Congratulations are in order for state Rep. Edwin R. Pacheco.

The Burrillville Democrat 25, wed Claudia Santana, 21, on Jan. 11 at The Towers in Narragansett.

Pacheco was appointed to the Burrillville School Committee at age 20 and was elected to the House in 2004. He is a project coordinator for Meeting Street, which provides education and other services for children with special needs.

The new Mrs. Pacheco is a native of the Dominican Republic who came to Rhode Island two years ago to attend school to become a registered nurse, her husband said.
The pair met early last year at Ri-Ra pub, in Providence, at a fundraiser for the Rhode Island Young Democrats.

Pacheco said Santana caught his eye immediately, and Matt Jerzyk, author of the political blog Rhode Island Future, helped make the match by determining that Santana wasn’t taken.

The evening could have ended differently: Pacheco had been on a date with someone else earlier in the evening and invited her to come along to the fundraiser, but she declined.

The Pachecos had their first date at Costantino’s Ristorante, the Federal Hill restaurant owned by the family of state Rep. Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence.
He proposed at Colt State Park, after just four months of dating.

He has not yet met her parents; Santana’s mother was not able to get a visa to come for the wedding. So the couple taped the ceremony and sent a wedding video. They will visit the Dominican Republic in September to have their marriage blessed in Santana’s family church.

The marriage took place on a Thursday — an unusual day for a wedding. It came down to price, Pacheco said. “Saturday was $2,700. Thursday was $600.”
There was, however, an added bonus: “We thought it was a good excuse for people to take Friday off.”