The Couple:  Natalie and Ryan King
Wedding Date:  October 1, 2010
Photography by The Memory Journalists
Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Ryan and I both went to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo for college and were assigned to be senior project partners. With Ryan’s great sense of humor and my love for laughing, we became good friends immediately.
We were both in long distance relationships at the time, but stayed friends even after graduation when Ryan moved back to Sacramento. Two years later I moved to Davis to attend graduate school. We were both single at the time and started dating.
It didn’t take long for us to fall madly in love and a year later Ryan completely surprised me with his proposal. We went to dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House on a random Monday night and were seated near a window overlooking the patio which had Christmas lights on all the trees. Ryan ordered an appetizer and a bottle of wine and before I knew it, the waiter had brought a bottle of wine with a custom-label on it. It had a picture of us, the date, and said “Will You Marry Me?, In love and looking forward to a beautiful life with you. Love, Ryan.” Ryan was down on one knee, hands shaking and we both had tears in our eyes. It was perfect!
We are now living in Sacramento, working at civil engineering firms, and love to do anything to bring a smile to the other’s face.
What was the most amazing part of your day?   Ryan says, “The most amazing part of my day was standing at the end of the church aisle, anxiously waiting for my soon-to-be wife standing behind the big doors. When the doors opened, I saw the most beautiful bride begin to walk towards me to start our new life together. I was filled with emotions, but realized I was the luckiest man alive being able to marry my best friend. It was amazing to have so many wonderful family and friends together joining us on our marriage celebration. The whole wedding was one amazing sacrament.”
What else would you like to share about your big day?  We had lots of family traveling from out of town, so we planned a casual BBQ at a local park the day after our wedding. We had it catered so no one had to worry about anything, and everyone could just visit and have a great time. This was a great opportunity for us to spend time with family and friends that we didn’t get to visit with at the wedding.











Ceremony Site:  St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Sacramento. Ryan’s parents were married there so it held a special place in our hearts.
Reception Venue:  Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg. We LOVED this venue and John Carvalho and Marnie Stiles are amazing!
Photographer:  The Memory Journalists. We cannot believe how many compliments we received from our family and guests about how great our photographers were. We absolutely love the entire team at The Memory Journalists and could not be happier with our photos.
Videographer:  The Memory Journalists
Wedding Planner:  Danielle Massari at A Petite Affair. I wasn’t going to hire a wedding planner, but I am SO happy we hired Danielle because she is fabulous throughout all of the planning and the day of the wedding. She is so incredibly creative, detail-oriented, and just made the entire process so enjoyable and fun. And everything was absolutely perfect on our day.
Caterer:  Asante Catering. The food was delicious and they were awesome to work with.
Cake: We had a very small cake to cut into, but our main dessert was frozen yogurt and toppings from Yogurtagogo.
Flowers:  Galeazi’s Floral Designs. I absolutely LOVED my flowers and all of the creative details that Stefanie included.
Favors:  We had purchased a barrel of wine from Carvalho Family Winery and bottled it for our guests.
Wedding Dress:  House of Fashion
Bridesmaid Dresses:  J Crew. I chose the color and fabric and let my bridesmaids choose a style that they each loved.
Hair:  Kim Kirtlan at Strands Salon. Although now she works at Michael Mason Salon.  She was great! I started off wanting an up-do, but after 2 trials I realized that since I never wear my hair up (unless I’m running). I didn’t want it up for my wedding…it just wasn’t “me.” So we started from scratch with my hair down…and I loved it!
Makeup: Tessa Matsis at Strands Salon. I could not have been happier with my makeup!  I wanted something natural and that I wouldn’t have to worry about for the entire day… Tessa did a great job.
Invitations:  Costco. We designed and printed the invitation inserts (maps, registry/hotel info, etc) and all other stationery (ceremony programs, placecards, etc) at Paper Garden Boutique.
DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Music on the Move DJs. Doug kept the crowd entertained with games and great music…we could not have made a better choice!
Honeymoon Location:  Sandals St. Lucia resort (We would definitely recommend an all-inclusive resort!)
Any other of your wedding vendor(s) you’d like to call out?:  I think we got them all up there. They were all so patient with us, gave us great ideas and did an amazing job…we would highly recommend all of them!
First Dance Song:  “Then” by Brad Paisley. Ryan surprised me with a single red rose at the beginning of the song. It was such a special moment for us…nothing else mattered except the two of us at that moment.
Any advice you’d give our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Make every aspect of your wedding personal to you, your fiancé and your families. Don’t do something that doesn’t have a special meaning to the both of you. Ryan’s piece of advice: Finish all your wedding planning at least one week prior to your big day. As a groom, it was extremely nice being completely done a week before and not having a stressed out bride before the wedding.
Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  There is not a single thing we would have done differently. We had a large guest list (we both have large families), so the budget was more than we had hoped. But being able to have our dream wedding, great vendors, and all of our family and friends there to celebrate meant so much to the both of us….we would not have changed a thing.
And remember: When things are getting stressful or you’re starting to worry if everything will go as planned on your wedding day, just remember all that matters is the two of you getting married…the rest is just celebrating that moment. So if you’re married at the end of the day, everything went just right.
Photos courtesy of The Memory Journalists.

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