Melisa Kirkup and Ben Blatt

Melisa Kirkup was guarded from evil during her wedding to Ben Blatt on Oct. 23 at Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica. A small blue and white glass eye-like bead was sewn into the inside of her wedding gown.

In keeping with Turkish tradition from her mother’s side of the family, Kirkup wore the bead to prevent harm from the “evil eye.” There is a belief in the Turkish culture that the envy of others can cause bad luck, whether intentional or not. The eye bead is believed to deflect evil and protect the wearer from others’ negative thinking.

“When I was a baby, my mother put an evil eye bead on my shoulder to protect me,” Kirkup said, explaining that her mother, who was born in Istanbul, attached the bead to her clothing with a gold safety pin.

Several of Kirkup’s relatives traveled from Turkey to attend the West L.A. couple’s wedding, which included another Turkish tradition, common among several other cultures as well. The 130 guests were given small boxes imprinted with the names of the bride and groom and the wedding date. Each was filled with five white candy-covered almonds.

“The almonds symbolize five wishes for the couple — health, wealth, children, happiness and a long life,” said Kirkup, 31.

Jewish traditions from Blatt’s side were also included in both the ceremony and reception. A rabbi performed the interfaith wedding, marrying the couple under a huppa wedding canopy.

The pair met in 2004. A mutual friend had given Kirkup Blatt’s résumé because she works as the media promotions manager at Universal Pictures and he was interested in working there, too. “I thought his résumé looked great and I passed [it] on to the right place,” Kirkup said.

Shortly after, they met in person at the mutual friend’s birthday party. They were attracted to one another, but Kirkup had a boyfriend.

“When you start talking to someone, you can tell right off the bat if they’re genuine, and she was,” Blatt said. “She’s beautiful and also super sweet.”

In 2005, a month after she and her boyfriend broke up, Blatt asked her out. In February 2009, Blatt proposed at Inspiration Point in Santa Monica overlooking the ocean. The week of the wedding, about 100 of the couple’s co-workers celebrated with them at the office.

“We kept our relationship under wraps at work in the beginning. I didn’t know if it was going to work out and I didn’t want the whole department to know about it,” Kirkup said. “But people knew before we thought they did.”

The couple honeymooned in Thailand and Hong Kong. “We wanted to go somewhere we had never been before,” Kirkup said. “Those destinations seemed exotic, fun and adventurous.”

— Sophia Fischer, Custom Publishing Writer