs and unlit incense. Minjae’s vows were simple, halting, and rambling rather than formally scripted. He promised Minh tea, music, flowers, care on difficult days, and a written reminder of his love if his memory ever failed him.

Minjae experienced another brief absence seizure near the ring exchange. Minh held his hand and waited while the support team remained ready. Filming continued with the understanding that the footage could be removed later if the couple wished.

Minh wore her wedding ring traditionally. Because Minjae’s hand spasticity made a finger ring impractical, he chose to keep his ring on a soft chain around his neck; Ari adjusted the necklace after the exchange.

Reception and Night

The chamber musicians continued during the garden reception. Minjae and Minh shared a gentle supported first dance. At the cake cutting, Minjae squealed “CAKE!!” and became even more excited when he saw the pink strawberry interior. He fed Minh a frosting-covered bite and smeared some across her cheek when he missed her mouth.

The excitement increased Minjae’s spasms and disrupted his speech. Minh, Nari, and Mei helped him regulate. They also took him inside for a private change of his tab-style brief before returning him to the reception.

After the speeches, Minjae began having clusters of seizures. Minh, Nari, Mei, Ari, Logan, and the rest of the support network responded without turning the reception into a medical spectacle. As fatigue accumulated, Minjae’s speech narrowed to fragments and nonword vocalizations, his spasms sharpened, and he became increasingly frustrated. Minh decided it was time for bed.

Minh, Nari, and Mei changed him again, wiped him down, gave his night medications, dressed him in a soft nightshirt, and settled him in the private bedroom Ari had prepared. Minjae fell asleep beside Minh while the reception continued elsewhere in the mansion.

Public Aftermath

With the couple’s permission, Charlie Rivera posted candid photographs and a short cake video after the wedding. The post went viral. Many disabled people, families, listeners, and strangers celebrated the couple, while other commenters infantilized Minjae, questioned his consent, called Minh a caregiver rather than his wife, or described the marriage as exploitative.

Charlie replied publicly in defense of Minjae and Minh. Minh then wrote an essay explaining that Minjae was her husband, that care did not invalidate a marriage, and that she had married the whole person she loved. Minseo also responded as Minjae’s sister and a first-year medical student, defending his adulthood, choices, communication, and personhood.

The attention led Resonance Films to approach the family about a documentary. Joon-Ho initially refused because he feared exploitation, but Minseo insisted that the family ask Minjae. Minjae agreed on the condition that the film show his music rather than presenting him only through illness. The project became ‘’I Am Still Me: A Minjae Lee Story’‘.

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