Dec 24, 2009 Posted on Dec 24, 2009 in wedding wednesday | 0 comments

Happy Christmas! Jessica & Nik’s Bad-Ass Bowling Bonanza!

Wowzers! I am so sorry that I’ve kept you all waiting on this wedding, because it is truly stunning!  I love the way the color theme is carried out through the entire event (and I especially love that Jessica doesn’t even think there is/was a theme, other than creating a day about them as a couple- see below) I don’t even have the right words, I just love it all so much! The explosive color, the amazing portraits, the fabulous details, and the exuberant joy are totally awesome.  And the fact that there was a CARD MONSTER doesn’t hurt either.

So check out a few words of wedding wisdom from Jessica (in the awesome pink dress) and check out all the gorgeous below.

ADVICE:

When it comes to planning, I think the biggest thing to remember (and as cliche as it sounds) is be true to yourself and your fiance. We turned our wedding into the biggest expression of “us” as a couple in every aspect as was possible! From the get-go, we realized having a queer wedding is pretty untraditional and we embraced that full heartedly. Why not have fun with it?! May as well wear a hot pink dress! May as well hold it at a bowling alley!  There was one point in the planning process where I got all flustered about not having a set “theme” and “idea” for how this whole wedding was going to come together. It was when I realized that really – the theme of the whole event was US – everything just came together naturally. Turned out to be the best day of my life

GORGEOUS:

If you’ve enjoyed these photos (and how could you not?) then get yourself over to Love Me Do Photography and check out the rest of their beautiful work.

Oh! Did I mention that Jessica made the deer cake toppers herself?  Check out her etsy store here.

And have wonderful holidays!

xoxo

ms. awesome

Nov 4, 2009 Posted on Nov 4, 2009 in venue | 4 comments

our awesome venue revealed.

I’m long winded- I know.

So let me just get right to the big reveal.

Our amazing wedding location is Heritage Square Museum!  It’s an amazing living history museum comprised of eight historic buildings including a barn and a box car!!!

Check it.

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Photo Credit: Sweet Monday Photography

(so so pretty! btw)

Photo Credit: Dana Grant Photography

cheese-tastic photo collage credit: me, me, me. (except for “cold beer” photo, here)

It’s gorgeous right?

Remember the equation:

awesome location + booze + amplified music = expensive.

Well not at Heritage Square!

They were super nice and even gave us a great deal for booking so far in advance!

AND did you notice the BARN & TRAIN. I die.

Double Score!

Did we compromise at all? Only a little….

*Our wedding turns into a pumpkin at 10pm.

So we’ll definitely be having an awesome after-party somewhere in downtown!  Moreover, this will allow for all those amazing gritty/urban/crazily-lit photographs that make my heart flutter.

So eff you Marvimon.

*No fire of ANY kind= no beautiful candlelight or sparkler send-off.

I guess I’ll be looking into those make your own LED posts all over the wedding blogosphere.

Pretty minimal compromises/awesome solutions if you ask me.

*There are seriously a million bad-ass locations in los angeles and beyond, especially if you have $$$$. There are also a million bad-ass locations if you’re broke- either way I’d love to see yours!

Nov 4, 2009 Posted on Nov 4, 2009 in venue | 1 comment

the dream venue. the reality venue. the awesome venue.

So we’re engaged. What to do next?

Not being a girl with a wedding addiction since age 5- no wedding binder, no pre-engagement wedding blog addiction (i’m making up for it now) no ring, dress, or invitation suite ALREADY picked out. Seriously ladies?

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So it took just a minute for me to be up to speed and start figuring things out.  Being obsessed with all things design/crafty I immediately thought of Save-the-Dates and Invites, and then realized we’d have to have some information to put on those bad boys.

Like a date. Simple enough.  And a city. LA done. And a location? Well… here’s where it gets tricky! Maybe the start-planning-your-dream-wedding-at-age-5 gals were right- b/c it would take a serious, long-term, high-yield investment account, for me to afford my LA dream locations!  Even the less-than-obvious, plain-dead-field w/no electricity options. more on this below.  (and man do i love my hyphens!)

So I turned to my trusty blogs and started seeing what was out there.  And let me tell you- there’s A LOT* out there, and it’s NOT all super pretty, but it’s all pretty expensive!

The equation:

awesome location + booze + amplified music = expensive.

I started scouring the typical wedding haunts, as well as lists of parks, gardens, and outdoor locations; awesome lofts and industrial spaces; little movie theaters. You name it- I emailed ‘em.

Here’s an extremely abbreviated list of places that we, ahem, thought we could afford:

Griffith Park- Wilson Harding “The Clubhouse”

too expensive with bar/catering requirements. cool building though- love those wood trusses.

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Griffith Park- Visitor’s Center Auditorium. Looked pretty in the picture, but $1000+ is too expensive to get married in a parking lot. Yup- that picturesque bit of grass is about 3/4 surrounded by parking.

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Franklin Canyon Park- we thought we had a winner- big open spaces, no amenities, we could have this baby for dirt cheap right? wrong! You get all this NOTHING for $4000!

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Elysian Park- Grace E. Simon- $1600+ for a concrete picnic area and that unnaturally colored water. please.

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Marvimon. (cue angel choir and bring me a hankie) Shhh…this is still my dream location folks. I love, love, love it. Sadly you could put a down payment on a house in this LA market for the same price. folks i contacted were super nice, but with a base fee of $6000 + a bunch of additional fees, (For the location ALONE = no food/booze) this is punk rock style you PAY for. damn sellouts.

*Sorry Mrs. Sprinkle- you know I’m just kidding!  Kinda.  Your wedding was gorgeous and we really should get on that whole running business someday soon…

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Downtown Independant- The site of our first date. It’s super cute and they were super NICE when they finally got back to me.  We already had our heart set on OUR awesome location by then, but maybe we can have our after party here?

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So which one did we pick? Check back in a later and I’ll reveal our AWESOME location in all its glory!