Santa Ana CA (PRWEB) August 10, 2012
Ely Reeves Callaway III, Founder of Callaway Cars Inc. with facilities in Old Lyme, CT, Santa Ana, CA, and Leingarten, Germany surprised auto industry guests, friends and family at the August 4th Grand Opening of their Callaway Cars West location in Santa Ana, CA with a surprise wedding ceremony to fiancé, Nicole Jones.
Reeves is the son of Ely Reeves Callaway Jr., Founder of Callaway Golf and Callaway Winery and former President and Director of Burlington Industries. Nicole is a former commercial real estate and business manager with roots in northern California, Chicago and New York City. Together, Reeves and Nikki bring together a family of eight children: Pete Callaway, 30, General Manager of Callaway Cars West, Beany Callaway, Artist, 32, of Oakland, CA, Robbie Jones, 18, entering Whittier College and its basketball team on academic scholarship in the fall, Courtney Jones, 15, Whitney Jones, 13, J.P. Jones, 10, Lili Callaway, 9 and Walker Callaway, 7.
Reeves, Nikki and their children were surrounded with love and adoration by 175 friends, staff and family members including Reeves’ younger brother, Nicholas Callaway, Founder of Callaway Publishing and Happy.is, who stood beside Reeves at the altar along with son, Pete. Notable guests included racing legend Dan Gurney and wife, Evi, with sons Justin and Alex Gurney and their families, Yves Morizot, President of Stand 21, and his family, Danielle Kelly, Pete Callaway’s girlfriend, Jesse Alexander, motorsports photographer, James Sly, master chef.
The new Callaway Cars facility, located at 2441 Pullman Avenue, Santa Ana, CA was surrounded by Callaway automobiles brought by their owners throughout the United States to help commemorate the Company’s 25th anniversary with Corvette. Inside the showroom were a new RPO B2K 25th Anniversary Limited Edition Callaway Corvette, a 1997 Callaway C7 race car, a Callaway C16 exotic, and other rare, very special Callaways. A new Z06-based Callaway Corvette SC652 rotated on a turntable at the showroom entrance. Presented along with the unique cars, were a charcoal grey and black RPO B2K Callaway Corvette-inspired wedding cake, sushi, sashimi and gourmet delicacies from SushiPrivateChef.com. Vocalist/guitarist Mike Vitale provided the music (Mikevitalemusic.com), Nikki’s family supplied award winning wine from their family winery (Wildhurst.com) and the showroom and bridal party bouquets were adorned with deep plum Calla lilies.
At 3:00 PM, during the Grand Opening program, Reeves announced to his guests that he had a special surprise in store for them. Just then, a sedan pulled up outside the showroom with Nikki and their youngest six children, adorned in wedding attire. Daughter, Lili, led the way as flower girl, followed by son, Walker, ring bearer, daughters, Whitney and Courtney, were followed by daughter, Beany, and Danielle Kelly. The bride was escorted by sons, Robbie and J.P., and wore a golden Piccione Italian silk wedding gown adorned with Swarovski crystals. Post event, close family and friends were invited to a small, intimate celebration at the Montage Hotel in Laguna Beach.
Since the company’s 1977 inception, Reeves has cultivated a corporate culture that provides discriminating driving enthusiasts with maximum satisfaction, assembling what the automotive press has called “the best specialist engineers in the business”. The Callaway Cars companies produce specialty vehicles, engineering services, and performance products that showcase technological sophistication, artistry in design, and beauty in craftsmanship.
Reeves’ company consists of three core business units. Callaway Cars designs, develops, and manufactures high-performance specialty vehicles and aftermarket performance products, marketed and distributed under the Callaway brand. Callaway Engineering delivers a full range of contract engineering and manufacturing services, with special focus on development of high-performance vehicles, systems, and components. Callaway Competition, based in Leingarten, Germany, enjoys an extensive history of designing and constructing winning race cars, currently campaigning Corvette Z06.R race cars in ADAC’s GT Masters series and building Corvettes for several European race teams. Callaway Competition’s composite design and manufacturing expertise was instrumental in establishing Santa Ana’s new Callaway Carbon facilities, which now provides advanced carbon fiber products for automotive, aerospace and medical industries.