When Deirdre Quinn’s friend, Jen, introduced her to her new friend Kara, she never could have guessed how it would change her life. The two of them thought that Kara’s brother, Brett Karns, was the perfect man for Deirdre, but Deirdre assumed he must be too good to be true. Instead of pushing for a blind date, Jen and Kara invited them both to a party in the hopes that fate would lead them to one another. Not only did the couple find each other across a crowded room of seventy, they spent several hours talking and thinking to themselves, “I just met ‘the one’.” Nine months later on a romantic getaway, Brett pulled out all the stops and planned the perfect proposal for Deirdre. After getting ready for what she thought would be a moonlit stroll, Deirdre emerged from the bathroom to find their suite transformed into the picture of romance. By following a satin ribbon from room to room, she discovered Brett waiting on the balcony on bended knee. Deirdre was elated but confesses, “I made him say everything all over again a few minutes later…since the first time I was having an out of body experience!”

When the couple realized that both of their parents were married on April 4th only three years apart, they knew their wedding date would have to be “04-04-04.” It was too meaningful to pass up. Also proving to be a clear-cut decision for them was the location for their magnificent affair. The elements that were most important to them, memorable ambience and excellence in food and service, were all available at The California Club, and Deirdre knew it as soon as she entered its doors. “This is it,” she thought.

As an actress (Miss Congeniality), Deirdre was comfortable surrounded by intense, theatrical settings and for her wedding to Brett, she could not envision anything less. Working with a color palette of raspberry and gold, the couple enhanced the club’s already majestic architecture with touches of pure drama and whimsy. The grand staircase was lined with raspberry votive candles and piles of rose petals in various shades of red. A jazz trio welcomed guests into a cocktail hour parlor where raspberry colored cosmos were served in glasses rimmed with hot pink sugar. They were poured from an oval martini luge made of ice and custom-made to encase a carved mermaid, Deirdre’s favorite motif. Inside the ballroom, tables swathed in raspberry linens and gold tassels were accented by gold embossed menus outlining a five-course wine pairing dinner. Each centerpiece arrangement was an abundance of hanging amaranthus and grapes, roses and tulips all in shades of pink to deep red presented in different styles: overflowing from concrete urns or wrapped in moss or spiraling branches.

To honor their parents’ anniversaries, Deirdre and Brett included them in their ceremony in very personal ways. The bride was married in her mother’s veil and as a surprise, had the silk rosettes from her mother’s original headpiece turned into a comb that her mother wore in her hair. Brett also chose to have his father stand with him as his best man while he married Deirdre in front of their 150 guests.

Probably the part of Deirdre and Brett’s wedding that still has people talking was the incredible array of music performed by the band. West Coast Music provided singers whose styles were so similar to well-known artists that their wedding was like a concert featuring the best in standards and love songs. Etta James, Harry Connick Jr. and Frank Sinatra were all represented and a choreographed performance of “My Girl” by the band’s “Four Tops” had the couple and their guests ready for more. “The crowd jumped to their feet and formed a circle around them and us. It was our favorite memory of the evening,” recalls the couple.