"How They Met..."
Love Stories from Los Angeles Wedding Coordinator, Julie Pryor

As a Los Angeles event and wedding coordinator one of the first things I ask newly engaged couples is 'how did you meet? I have been planning events and weddings in Southern California and throughout the world for the past fifteen years. While the answer used to often be "'we were set up by friends' or 'we met in college' these days that is rarely the case.

Online dating is the number one way that couples who book my wedding planning services are meeting today. Some sites are more popular than others with Match.com and Jdate leading the way. A few couples planning weddings met on special interest sites such as a site for math wizards, a site for nerds and a site for people who would not dream of dating someone who was not crazy about dogs. Some of these couples have survived lengthy long distance relationships. A few couples seemed to barely know one another. One groom I met with was shocked to learn - during our first wedding planning meeting - that his fiancée came from a family of ten - during our meeting. Can you imagine not knowing that about someone you are about to marry?

Of course many couples still meet the old fashioned way,on blind dates arranged by friends and relatives - but the following true stories from clients who hired me to plan their dream weddings demonstrate that Mr.or Mrs Right can appear when or where you least expect.

One groom I met is a professor at a major university. We will call him Steve. When I asked Steve how he met his fiancée he shared the following story. He asked his classes if they knew of a single woman for him. Steve promised to give any student who introduced him to a great woman that led to a serious relationship an 'A' in his class. Quite a few students took Steve up on the offer. The one who ultimately introduced Steve to his wife ended up getting an 'A' in Steve's class. When I asked Steve what this student really deserved he said 'definitely nothing higher than a 'C'. Steve invited the student to his lovely destination wedding.

A few couples I worked with met while walking their dogs. One couple met at a 24 hour emergency veterinarian's office as they each waited for their injured dogs to come out of surgery.One woman met her future husband when her pet lizard snuck into her neighbor 's back yard. She did not want to alarm her neighbor so she snuck into his yard in hot pursuit.. He thought she was a burglar and came out with a pistol! The two laughed about the incident over glasses of wine. She didn't make it home that night or too many nights after that.

One couple met at a baggage carousel at Los Angeles Airport. This hardly seemed strange until they realized that they had just completed a stay at the same tiny , remote resort in Fiji without running into one another. Another couple met for the first time on a New York subway. They happened to live within five blocks of one another in Santa Barbara but had never met. They decided soon after to begin planning their Santa Barbara wedding.

Courtney - one of my favorite brides - met her husband to be (a top oncologist) when she brought her ill mother in to his office for a second opinion. Courtney (a gorgeous woman in her early thirties) saw the doctor filling out paper work at the reception desk and she told me that he took her breath away. When Dr. Conrad called Courtney and her mom in to his office for a consultation Courtney could barely speak. He actually wondered if there might be something wrong with the young woman because of her strange behavior. The mother became a regular patient and Courtney happily volunteered to come along for each visit. She slowly worked up the courage to speak to the good doctor. He asked her out to dinner and the rest is history. Courtney recently gave birth to their third little girl. By the way - Courtney's mom has been cancer free for six years.

Jason often took the same cross country flight for business. What he liked best about the flights were long, animated conversations with his favorite first class flight attendant, Peggy. Although the airline discouraged it, Peggy accepted Jason's invitation to have dinner in Manhattan one snowy February evening. They had so much fun that they began seeing each other at least once a month or whenever Peggy and Jason were both in the same city. On their two year anniversary of their first date - coincidentally another snowy evening in Manhattan - Jason presented Peggy with a sparkling diamond ring.

One couple who hired me to plan their Malibu wedding seemed deeply in love at our initial consultation. They met at a music shop. She came in to buy concert tickets and he was working at the shop. His first thought was "we would have beautiful babies together". She kept looking at him while she waited in line. He was attracted to her but also in awe of her and having just broken up with his girlfriend, reluctant to begin a new relationship. She tentatively slipped him her number and he called. They dated for six years before he proposed and they came to meet with me. The recent birth announcement I received proves that they are in fact having beautiful babies.

I met with a couple in their mid eighties who were interviewing Los Angeles wedding planners . They had each been married before and had lost a spouse to cancer. After knowing true love they decided that they did not want to spend their later years alone. They each asked friends to fix them up and after many unsuccessful dates found each other. Rather than having a small, low key wedding they opted for a large Beverly Hills Hotel wedding , with three hundred of their closest friends.

Brenda was a third grade teacher. She phoned eight year old Mikey's father to ask if there was anything unusual happening at home as Mikey seemed to be out of sorts. Mikey's father Kevin responded with a story of his wife's recent loss of her fight with cancer. They met over coffee to devise a plan to help Mikey. Brenda genuinely felt for this helpless, distraught father and his adorable son. She spent many extra hours helping Mikey and occasionally met with Kevin to discuss his son. When Kevin was ready to date again two years later there was only one woman he knew he would call.