Angela & Loren

Real Weddings

Angela & Loren

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If love is a drug, then pharmacists Angie Worral and Loren Christianson have the perfect formula. The first ingredient? Laughs.

Wanting a wedding venue where everyone could stay together, the couple decided to marry over Labor Day weekend at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. And the jokes started immediately. “We just kept saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if we got married at Timberline and had a Shining theme?’” remembers Angie. “It was just so ridiculous and outlandish.” (Timberline served as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s movie version of The Shining.) Then the jokes turned into, well, the plan. “It just started to sound really fun!’ laughs Angie.

The couple, who met during a 2005 pharmacy school internship on an Apache Indian reservation and got engaged four years later, found their wedding colors in an unexpected place—choosing red, brown and light blue when designing their customized Converse. The palette wove throughout, with Loren’s brown suit and baby blue shirt, and Angie’s sky-high red heels perfectly showcased in her tea length dress (before she changed into her Converse, of course).

Angie made her own bouquet out of paper flowers and red feathers, while her seven bridesmaids carried bunches of dahlias. Single dahlias, color-coded by meal selection, also stood in IV vials, a nod to the couple’s shared profession, labeled with each guests’ seating location. Of course, no Shining party would be complete without details like Redrum bottles and a typewriter spewing out nonstop reams of “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

The rollicking wedding weekend had begun on Saturday with a brewpub tour in Portland, before the 100 guests returned to Timberline for pizza and a screening of—what else?—The Shining. The evening ceremony on Sunday opened with friends playing the surf rock theme from Pulp Fiction before the couple walked in together to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” signaling what would be a sweetly irreverent wedding. Loren’s friend officiated while Angie’s mom read from The Giving Tree and her father read an Apache wedding blessing. After it was official, Angie’s nieces, dressed in blue dresses like the twins in The Shining, stood at the end of the aisle while her nephew rode out of the ceremony on a Big Wheel. The newlyweds followed as the crowd sung “Stand by Me.”

After a cocktail hour around the lobby’s fireplace, guests enjoyed a sit down dinner and screening of the couple’s Shining-spoof engagement video (watch at orbridemag.com). “I was a little nervous,” admits Angie. “What if people don’t laugh? But it killed.” The fun continued back upstairs with a ’90s-fueled dance party, and many revelers—including the bride and groom—didn’t head back to their rooms til the wee hours.

With seemingly boundless energy, Angie and Loren hit the road the next day for their honeymoon—a cross-country journey to Loren’s homestate of Wisconsin for another reception and then a return trip along Route 66. Laughing all the way, we’re sure.

Bridal gown: Elizabeth Dye at The English Dept. | Bridesmaid dresses: Unique Vintage | Cake: Dream Cakes | Catering:  Timberline Lodge | Favors: Custom aluminum waterbottles | Flowers: Swan Island Dahlias, arranged by a friend | Groom and groomsmen attire: Men’s Wearhouse; ties from Toybreaker on Etsy | Hair and makeup: Kristin Ariniello | Hairpiece: Satanica on Etsy | Invitations: Timberline postcards | Jewelry: Olgabest28 on Etsy | Music: Jacob McCollam & Matt Radich (friends) for ceremony; iPod for reception | Photobooth: The Original Photo Booth | Rings: Terry’s Jewelry & Gifts in Prineville | Videographer: Ronan Feely (friend)

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