I met Erica and her mother Kathy through Kerrys wedding. Kathy had responded to one of Kerrys CL ads offering the use of some of the items that she and her husband Larry had been purchasing for Ericas wedding. Kathy and I exchanged many emails and we all finally met when I picked up some of the items she was loaning to Kerry for use at the wedding. I knew from the moment Kathy and I met via email that we would be lifelong friends. The three of them (Kathy, Erica and her fiance Ben) came and spent the morning helping me set up the reception for Kerrys wedding - talk about paying it forward waaay ahead of time!.... I knew that Kathy was doing all the planning for Ericas wedding, and wanting to repay her kindness towards Kerry, I offered Day of Coordination services to them, and as we spoke more we decided that they'd be using items from our ever growing FGM Closet as well.
Erica and Ben are not your average couple - Erica is a bubbly, very happy, intelligent young woman who just so happens to have Downs Syndrome. Ben is quick witted, can charm your socks off and is developmentally delayed. Between the two of them they will keep you in stiches for as long as you spend with them! You cannot help but immediately fall in love with them.
About mid December, I get a desperate email from Kathy that their venue had fallen victim to the recession and now what??? I went to work finding venues that were available on their chosen day and sent her a nice list to choose from. We ended up with the OC Sailing and Events Center in Dana Point. Kathy and Larry decided to hire me to finish up the event planning for them and needed servers and offered to pay for them too. In return for use of the FGM items, they purchased 300 appetizer/cake plates that match the square dinner plates - what a tremendous contribution!
We pretty much packed up the office to bring to this wedding - so many different elements, new additions and the like. Both my mom and dad, along with my daughter Aleksa were part of the day crew /stay crew in addition to my fab four from Rachele and Andrews wedding (John, Crys, Tine and Paul). Tom, Kaysie, Jesse and Cliff came to help with the setup/cleanup which was fabulous! Always a big help to have extra hands at the end.
It was an amazing wedding, officiated by my very brother! Dream Team photographer William Dick captured every second of this amazing day, to include one very special high five exchange between the newlyweds and their wedding planner which I hope to have a copy of to add to this post soon.
The night ended waay too soon as the crowd fell deeply in love with the outstanding entertainment Kathy had booked, OC Elvis - yes folks, Elvis was IN the house, rocking the night away! (www.ocelvis.com) in case any of you would like him to be IN at your event! Banker by day, Elvis by night and fun to be had by all! I've never seen sooo many people on the dancefloor for so long - so many that we kept backing tables up so the crowd (aka mob) could expand.
When it was all said and done - it was a gorgeous day and Ben and his new wife Erica left for their honeymoon at Disneyland!
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