This month, I had the honor of MCing a wedding for Christina and Stephen at Mastro's Ocean Club in Newport Beach. Last year, I MC'ed their cousin's wedding so you can only imagine how excited I was when Christina told me they were related. We were one month out when they contacted me so we had to coordinate and arrange everything rather quickly because of our tight deadline.

Right off the bat, Christina and I clicked right away, which is something very important to me---the more connected I am to you, the more I want to serve you and I'm a firm believer in putting 110% when it comes to my client's big day. We finalized everything just in time and I decided to switch things up by rewriting my wedding script for them.

Day of: I arrived at the venue at 5:30 PM and I could not have been more impressed with Mastro's. Beachfront restaurant, 4.5-star dining experience, valet, and delightfully, champagne greetings from the staff as soon as I stepped foot into the grand entrance. I immediately reached out to the General Manager, met the entire management team, scoped out the entire restaurant, introduced myself to the parents and bridal party, checked out the speaker system, and cued my pianist Anthony.

We decided that we were going to continue to let the bridal party do a complete walk-through during the Grand Entrance and that I would later lead the Bride and Groom. This was very different than the usual line-up that I was used to but it was so fitting for the setting.

What I really loved about this particular wedding was that sometimes guests can get a bit tired from all of the activities and games, but that wasn’t the case this time around. Mastro's provides such a magnificent dining experience -seafood tower, ribeye steak, lobster tail, lobster bisque, …- I felt like everyone just enjoyed each other's company, the live music, and the romantic atmosphere. We were a little bit behind schedule but somehow magically opened the dance floor at exactly 10:00 PM as planned. And THAT is what you call perfect timing. You can only imagine my biggest sigh of relief when I saw how much fun the guests were having on the dance floor.

I got home at midnight and still felt exhilarated from all of the energy in that room. Stephen and Christina was such a pleasure to work with. They were open-minded and so easy to work with. I left feeling so proud of myself for being able to be a part of their special day

Congratulations to the MANIACI'S.