The Lightship Overfalls provided the perfect setting for Gabriel Nicodemus Santillan to ask Sydney Nicole Cunningham to be his bride June 18 in Lewes.

Why the Lightship Overfalls? Both Gabriel and Sydney are from military and Christian families. To them, the lightship represents the eternal guidance of God as the couple sail into the calms and storms of life, knowing that one day they will come to anchor on the permanent shore of heaven at the end of their adventure.

Their families hope to return to the lightship with Gabriel and Sydney time and again to remember such a sweet union amid the beauty of Lewes and the red ship of dreams, the Lightship LV-118 Overfalls.

Gabriel and Sydney met at Southside Baptist Church, Dover in 2016. They became close friends and, in 2021, confessed their love for each other. Gabriel comes from a career U.S. Air Force family. His father, Clifford, retired as a first sergeant, E-8. Gabriel plans to enlist in the Air Force to follow in his father’s footsteps of patriotism and service to the nation. For the proposal, Gabriel wore the uniform from his Air Force Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps program at Polytech High School in Woodside.