Courtney & Ben

Celebrating Courtney and Ben’s wonderful “Real Wedding” at Mariner’s Church in Newport Beach and the Center Club in Orange County. This is a great wedding video film shot and produced by Prince Productions. The gorgeous photos were taken by Lin and Jirsa

Courtesy of Prince Productions/Wedding Cinema:

Starting the day off at the luxurious Westin South Coast Plaza, Courtney prepared for one of the most important and special days of her life. There to capture it was cinematographer Nathan Prince assisted by Sharelle. Meanwhile, Benjamin was busy getting ready at home while cinematographer Nelson, assisted by Jason, documented everything. Once Ben was ready, it was time to see his beautiful bride, Courtney, for the first time.

Escorted by her lovely bridesmaids, Courtney went to see Benjamin and the two of them shared their first look together. After some gorgeous shots with the Rolls Royce, the whole bridal party, along with the Prince Weddings crew, headed over to Mariners Church. A truly stunning and unique venue, Mariners Church was the perfect place for Benjamin and Courtney to say “I do.” After the ceremony concluded, friends and family headed to The Center Club, located by Segerstrom Center for the Arts, for drinks, dancing, fun, and to celebrate Courtney and Ben’s special day.

All the while, our lead editor Sharelle was putting together their same day edit, which we showed Courtney and Benjamin with all of their family and friends. They were both tremendous to work with and we’re so happy for them! Congratulations and we hope you have a phenomenal honeymoon!!

How did you meet?

We met through our mutual friend while I (Courtney) was traveling around Ireland. (Ben is from Ireland)

How long did you plan the wedding after the proposal?

Our wedding planning was a little over one year.

The top 3 challenges/difficulties of planning the wedding

1. My mom. I love her, but she was a momzilla (the mom equivalent of a bridezilla) and was trying to make everything her dream wedding when I was trying to plan my dream wedding.
2. Coordinating with 18 total Bridesmaids and Groomsmen was a challenge, especially because most of them were not living locally and many of the groomsmen were living in Ireland.
3. We were still long distance at the time so it was a challenge planning a wedding with my fiancé when he was over 5,000 miles away. But he was always supportive and helpful even though he was not physically present all of the time.

The top 3 most fun/easiest parts of planning the wedding
1. Picking the location of our wedding ceremony was the easiest because I knew I wanted to be married in the Mariners church chapel since it was built.
2. It was very fun to incorporate small elements of the Irish culture into our wedding. My favorite was the Martini ice luge that was in the shape of a claddagh symbol.
3. Ben and I are truly best friends so he made everything fun and exciting and he is very funny so he kept me laughing even when things started to get stressful.

What fun/unique feature of your wedding made you the proudest?

• Something unique was a very special recording from Ben’s mom that was played during our reception. Ben’s mom was not able to fly from Ireland to California due to illness, but her beautiful message to Ben brought many of our guests to tears.
• Something fun was having a beautiful same day edit! It was so special to see the day played back at the end of the night.

If you had it to do over, what would you change, add or do differently?

• Taking more dance lessons. Ben hates to dance and we left that part to the last minute and only had one lesson.
• Something that should have been fun turned into something very stressful.