Danica Pinner and Nick Campbell weren’t sure they could manufacture that kind of uplift when they married on Jan. 12 in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theater. A few days before, “we were like, I have no idea how we’re going to do this,” Mr. Campbell said. “You could see the smoke in the distance.”
Like Ms. Riley, Mr. Campbell had lost his childhood home in the Pacific Palisades days earlier. His mother, Lesli Linka Glatter, was living with him and Ms. Pinner in the Van Nuys neighborhood. But the couple, both 33 and musicians, had 182 guests to consider (which ultimately became closer to 165), some who had flown in for the wedding. They’re glad they didn’t cancel. “My mom convinced us that people need some sort of outlet for community right now,” Mr. Campbell said. “And that’s how it felt. There were a lot of hugs, a lot of joy in the room.”
The fires brought additional meaning to the Jan. 14 wedding of Alex Schmider and Kat Klein at a friend’s home in Santa Barbara, too. Mr. Schmider, 35, and Ms. Klein, 29, who live in Pasadena and work as producers — he in documentary films and she in booking talent — initially planned to marry in 2026. But they were concerned about marriage-equality rights after the presidential election. “It felt important to get married expeditiously,” said Mr. Schmider, who is a transgender man. Ms. Klein is a queer woman.
The couple planned a wedding for 130 guests in two months. Nearly everyone, including friends and neighbors who had lost homes, showed up. That, along with the prescience of their handwritten vows, was unexpected. “I had written a week before the fires broke out, ‘We don’t know what’s to come,’” Ms. Klein said. “All we have is the certainty of the love we have for each other,” Mr. Schmider said.
Less than a week after her wedding, Ms. Riley wasn’t sure she had fully processed her family’s loss. “The grief was so much I couldn’t cry,” she said. “I think I’ll probably need some therapy.”
