Ike of Ike's Place Had Two Lavish Weddings, One with an Ace of Cakes R2-D2 Cake

Ike Shehadeh of Ike's Place is about as big a local food success story as the Bay Area's got: only a decade ago, he was broke and homeless, but these days, he commands an empire of sandwich shops in Northern California, has appeared on numerous TV shows, and has now found a lovely bride to share it all with. As the Chron reports, Ike wed his lady love Marcella Mission in two lavish ceremonies in January, one in the South Bay and one in San Francisco. The former was held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View and welcomed 600 guests (including every Ike's employee), who feasted on five wedding cakes and a chocolate fountain; the latter included a ceremony for 180 at the Palace of Fine Arts, followed by a reception at the lion's den at the SF Zoo (where some guests were able to feed dinner to the giraffes).

Shehadeh and Mission, a pre-nursing student, had a whirlwind romance: they met just last July, at a Palo Alto bar, when Shehadeh handed Mission a card for a free sandwich. When Mission complained about the lines at the Stanford location of Ike's, Shehadeh offered to let her cut to the front if he accompanied her, and she took him up on it. He proposed while on a location-scouting trip for new shops in Arizona, and their second wedding featured a life-size R2-D2 cake from Ace of Cakes' Duff Goldman (they're Star Wars aficionados). Most adorably of all, they've taken each other's names—both will use the surname Shehadeh Mission from now on. Now they just have to work on changing the moniker of the "Name of Girl I'm Dating" sandwich to "Name of Girl I Married."

· Ike Shehadeh's place is with his bride [Chron]
· San Francisco's Most Iconic Sandwiches [~ ESF ~]