Glendale couple celebrates anniversary 10 years after brush fire threatened wedding

GLENDALE, Calif. - A couple whose marriage ceremony was threatened by a raging brush fire just celebrated a major anniversary.

And one of those at the wedding back then, by chance, was FOX 11's Phil Shuman who met the couple while covering the fire.

Fast-forward 10 years later… Shuman met with the happy couple, Aileen and Vartan Dinkjian, and their three young children at their Glendale apartment.

This visit comes just after the couple celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary. 

"It was really a difficult situation… is this wedding meant to be? Is the marriage meant to go forward?," Vartan explained. 

’’Very chaotic, very chaotic at that moment. I didn’t even know what was going on,‘’ Aileen added.

What was going on was a raging brush fire in the hills above Glendale that forced evacuations and a shutdown of their outdoor wedding venue in Brand Park just hours before the planned ceremony. They had to relocate their wedding due to the fire, and were in the process of trying to find a new location, notify a 100 guests, move the caterer, florist, and band.

Their day went from bad to good. With help from the city, the parks department, and their friends, the couple was able to find a new location… a few miles out of the danger zone at Casa Adobe Park and relocated guests, the band, and caterer all with a three hours' notice.

Now with three children, the couple reached out Shuman thinking it might make a feel good update… and as they looked through family photos…… it seemed they were right.

"Ten years later here we are… had no idea where we’d be. Someone said if you can get through that, you can get through anything," Aileen exclaimed. 

"Every time I see these brush fires I literally think how did our wedding survive all that," Vartan added.