Marching band, sports practice, group hangouts and quinceañera dance practices. 

Those aren’t necessarily places one would think they would find their spouse, but they were for four local couples.

Jackie and Daniel Zaida

Goleta residents Jackie and Daniel Zaida’s love story began at Dos Pueblos High School. 

A mutual friend first introduced the then-seniors to each other in 1979 — 47 years ago.

Some of the couple’s favorite early memories revolve around family time. Jackie Zaida introduced her parents to Daniel Zaida’s parents while roller-skating at East Beach.

As the two grew closer, however, so did graduation and college.

Daniel Zaida went to UC Santa Barbara, while Jackie Zaida went to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

“The thought that it lasted through college, I never expected, but it did,” Jackie Zaida said. 

Daniel Zaida, an avid cyclist, used to bike nearly seven hours to Jackie Zaida during college. 

“I would do it once or twice a year,” he said. “It was one of the first times I have ridden that far, but it was a challenge and it was worth it.”

The couple wed in 1983 in Montecito on what they remember to be a sweltering hot August day.

The two have two daughters, Karen Zaida, 39, and Diane Zaida, 38, as well as a guinea pig and a rabbit.

They advise couples to really lean into the traditional wedding vows. 

“When you first get married, you’re so excited, but I really believed in the wedding vows in the sense that we are going to have fun but also there are going to be some not so fun parts, and you stick by it and get through it,” Jackie Zaida said.

David Tonello and Lisa Beautrow Tonello

Santa Barbara High School alumni David Tonello and Lisa Beautrow Tonello’s love story began in 1973 when they were in the school’s marching band.

Lisa Beautrow Tonello remembers that during sophomore year, she injured her leg and had a cast, so she would hang out in the band room when a senior walked in and plopped down next to her and started talking. 

A little later, David Tonello decided he wanted to take her to the senior prom. There was just a little problem: her cast. 

“So, I was not a nice guy and asked her when she was getting the cast off before asking her to the prom,” he said.  

 The dance was the start of their relationship. 

A couple of months later, they were given a unique opportunity not many teens get — to travel to Europe together over the summer with the marching band.

They remember buying chocolate in Switzerland only for it to melt in the summer heat, leaving them to lick the chocolate off of each other’s fingers. They also took nighttime strolls before curfew.

Three years after they met, the couple wed on the worldwide day of love. 

“I don’t think we planned to get married on Valentine’s Day, but it kind of worked into the cards, and my parents also got married on Valentine’s Day,” Lisa Beautrow Tonello said.

After decades of being together, the couple say their biggest advice is to be good friends first and to have mutual interests.  

They say their strong foundation is what gets them through tough times, especially when their 10-year-old daughter, Jeanette, died. 

The couple now live in Northern Nevada. Their two adult children, Matt Tonello, 46, and Tracie Tonello Shalhoob, 43, and grandkids still live in Santa Barbara. 

Just last year, the pair revisited Switzerland.

Daniel and Gloria Garnica

The love story of San Marcos High School alumni Daniel and Gloria Garnica began after meeting at a quinceañera dance practice in 1998.

Gloria Garnica’s friend had separately asked the two to be part of her court, which accompanies the birthday girl for her big day and performs a waltz at the event. 

Daniel Garnica knew at those practices that he found his wife.

“Honestly, she was the only girl I ever felt I could talk to easily. It wasn’t forced or awkward. It just seemed like it was natural. It was meant to be,” he said. 

The same can’t be said for Gloria Garnica. Instead, she had recognized him as the boy who once wronged her in elementary school. He had picked up a computer that she had to put down after getting caught using it when she wasn’t supposed to.

He had no idea what she was referring to when she told him about the memory that had stayed with her ever since. 

However, that trip down memory lane sparked their love story.

Daniel Garnica transferred from Santa Barbara High School to San Marcos High School for her. 

“It was crazy to do something like that, but it felt like the right thing to do,” he said.

He would walk her to and from classes, and she would watch his football games.

“It was another home, and it was just secure,” she said.

When Daniel Garnica first proposed during a camping trip a couple of years later, she said no. 

“We were having a good time, and all of a sudden he was like, ‘I think we should get married. What do you think?’

“I was like, ‘Wait a minute, no, that can’t be it. You’re supposed to have a ring.”

She said yes to his proposal a little while later while enjoying their favorite chicken tortilla soup from Ralphs during an outing to a beach. 

They wed in Manning Park in Montecito in 2005.

The couple live in Santa Barbara with two dogs and their children, Katherine Garnica, 19, and Alex Garnica, 17, who also attended San Marcos High School.

Emily Dietz and Jimmy Brakka

The San Marcos High love story doesn’t end there.

Emily Dietz and Jimmy Brakka met while on the high school’s softball and baseball teams. 

In 2009, during their sophomore year, the teams had a buddy system in which the two were coincidentally paired together.  

They made the relationship official a couple of months later during a dinner at a mutual friend’s house.

Dietz remembers a specific Valentine’s Day where Brakka brought her a 4-foot teddy bear to school.

“Everyone thought it was like a really cute gift or gesture, but I think he really did it to annoy me because I would have to walk around with it the whole day,” she said.

Brakka confirmed that he did it to annoy her. 

The couple overcame long distance as they navigated going to different colleges, saying communication was key. 

Their partnership extends beyond their love. They both coach the San Marcos softball team.

“The fact that we’re coaching together at our alma mater is fun,” Dietz said. “It’s kind of not full circle but a new chapter for us that has been really fun.”

Dietz teaches 10th grade world history at San Marcos. Walking around the campus sometimes brings in a flood of memories. 

“I remember sneaking out of the class to give him a hug or walking in the hallways and seeing him,” she said. 

The pair share 14 years together.

“I think what our relationship is based on and why we have been together for so long is just that we have fun together,” Dietz said, “and that makes the years go quickly.”