The Crowd:

In the past 18 years of writing The Crowd for the Daily Pilot, I have steadfastly avoided including my personal life or that of my family in coverage of the local scene. Today I am breaking that rule.

Over the holiday season my oldest daughter, Alexandra Pfeifer, and her husband, Jeffrey Pfeifer, brought a little girl into the world. She was born Dec. 18 and her name is Nicollette Loren Pfeifer. The baby and her parents are at home in the Pacific Palisades along with sister, Jessica, and the young family is all doing well.

A week later, on Christmas Day, son Ryan Cook became engaged to the beautiful Chelsea Edmundson. Both Ryan and Chelsea attended Newport Harbor High School and the University of Southern California. Chelsea works in the landscape design field, and Ryan is working with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Two days later, on Dec. 27, youngest daughter Sabrina Leigh married her fiancée, Alex Michael Chazen, in a spectacular winter wonderland-themed wedding at the Balboa Bay Club & Resort.

My wife, Cathie, worked for more than a year planning what was one of the most elegant weddings in Newport Beach, aided by the incredibly gifted designer Andrew Gromek of Couture Flowers.

The spectacular setting was coordinated by wedding event planner Beth Slavin and the Bay Club’s wedding coordinator Abbie Reis.

Gromek transformed the cavernous ballroom into a winter palace. It was replete with enormous sprayed white trees sparkling with leaves of crystal and magnificent floral arrangements. These featured blush pink and white blossoms, including hydrangeas, roses and exotic varieties including enormous white orchids.

The sunset ceremony took place in a section of the Bay Club Ballroom, which had been transformed into a wedding chapel, romantic beyond description.

The All-American Boys Chorus performed as the wedding party entered the chapel and walked down the aisle over a white silk runner edged with floating candles in tall vases.

There were 22 attendants, led by the bride’s maid of honor, Katie McKay of Bayshores, and the groom’s best man, Eric Pearlmutter, of Los Angeles.

The beautiful flower girl was the bride’s niece, Jessica Pfeifer, dressed in a full-length pale pink gown. Ring bearers were brothers Christopher and Ryan Freeman, children of close family friends.

The wedding vows were delivered by Rabbi Mark Miller of Temple Bat Yahm, Newport Beach, who shared a personal and heartfelt ceremony tailored specifically to the new bride and groom.

Many in attendance commented that it was one of the most special ceremonies they had witnessed. When the bride and groom said “I do” it began to snow in the wedding chapel, and the couple exited down the silk pathway as the crowd was covered with a light dusting of white magic.

A grand reception followed the wedding ceremony as guests shared toasts and hors d’oeuvres, and then the enormous double doors of the ballroom were opened at 8 p.m. for dinner.

Audible gasps were heard from the crowd as they witnessed the magical winter wonderland scene. Lighting designers from SWANK projected snowflakes throughout the ballroom. A white high-gloss dance floor centered the room, fronted by the Ron Kobayashi Jazz Orchestra. The evening’s master of ceremonies was the talented saxophonist and former president of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Jerry Mandel.

A lavish dinner was prepared and served by chef Josef Lageder and the dining room staff led by George Valenzuela. Guests mingled at the overflowing tiered candy bar set on a sleigh, had their photos taken in a photo booth and were entertained by strolling table magicians.

In the crowd were grandparents Jack and Gerrie Kaplan, retired MGM executive Sid and Phyllis Sapsowitz of Monarch Beach, and legendary Southern California car dealer Stan and Sue Chazen of Santa Monica and Ontario.

The groom’s parents, Los Angeles-based attorney Steve and Donna Chazen, and sister Robin Chazen, a student at UCLA, joined family members, including the bride’s relatives Craig and Eva Kaplan of Los Angeles and Jeff Behring of Blackhawk and cousins Zachary Kaplan, Elizabeth and James Farhat, and Jessica, John and Colin Behring, who had flown in from Shanghai for the wedding. Other family and friends came from as far away as Bangkok, Vancouver and Athens.

Newport Mesa guests included Joe and Lori McKay, Alison and James McCormick, John and Anne Wortmann, Gary and Sharon Grimes, Sharon and Bryan McKinnon, Patti and William O’Desky, William and Caroline Holder, Bob and Cathy Di Meco, Laurie Veitch and Joe Woodruff, Ron and Kim Newman, Jay and Kat Meehan, Valerio and Linda Giannini, Sam and Virginia Odsache, Dave and Marilyn Wooten and Henry and Carol Schielein.

Life-long friends attending included John Maatta, chief operating officer of the Warner Television Network, actress Joyce Bulifant and her actor husband, Roger Perry, Suzanne Lloyd, trustee of the Harold Lloyd Film Trust, Jennifer and Barry Wilson, Hugh Regan, Joanna Hayes, and the Fernbacher family, Helene, Ann and Joan of Brentwood’s iconic candy store, Candy Alley, which provided the whimsical holiday candy bar.

The bride and groom honeymooned in Florida and the Caribbean and returned home to their residence in Beverly Hills after the New Year break, where the groom resumes his second year of law studies at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.