Yes, there is a wedding taking place at the O.C. Fair — and everyone’s invited
The wedding of the millennium — Millennium Barn, that is — will take place Saturday in Costa Mesa.
Leslie Leong and Michael Nguyen won the inaugural “Love is in the Fair” wedding giveaway, and they felt it was meant to be.
The Orange County Fair was already special to the couple, as would be expected, and the timing was auspicious: The pair got engaged on July 1, and the OC Fair & Event Center advertised the new-this-year contest on its Facebook page the very next day.
The rules were simple: Entrants needed to visit the fair, shoot a brief video explaining why it’s meaningful to them and why they want to get married there and post their work to social media with #ocfairwedding.
Leong said she hadn’t started seriously planning the wedding she had initially envisioned — perhaps a destination ceremony at a national park, since she and Nguyen love camping and the outdoors.
While not exactly rural, the barn is nothing if not rustic.
For winning the contest, the happy couple will receive a free half-hour wedding ceremony in the classic red Millennium Barn, a cake and a two-night honeymoon at the oceanfront Pasea Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach. Stilt walkers, clowns and farm animals will join family and friends as guests.
“He really likes that there’s gonna be clowns there,” Leong said with a laugh, referring to her fiancé.
Leong, 31, is a nursing student at Cypress College. Nguyen, 33, is a behavioral analyst who works with autistic children. With most of the wedding covered, they can save for a home, she said.
In their video for the contest, Nguyen said one of their first dates in 2015 was at the fair. Ever since, they have made a tradition of riding the bus to the annual summer event.
“The fair was one of my first places I got to call Leslie my girlfriend,” he said. “It would be amazing if it was the first place I get to call her my wife.”
In addition to the circus and barnyard acts, passersby will fill in as guests. That means you’re invited, too.
The fair is at 88 Fair Drive and the ceremony starts at 1 p.m. The Millennium Barn is located near the Blue Gate entrance.
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