The wedding day of Maren and Philip at Rancho Las Lomas. Venue is great for intimate and grand events with a garden/atrium style ceremony area and a beautiful ballroom for receptions! Beautifully captured by Barnet Photography.
How did you meet?
Philip and Maren met at work, but it was months before they they had a conversation more than the casual hello. They would pass each other in the hallway and secretly thought how cute the other was! The opportunity arrived when there was a company BBQ, as Philip had just turned in his notice and was starting a new job in a couple weeks. They finally had a chance to talk, and Philip invited Maren to grab some drinks with some other coworkers after the BBQ at Golden Road Brewery. The drinks and the conversations flowed and Maren actually got Phil’s number! The rest is history!
How long did you plan the wedding after the proposal?
About a year and a half worth of planning – and we were still doing last minute logistics the morning of, due to the unexpected rain. We even had to redo our table layout before the rehearsal dinner! We were engaged in October and decided to enjoy the engagement for a few months before we started planning.
The top 3 challenges/difficulties of planning the wedding.
1. The rain for our all-outdoor wedding. We had to change the seating charts and layouts and logistics several times: the week of, as well as the night before, AND the morning of our wedding.
2. Trying to please everyone else when it’s really just about us.
3. Phil will say the first dance was challenging, because we actually did TWO first dances. The 2nd first dance was choreographed and Maren did a costume change. (Don’t worry, he nailed it and it was a highlight of the night!)
The top 3 most fun/easiest parts of planning the wedding
1. Saying yes to the proposal
2. Choosing the venue
3. Trying and tasting food with the caterer
What fun/unique feature of your wedding made you the proudest?
The rain! It could have crushed our spirits and put a damper on the mood, but our family and friends are not fair-weather only and they all stood in the rain with us. All the chairs were too wet to sit on and they all literally STOOD with us during our ceremony. The sun even came out as we exchanged our vows. There’s always something that doesn’t go to plan, and even in sunny Southern California, we were lucky to have chosen a venue that had a Plan B, and they did not book another wedding the same day. That was also significant to us because we both LOVE the movie “Singing in the Rain”, and Phil had even quoted it the night before at the rehearsal dinner: “It may be raining, but from where I’m standing, the sun is shining all over the place.”
If you had it to do over, what would you change, add or do differently?
Make the event and day go by just a little slower so we could enjoy it all!! While we only had 115 people at the wedding, we wanted to spend quality time with everyone… and eat, and dance, and drink, and cut the cake and oh yeah, get married. 🙂 Even with the rain, we had a dream wedding and we got married, which we wouldn’t change for the world.
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