It was the wedding of weddings Saturday at Casa Real at the Ruby Hill Winery in Livermore bringing together two Ripon area families who did their utmost to make the event unforgettable from the announcements to the DVD video replay to the day’s end at the reception.

Lynae Van Duyn and Ben Lucchesi and their parents never stopped smiling – even through the winding down of the reception – a reception where everyone who took the microphone came across as being professional as well as dramatic in their speaking abilities.

 Father of the bride Steve Van Duyn brought the house down when he told of Ben asking for his daughter’s hand during a game of golf between the two men.  He said Ben seemed nervous as they started their game waiting until the second hole before asking that all-important question.

Van Duyn – suggesting that Ben was a good golfer – gave him a fresh handicap –waiting until the seventeenth hole before giving his future son-in-law a favorable answer.  He said Ben was sweating through the whole game and was having some trouble in finding the hole – a game that his elder cinched.

The “instant replay” of the entire wedding day condensed into a DVD and shown to the guests at the reception really impressed me.  Nick Xanttopulus of Media Fusion in Stockton presented a dynamic production for the some 300 plus guests in the hall.  It wasn’t easy as he had to have four people working – two on cameras and two working behind the scenes editing.

Nick has also been involved in the “Every 15 Minutes” production at the local high schools in Manteca and Ripon melding images and making a difference for his student audiences who better remember the message not to drink and drive – and the impact of the “Why” in the videos.  It’s professionals like Nick who charge about half of what Bay Area videographers demand for similar productions.

In talking with Nick after the production concluded, he noted that the real payoff was seeing the groom’s mother, Lynette Lucchesi, with tears of happiness welling up in her eyes. 

It was the bride’s mother Kathy who had much to do with putting the artistic invitations and programs together for the wedding that included original wedding photographs of both sets of parents and grandparents.  Marriage longevity was apparent in all of the family marriages with the shortest to date at 28 years for the bride’s parents Steve and Kathy Van Duyn to the longest being 53 years for grandparents Neil and Betty Ann Van Duyn.  Guido and Lola Lucchesi had logged 44 years in wedlock.  The wine glasses that Ben and Lynae used during their ceremony were the toasting glasses from both their parents’ weddings.

The artwork in those pieces was something special – all heart and soul to the nth degree – something I have never seen before in the countless weddings I have attended.  The Van Duyns could definitely write a book on putting a wedding celebration together.   While co-hosting a wedding might be something new for Mark and Lynette Lucchesi – there’re two or three  more weddings for them  in the near future for  their other children.   With this experience, those should be something of a breeze.

Lynae’s garter was made from materials from her Grandma Alice’s wedding gown and her broach was centered in the flower in her hair.  Her wedding bouquet was wrapped with her mom Kathy’s wedding glove and pinned to it were the rings from her Grandma Alice, Great-grandma Anna and Great-great-grandma Uilkje.

Something special for me,  that I didn’t expect , came with a tap on the shoulder at the courtyard reception held between the wedding and the full-course dinner.  It was somebody I didn’t immediately recognize – Jim den Dulk – from the ‘70s when we were both in Kiwanis together.  Some had frowned on my being an honorary member of Kiwanis while also being a member of Manteca Rotary.

 What a neat surprise that was when memories began to unfold out of my past.  Jim had taken over the C. C. Simminger Insurance Agency with his dad when he was right out of school.  I reminded him of a den Dulk family portrait I had taken in his parents’ home on West Ripon Road attesting that I have a good memory for an old guy.

 Sil Checchi had turned over the business to the den Dulks – a wish of her late husband Bruno before his death.  Jim said his dad told him he couldn’t handle the business alone and asked that he join him in selling insurance.  Jim has always been one of those special people who still wears his heart on his sleeve for his friends and for his customers – most always synonymous.

While he doesn’t live in Ripon any longer, he’s still in the insurance and investment business working for the Edward Jones firm as a financial advisor in Folsom.  Jim’s always been good with numbers, telling me we hadn’t seen each other for 38 years. 

One somewhat light-hearted event in my day – also a little embarrassing – for not listening to my wife Mary Lou’s suggestions.  This one had to do with always trying on slacks and work pants when shopping for clothes.  Again, I had thought I had known  the size and felt it really wasn’t necessary – a waste of time.

Well it all came to a head shortly after checking into the Residence Inn two hours before the ceremony – less than an hour before a shuttle ride would take us to the pre-wedding  wine tasting at the Ruby Hills Winery.

I had already teased my better half that it wouldn’t take me long to get dressed as I didn’t have to do my hair since there is so little to worry about.  All that was ahead of me was getting into my shirt and “new” charcoal gray slacks that I had recently purchased at Penney’s.

While I hadn’t tried them on at the store, they would obviously fit – they were the right size—or were they?  With one foot into the left leg, it was quite clear something was wrong – obviously they had shrunk.  They were only 30 inches in the waist rather than the 40 of my girth.  Of course the obvious question, with raised eyebrows, came from my wonderful wife, “Didn’t you try them on?”