Sacramento Weddings

It may have taken extra innings, but both Viv and Daniel scored with love at a fateful softball game. Daniel, who was living in Boston at the time, came back home to Sacramento to attend a softball game and barbecue where he met Viv. “I thought he was really crazy on that first meeting,” she says. “After I took a road trip with one of our mutual friends, Jennie, from Sacramento to Connecticut, we got to know each other better.” Daniel cooked the ladies dinner one night and then they went out on the town. It was also the night Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal. “We were determined to visit one Boston bar for each gold medal,” says Daniel. “Needless to say, we didn’t make it very far. But the rest was history!”

Fall was in full swing when the couple made plans to go apple picking at a local apple orchard near their home in the Philly suburbs, where they both had moved. They didn’t plan to go back to California for the holidays that year, so to make those months feel as festive possible, Viv wanted to practice making apple pies for Thanksgiving with a crust recipe from Daniel’s aunt. “As we filled our cardboard box with apples, Daniel kept urging me down the tree-lined rows without other people,” she remembers. “As I turned away to grab more apples to throw in their box, Daniel handed me a special apple to add to their stash—with a ring in it!”

With plans to marry back in California, they planned 95 percent of the wedding from the East Coast but note that their vendors were quick to respond to phone calls and emails. “It made a potentially hairy planning process so much easier,” Viv says. The bride-to-be especially loved picking out the flowers and designing the arrangements. It wasn’t easy shipping all of their DIY packages back to the West Coast—safe and sound and without breaking the budget—but in the end, everything got where it needed to be on time.
In a nod to her heritage, Viv incorporated a few Filipino traditions into their wedding, including the cord, veil and coins as part of the ceremony. “We even used the vintage cord, veil and coins from my parents’ wedding ceremony just over 37 years ago,” she says.

And, in an effort to keep things light and fun, Daniel wanted to make a huge statement with their reception entrance. “His brother made an obnoxious fur coat, by hand, as part of a Halloween costume, so he wore that and a ridiculous plastic crown,” says Viv. “At first, I wasn’t sure about it—but it was hilarious!” They danced their way in to “Eye of the Tiger” from Rocky—a choice they say was most appropriate for one of the best nights of their lives. Adds the bride, “Having all of our friends and family together celebrating with us was, hands down, the best part!”

—Darren Elms