latimes.com

The night Ray Barnett met Ashley Hall in 2008, he told her, “Within five years we’re going to be married.” A few moments later her boyfriend showed up. Oops!

But Barnett, district manager of Parking Concepts, Inc., is not a man who’s easily discouraged. He hung in there, made friends with them both, and saw her through the eventual breakup.

Hall, though, had no intention of getting involved with Barnett. A graduate of Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in L.A., she just wanted to focus on building a career. “It didn’t exactly turn out that way,” she said. An understatement.

Barnett, 41, and Hall, 27, married Dec. 2 — two years ahead of Barnett’s prediction — at The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach.

Since childhood, Hall’s wedding fantasies had been inspired by an exhibit she’d seen of Fabergé eggs, which were originally created for Russian Tsar Alexander III.

Laurie Davies of Five Star Weddings & Events helped make that dream come true with a reception that reflected the richly colored, jewel-encrusted beauty of the eggs, complete with centerpieces of cascading black magic roses, dark-red hydrangeas and calla lilies.

The most extraordinary touch was the 7-tier wedding cake — over five feet tall and encrusted with more than 10,000 Swarovsky crystals. It was brought to life exactly as Hall imagined it by pastry chef Karla Ruedlinger.

—Maxine Nunes
Custom Publishing Writer