Liam, who hails from Ballinspittle, Ireland, met his lass, Barbara, while she was fronting the cover band Essex at the Elk Grove Sports Bar & Grill. “He came over to chat with me,” the singer remembers. “He made me laugh right off the bat, and we went on our first date the following day. It lasted for a total of eight hours.”
Those eight hours became two years, and soon the couple started the tradition of celebrating “Un-Valentine’s Day,” two days before the actual holiday. On the way out to their first wine tasting at a Napa winery, Liam stopped and announced, “We should stop celebrating Un-Valentine’s and come up with something else. How about the day I proposed to you?” Then, shares Barbara, “He got down on one knee, said a lot of lovely things about me that I can’t remember, opened up a plastic bubble container from a gumball machine, and pulled out a pink, heart-shaped ring from Wal-mart.” After some tears and a “yes,” Liam told her they had an appointment with a local jeweler the following day so she could design the ring that she wanted.
Because the newly-engaged couple had family and friends coming from all over the U.S. and Ireland, they ultimately wanted to create an environment for people to mingle, chat and spend time together. The bride also wanted to exercise her creative skills, opting to make many elements of the wedding, including the cakes, French macarons, and the pinwheel backdrop to be used at the ceremony and then for the photo booth backdrop. But planning certainly wasn’t a one-sided affair.
“Liam was the Excel spreadsheet guy and kept things so organized,” Barbara says. “It was incredibly helpful!”
True to his roots, Liam included some Irish tunes in his music leading up to the ceremony at The Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco, including songs by U2, The Pogues, and even a few traditional ones. Barbara’s brother officiated the ceremony. “He got some feedback from us ahead of time and created a ceremony that was short, sweet and specific to us,” she says. “It was emotional, but he threw in a few jokes, which was great since we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
The party continued at The Argonaut, where an iffy weather forecast surrendered to mostly sunny skies. “We can’t say enough about the staff at The Argonaut. If anything did go wrong, we never knew about it; the entire day seemed to go like clockwork,” says the bride.
In addition to her gorgeous and delicious cakes, Barbara introduced a cookie table, a tradition from her hometown of Pittsburgh. “Two of my aunts from Pennsylvania were up late baking many nights, creating some of the treats. My mom helped out as well with treats for the wedding and rehearsal dinner,” she says. “The cookies doubled as favors for our guests.”
