Sometimes it’s the smallest gestures that can have the biggest impact in your life. Francesco told me he used to be a campus greeter at Woodburry University. It was his job to make everyone at school feel welcomed and the way he did that was to waive to everyone. He said Rebecca was the only one who ever waived back at him. At a party one night, these two bonded over being Italian. What I found most amusing was they both grew up in Burbank but didn’t meet until college. Rebecca said they took 20 years to find each other. Fast forward three more years on a beautiful Memorial Day weekend at Calamigos Equestrian Center for the new Mr. & Mrs Boccuzzi came bursting through the Grand Prix Room doors to “High Hopes” by Panic! At The Disco, (one of their FAVORITE bands) and they danced their way into everyone’s hearts that evening to “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran.
I was also able to bond with the two of them and Rebecca’s dad Mark. Being Italian myself, we designed a dinner set that was choc-full of the greatest Italian sing-a-longs ever recorded. We even got everyone waiving their napkins in the air to “That’s Amore.” If I could have assembled a dream team to pull off this amazing night, I would be hard pressed to go further than the one Rebecca and Francesco put together. Calamigos is always one of my favorite venues to work with, and they were absolutely on pointe with their service with a smile. Add Kat Keane and Erin Bagaason as the fantastic coordinators they are and Wachsman-Staley Photography to the mix and we were ready to party.
Francesco escorted his mom out to the dance floor and chose “You’ll Be In My Heart” by Phil Collins as their Mother/Son dance. As Rita, Francesco’s mom, is known for being rather emotional, Angelo, the best man, was on hand to mop up her tears of joy from the dance floor. Rebecca and her dad, Mark, decided to do something a little different. They were originally going to dance to Frank Sinatra’s version of Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life”, but they decided to sing a duet instead. They knocked it out of the park and celebrated with shots of tequila. (Do Shot guys!)
We had a blast with the dancing and even got the guys and girls to do a can-can line contest to “New York New York.” Even through it was still twilight outside, you would have though it was a club by the way everyone packed and stayed on the dance floor all night. Well…at least until it was time to say goodnight. The guests circled around Rebecca and Francesco for one last slow song. To hear everyone (including Rebecca and Francesco) belting out “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” by Aerosmith was the perfect way to say goodnight and good luck to this amazing couple.
Dave’s recommended vendors for this wedding are:
- Calamigos Equestrian Center (With Kat & Erin as wedding coordinators) – www.calamigosequestrian.com
- Wachsman-Staley Photographer (A family owned company who has been in business for 83 years now!) – www.wachsmanstaley.com