Tell us a little about yourselves!
We are long distance couple whose love story spanned from Toronto, Canada (Robby) to Orange County, CA (Erik). We both work in the beauty industry as makeup artists and we met in Canada through the beauty industry. We call it a Sephora love story, as we first met at Sephora’s corporate office in Canada.
Our love story spanned 6 years prior to our engagement, constantly travelling back and forth between boarders. Truly when you find your person, you will do what you need to do to make it work! It wasn’t always easy, but the pandemic lockdowns really put into perspective that our lives need to be merged together. Upon our marriage, Robby moved to Southern California with Erik and we began building our lives together since November 2023, following our September 2023 wedding! What a journey it has been.
Why did you decide to get married where you did?
There is a restaurant attached to our wedding venue called The Cliff in Laguna Beach – very early on into us dating, we had one of our first dates in Southern California at The Cliff that overlooked the water and we would see weddings happen here with the most beautiful skyline. We always joked and said that this is where we will get married one day. After we got engaged, we immediately thought of The Cliff and Laguna Occasions. This was the only venue we visited and we signed the contract right away, without looking anywhere else! It was perfect and truly is part of our love story.
How many guests did you have?
We had just over 100 guests attend our wedding.
Tell us about your outfits.
Our inspiration for our wedding was black tie on the beach. We wanted to go with classic black tie tuxedos for a classic romantic look for our wedding. Our bridal party was comprised of eight women and two men, which are our closest friends. We asked the women to wear shades of ivory for their dresses for a very romantic and classic bridal feel. While we weren’t wearing white, we wanted this to bring a bridal element to our colour palette! The men wore black suits. We asked our guests to dress in black tie attire and they did not disappoint! We wanted our wedding to feel timelessly romantic.
What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?
I think our most important aspects of our wedding were aesthetics and guest experience. We wanted our guests to walk into our wedding and say “This is so Robby and Erik!” We really allowed for our personalities to shine through in many ways for people to connect us into their experience. We both work in Beauty and wanted the wedding to feel very beautiful, timeless and romantic. We both love Disney and our guests walked into our ceremony to live music from our favourite Disney songs. We wanted our wedding cake from Rossmoor Pastries to feel like a moment from Disneyland. Our cocktail hour was filled with a playlist of our favourite pop love songs. Our black and ivory colour palette felt very true to how we dress on the daily - we predominantly wear black always! Every idea was curated and beautifully executed by our dream team of vendors.
Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?
Florals, photography and videography were our most important elements. Erik loves florals and we wanted florals to make a statement and feel authentic to who we are. Roses have always been part of our love story!. Robby wanted memories for a lifetime and truly chose photo and video teams who we felt very connected with and who would be able to capture our love story from our perfect day.
Any tips for couples getting married?
Make your own rules – don’t be impacted by decisions or opinions of family or friends. Your wedding day is a representation of your love story – walking away from our wedding experience we can confidently say all elements felt authentic to ourselves and our personalities.
Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?
Definitely our photographer Monique Bianca, florist Leta Verbena and video team were the highlights of our wedding vendors. These are the areas we placed the most value in and these are the vendors that truly delivered on every level of our wedding day! We couldn’t have been more happy with all vendors.
Additionally – I highly recommend a wedding content creator in the age of social media. It was amazing to wake up the next morning to see hundreds of photos and short videos that were raw moments from our wedding day. Weddings go by in a blink of an eye and these memories were those that we can cherish for a lifetime, especially seeing the pure joy from our audience.
Photographer: Monique Bianca @moniquebiancaphoto | Videographer: Dianna Nguyen @diannanguyenfilms | Ceremony + Reception Location: Laguna Occasions @lagunaoccasions | Celebrant: friend of the couple, Sarah LaFontaine | Hire: Signature Party Rentals @sigpartyrentals | Flora: Leta Verbena @letaverbena | MUA: Robby @robbyramsarran, Erik @erik_soto, + Jessica Ryan Artistry @jessicaryanartistry | Hair: Oscar Pallares @__oskie__ + Kelly Araujo @hello.kells | Cake: Rossmoor Pastries @rossmoorpastries | Stationery: Artifact Uprising @artifactuprising | Content Creation: Nicole Trejo @somethingblue.bts | Shoes: Christian Louboutin | Accessories: Valentino @valentino