Bride: Christina M. Jackson, 30, Marketing Assistant
Groom: Tory K. Owens, 29, Real Estate Investor
Married Since: July 3, 2011
Wedding Location: Trump National Golf Course, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Wedding Style: Roman Romance
Just Go With It
It’s not unusual for a close friend to tell you they know a “great guy” you should meet. What’s less common is when your friend insists that this guy will be your ‘future husband.” This was the case when marketing assistant Christina got a call from her good friend, Chris. She laughed it off at first, but when she realized he wasn’t joking, she was skeptical. How could he know for sure this guy was “the One” for her? “No thanks,” she replied.
Luckily, Chris would not give up. He told Christina that his friend Tory was new to the Los Angeles area and he was going to reach out to her on Facebook. It was an instant love connection.
“After charming her over the phone, I wasted no time to schedule our first date for the very next day,” Tory tells us. “ We decided to do dinner at a restaurant in Long Beach. When she walked in, her beauty immediately amazed me. After we ate dinner, conversed, laughed, smiled, flirted, and had an overall great first date, I knew I had met a girl who had the potential to be my wife.”
A Sweet Surprise
In 2010, Tory’s mom hosted a family Christmas dinner and invited Christina and her parents to Bakersfield, CA for the special occasion. The dining area was set up like a restaurant, complete with assigned seating. For dessert, each guest was given a gourmet cupcake in a decorative box. They were told they were gifts to everyone from Tory. Before they could eat them, each guest had to stand up one by one and tell everyone what they were thankful for.
When Christina’s turn came around, she opened her box and the surprise she found inside took her breath away. “I picked up my box, pulled off the sticker, and opened it,” Christina recalls. “However, there was not a cupcake inside of the box but an open ring box with the most beautiful round diamond engagement ring I had ever seen.” As Christina began to tear up with excitement and joy, Tory walked over, dropped to one knee and asked her that magic question: “Will you marry me?” Six months later, Christina and Tory were married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony. Share their love!
Photos: Erik Umphery Photography