By Nicole Reino
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Copyright 2006 The San Diego Union-Tribune
The Bride: Victoria Zech, 25, is a paramedic.
The Groom: Brian Christison, 26, also is a paramedic.
Victoria and Brian were married in a garden setting at Handlery Hotel & Resort in Mission Valley July 22. The Clairemont couple decorated the ceremony site with birds of paradise to honor Victoria’s maternal grandfather, who used to grow the tall, orange flowers. Cake centerpieces, streamer guns and some enthusiastic guests were all part of the special day.
Missed a spot: Victoria and Brian met in a paramedics preparation class in 2004. “We just happened to be in the same class and ended up in the same study group,” Victoria said. During one of the study groups, Brian was Victoria’s pretend patient. “I was a stab wound patient, and I had a couple of stab wounds on my chest and another one in my armpit,” Brian said. “She never found the one in my armpit, so I’ve been able to needle her with that.” Brian wasn’t too upset about her missing one of his fake wounds. A few weeks after that class ended, he took Victoria out to dinner.
The Placeholder: Brian proposed to Victoria in their kitchen. “I was cooking dinner, and he came home with this big smile on his face,” Victoria said. “He gets down on his knee, and he says, ‘Will you marry me?’ And I said, ‘Of course I will.’ ” It was a little spontaneous, Brian said. “I went to Target and bought a $50 ring because we had kind of been talking about it,” Brian said. “We ended up calling it the placeholder ring.” Victoria received her real ring the day before she and Brian graduated from paramedics school, which was a month before the wedding, and she got to wear the ring for the first time at graduation.
School and Wedding Planning: The couple planned the wedding and went to paramedics school simultaneously. “We were actually working full-time schedules for free and trying to work at our regular jobs on our days off to make ends meet,” Brian said. “Compared to school, the wedding was easy, and Victoria did an excellent job of making sure everything was where it needed to be.”
FIRE! The pastor said, “I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Brian Christison.” Victoria and Brian began to walk back down the aisle. Then one of the guests yelled “fire,” and long streamers were shot up and over the ceremony site from streamer guns. “We knew it was going to happen, but most of the guests didn’t know we were going to do it,” Brian said. Loud “whoas” could be heard as these giant streamers made their way over the guests’ heads.
Extraordinary Cakes: The centerpieces on each table were cakes from the delectable sweets boutique Extraordinary Desserts. “We wrote a note on each table saying, ‘There are several different flavors throughout the room, so get up, mingle and meet your new family and friends,’ ” Victoria said. “It actually worked out really well because there were people walking around with their plates with little slices from the different tables.”
The Doghouse: A small doghouse was given to Brian’s maternal grandfather by his father when Brian’s grandparents wed in 1938. “It has been kind of a tradition on my mom’s side that when the husband is in trouble, the little dog physically goes into the doghouse,” Brian said. Brian’s mother had his name put on the doghouse, and during the rehearsal dinner, she presented the doghouse to the couple. The doghouse sat on the head table at the wedding, as well. Brian has been behaving himself and hasn’t officially been in the doghouse yet, Victoria said.
The ‘5150' Table: There was a group of paramedics sitting together at what was officially table No. 8, but the group sitting there renamed it the “5150" table. “There’s a code 5150 in our job that’s a psychiatric call,” Victoria said. Brian said 5150 is a state code that is signed by a police officer or another authority, and it places somebody on a 72-hour hold, usually in a psychiatric facility. The paramedics at the 5150 table were the enthusiastic bunch at the wedding. “They were just having a lot of fun,” Victoria said. “They kept clinging their glasses and joking around.”
The Country and the City: The couple went to Ireland and London for their honeymoon. For the first few days, they stayed at a little bed and breakfast in Ireland. “It was way out in the country — no TV,” Victoria said. “They had a phone in the house, but there was no phone in our room.” One day while they were in Ireland, it poured. At the bed and breakfast, there was a huge drawing room that had 10-foot windows. “We just sat in the drawing room and read while it was storming outside,” Victoria said. After that, they spent a couple of days in Dublin and a week in London.
DON’T BE SO HUNG UP ... on everything having to be perfect. That is Brian and Victoria’s advice for anyone who is planning a wedding. During the planning months, Victoria, her maid of honor and Brian’s mom went to the Handlery to taste the food and coordinate aspects of the wedding. Victoria said: “The people at the Handlery kept asking, ‘How do you want this; how do you want that?’ There were all these little details that I couldn’t see people actually being hung up on. They were asking how we wanted the napkins folded. I was just kind of laughing to myself and very seriously I just said, ‘I want a monkey riding a swan.’ Then I said, ‘I’m just kidding — a fan fold is just fine.’ But everyone kind of paused for a second.”