So…I basically couldn’t love this wedding and the couple behind it more if I tried. It’s happiness in wedding form, and all planned to whimsical perfection by CCL Weddings. You’d be hard pressed to not smile at all the sweetness captured by Paperwhites Photography, because this stylish soiree is just filled to the brim with details that will make your heart flutter, and you can see them all right here.
From the Bride…Jeremy proposed on a hike overlooking the Pacific ocean during a weekend getaway to Santa Barbara to celebrate our third anniversary in November 2011. We knew we did not want a long engagement so we immediately set about exploring venues in our hometown of Los Angeles. We visited Union Station in downtown LA first and fell instantly in love, cancelling our plans to visit other venues that weekend. Union Station was built in the 1930s and is an enchanting mix of Art Deco/Moderne (interior) and Spanish Colonial (exterior) design. It’s also surrounded by the vibrant Olvera Street neighborhood. We were thrilled at the notion of exposing our many out-of-town guests from the East coast to some of LA’s history.
Since everything must be brought in to the venue, we looked for a wedding planner with experience at the location. We found a perfect fit in the very talented Catherine Cindy Leo, who shares our passion for the space. Catherine helped us to articulate and execute our vision and to throw an event that was uniquely “us,” and she was extremely attentive. Jeremy and I sometimes work long hours and, by necessity, we would often send Catherine questions or feedback over e-mail late at night, and it became a running joke that she would always reply right away, even at 1am! She really helped us to work in whimsical train references, like a cheeky “Shake Your Caboose” sign at the DJ booth and our ticket-style hole-punched Save The Dates and escort cards, without turning the event into a theme party. Catherine connected us with the excellent and very patient graphic designer Chris Kim for our extensive paper suite and with our amazing caterer Harvey of Feast Catering who prepared the most delicious “farm-to-table family-style Italian feast” (and who knew exactly what we meant by that mouthful of a concept). We wish we would have thought to freeze some leftover lamb bolognese for our 1st anniversary!
We knew we wanted to incorporate gray into our palette for the day and liked the soft and summery cheerfulness achieved by mixing shades of gray with yellow and white for our August nuptials. My bridesmaids are each so uniquely beautiful and fashionable that I couldn’t imagine putting them all into the same dress. So we searched favorite online retailer Shopbop for long gray dresses, and were drawn to one that actually turned out to be a bridesmaid dress by designer Joanna August. We visited Joanna’s studio here in LA and picked out a different dress for each bridesmaid in either a dark or light gray. We adore the way the girls looked, and photographed, in complementary, but not identical, dresses. We applied that same concept to Jeremy and his groomsmen, choosing a a light gray Theory suit for Jeremy and selecting darker gray suits for the groomsmen and lighter gray for our junior groomsman (9-year old nephew Sam). As for my gown, I secretly cut out a picture of it several years ago when helping a friend select a different Junko Yoshioka dress for her 2010 wedding. Shortly after our engagement, while searching Style Me Pretty for inspiration, I stumbled across photos of another bride wearing the same dress for her Santa Barbara wedding (http://www.stylemepretty.com/california-weddings/2010/07/26/santa-barbara-wedding-by-aaron-delesie/), and I had a gut reaction that this bride was wearing my dress, as if I had caught my sister wearing something she stole out of my closet! Since the dress was an older season by then, I had to request that Saks in Beverly Hills have the sample sent from the designer. I tried on a number of dresses beforehand, but confirmed the Junko was “the one” the moment I put it on. It’s old Hollywood feel and architectural details just felt perfect for our venue.
Jeremy and I share a love of succulents, but, sadly, they never fare so well inside our apartment. We knew we wanted to be surrounded by them on our wedding day. Samantha of Primary Petals beautifully wove together our color palette, obsession with succulents, and request for a streamlined and modern look. And the ceremony backdrop piece she and her husband built of hanging planters was simply perfect.
We did experience some anxiety about having our wedding in a space as public as a functioning train and metro station, but, in the end, receiving cheers of encouragement from the baggage handler driving by on his cart as we readied ourselves to walk down the aisle, inviting some young Mexican folkloric dancers into our bridal party photos, and the feeling of being in a bustling and vibrant space are all part of what made the day so memorable. And, thanks to Catherine’s placement of piping and draping around our reception space and the incredible fun tunes from Anthony of RedShoe LA (aka “DJ Swon”) we very privately and unabashedly danced our cabooses off late into the night! It was such a treat to get our photographs back from Trina and Darcy of Paperwhites Photography and to relive the whole day through their breathtaking journalistic art.
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Photography: Paperwhites Photography | Wedding Planning + Styling: CCL Weddings | Florist: Primary Petals | Venue: Union Station, Los Angeles | Catering: Feast Catering | Photobooth: GC Photobooths | Graphic Design: Chris Kim of Imaginate | Cake: Vanilla Bake Shop | Rentals: Luna Party Rentals | DJ/MC: Anthony of RedShoe LA | Hotel: Roosevelt Hotel | Wedding Dress: Junko Yoshioka