A Venue Change 2 Weeks Before the Big Day Allowed for This Couple’s Dream Wedding to Become a Reality!

Lauren Megerdichian
May 1, 2021
Categories: Real Weddings, Romantic, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

COVID couples – we have to hand it to you. To put it lightly, you guys are total rockstars. From last minute venue changes to reducing your guest list, and every less-than-ideal situation in between… y’all are truly wedding warriors (that goes for all the incredible vendors that helped get them there, too, of course!) Today’s wedding planning journey wasn’t without a myriad of hiccups, but the end result was nothing short of spectacular. Jacqueline Hallgarth brought their dream Kestrel Park wedding to life, while Jenny Quicksall Photography captured all the inspiring details and blooms by Of The Flowers – see it all at the full gallery!

From the Bride… We met September 7, 2014 in Denver, CO. I was meeting my childhood friend at a sports bar called the Icehouse for the first NFL game of the year. Travis was there and we started chatting. The group he was a part of left to go to another location since one of the football games had ended, and I left with another friend headed somewhere else. There was just something about Travis that I wanted to explore further. So my friend and I rented city bikes and rode 3 miles from downtown Denver to gov’s park. Once I got there Travis and I talked again, he got my number and offered to give me a ride back to my friends house. During the drive we laughed and chatted about many things we had in common. We were so deep in conversation we ended up getting lost and had a mini adventure.

We finally arrived and he dropped me off. From that day on we talked for weeks getting to know each other. Travis then took the plunge to further our relationship. He came out to California and stayed with me for a weekend, which ended up blossoming our journey. Our original plan was to get married at Kestrel Park 8. 8. 20 with 150 family and friends in attendance. Once Covid hit we were still really optimistic and strong with moving toward our date as planned. We continued with the planning process as if nothing had happened and continued to pray and trust that things will work out as they are meant to be.

That being said we did have a plan b amongst ourselves. To have an intimate ceremony / wedding with our immediate family only. It was extremely important to me that my 97 year old grandmother see me get married this year no matter what. I am her only grandchild and she is one of the most important people in my life. About 6 weeks out from our wedding we found out our caterer would not be able to cater, our dress rehearsal location could not host us and things as planned did not seem to be falling into place. 5 weeks out we made the hard decision to postpone our big wedding to 2021. Jacqueline and we quickly jumped on letting all of our vendors, family, and friends know we would be postponing. At that time I also postponed my dress fittings and purchased a less conventional dress from Rime Arodaky to wear for the ranch wedding. (which I will wear next year at our celebration)

At the same time Jacquline, Travis and I quickly jumped on pulling on planning an intimate wedding at a new location in less than 5 weeks. After much deliberation we decided the ranch we originally booked for the bridal party and plus ones for our big wedding would be a great location for the micro wedding. The planning process for the intimate wedding started. As we got back in contact with some vendors to make the ranch wedding happen we found out that all soft hold dates for Kestrel Park got booked and there was no availability at Kestrel till 2022 just 3 weeks out from our small wedding. This was obviously some really tough news to hear. At this point Travis and I were both very emotionally drained and doing our best to stay positive. We had spent the last 7 months planning our wedding around Kestrel Park and couldn’t imagine it any other way. After much discussion we decided we wanted to move forward with Kestrel Park. We quickly shifted gears to the ceremony at Kestrel Park and dinner reception at the ranch.

After about a week of planning and two weeks out from our wedding we realized the ranch reception was not going to work. Jacqueline quickly communicated with Scott from Kestrel Park about having our ceremony, cocktail hours, and reception at Kestrel. He was very supportive and happy to host us. We were thrilled to be having our micro wedding all at Kestrel. When we had officially decided we were going to have our wedding at Kestrel Park we also decided we would like to have our family and friend who couldn’t be there in person join us virtually and allow us to do just a large celebration in person the following year. We quickly then had to get my dress and additional outfit fittings booked. Have our groomsmen order their tuxes, and get my dad out to California for his fittings. We also had to quickly get Swell Press to add an additional piece to our already printed and ready to go formal invitations and get them out the door to our guest so they could join us virtually. We also wanted to unite our virtual guests and wanted them to feel special. So we decided we wanted to send them a little gift with two monogrammed champagne glasses and a little champagne bottle so after the ceremony we could chat with all of them and have a united toast. Swell press and Jacqueline did an amazing job to pull this together 12 day out from our wedding and ensure they arrived to all of our guests on time.

We were extremely thankful and our virtual guests were very surprised and grateful! Also within the two week mark from our wedding day. Jacqueline was able to find us a location where we were able to have a dress rehearsal experience. We did not think this was going to happen and are very thankful Jacqueline was able to make it work at Petros Winery who hosted our 34 guests amongst 4 separate tables and served us a plated dinner with beer and wine. It was so fun and we were happy Travis’ family was able to celebrate his Hawaiian heritage and wedding traditions. As for the wedding experience. We did make one change from the original plan to the micro wedding. Originally we were going to have a ceremony / dinner reception flip at the tree lined driveway. Dinner originally was to be a kings table down the treeline drive. Then after dinner you everyone would gather at the stables for dancing, drinks, and celebrating. We also originally had planned for a live band that would gradually get larger from ceremony to reception. Since the wedding was smaller and reception was to be low key. We wanted our family to be able to experience all parts of the grounds so we had dinner and reception at the stables. Due to some Covid restrictions as well we did not have the band. Instead Travis and I put together playlists for the different experiences throughout the day. In the end we are so thrilled we had our micro wedding with our immediate family at Kestrel Park just how we had originally planned. It was truly a magical weekend where both of our families were able to truly become one family. We are so blessed to have an amazing support system and I am so thrilled to be a Domingo now.

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