Sara Harirchian & Cyrus Semnani

In Sara Harirchian’s world, being a good friend means sticking around and helping clean up after everyone else has left the party. On this night, another guest also lingered to lend a hand. Cyrus Semnani and Sara talked for an hour, but as far as she was concerned there was no spark between them.

Weeks later, she heard that he had been asking about her. Sara was studying for her bar exams and their mutual friend set up a coffee and study date for the two. “I’m skeptical about everything,” says Sara, “but I decided to give him a chance.” She found Cyrus intriguingly different from her usual dates. He was easy to talk to and very relaxed. “He doesn’t stress out over minor things, and I’m a perfectionist,” she says.

The two hung out on Halloween night, and then saw each other every day for the next ten days. “That’s when we realized that something had started,” says Sara.

One of Cyrus’ endearing qualities was wanting to show Sara all the places she had never seen in Los Angeles. On Labor Day weekend, three years after they began to date, the destination was the Getty Villa followed by lunch at the beach. Sara was puzzled to see Cyrus in a heavy coat on a warm day. That, together with other uncharacteristic behaviors, made her suspicious about what was on his mind.

When his plans for getting to the beach were foiled by extreme holiday traffic, Cyrus found a park with a deserted overgrown trail that led to the water. As Sara scrambled down the path, she turned to find him on one knee proposing. He had been nervous all day and the heavy coat had hidden the ring.

Sara almost gave up in her search for a Labor Day wedding location with a beautiful natura setting for the ceremony and a high-ceilinged reception room for three hundred. Finally, she found what she wanted at the Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara. 

The couple’s Muslim ceremony included many traditional customs. One of Sara’s favorite memories is of a swarm of loving women approaching, holding a cloth over her and Cyrus’ heads and grinding sugar cubes into it that sifted through, frosting the couple and assuring sweetness in their marriage.

During the reception, an “amazing” guitarist serenaded the couple. A descendant of one of the famed Gipsy Kings musicians, he played upside down and right-side up and down on one knee while the couple danced around him. 

Cyrus, a senior product manager by day and a sometime DJ by night, presented Sara with a surprise set of meaningful songs. “It was a highlight of the night,” says Cyrus, who loved watching their families jumping on the stage and the crowd going wild. For Sara, the fullness of the feelings in the room was palpable. “The amount of love from our guests will stay with me forever,” she says.

Sara and Cyrus, who are not “beach loungers,” chose a romantic adventure honeymoon steeped in culture, architecture and food. It started in Positano, Italy, and moved through Capri, Sorrento and Florence. “I’m in love with Italy,” says Sara. “We ate, walked, went to museums and watched street musicians. It was the perfect honeymoon.”