After two years of planning, I’m so excited to say our wedding was everything we dreamt of and more! As a couple, we followed our gut, set boundaries, and had discussions on how to make our special day reflect our love for each other. Our friends and family made this day extra special and they were extremely helpful in the planning process, setting up, and breaking down the actual event!

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Starting with our venue! I first found the 1929 mansion, The Maxwell House when browsing unique venues in la. The venue usually runs $7,000 which is normally way out of budget. Due to COVID-19, they had a special deal for intimate engagements of 30-40 guests! We fell in love with this venue for its charm, its historic background (built after the Spanish Flu pandemic, served as a veteran hospital), and its mission.

100% of the venue fee goes to The Western Justice Center, a non-profit organization that empowers people to strengthen their communities by teaching youth, educators, schools, and community partners conflict resolution skills rooted in equity, justice, and opportunity. More importantly, they use restorative practices to disrupt and dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. Everyone told me when you find your venue, you’ll know, and this for sure was the venue for us! 

The overall vibe for the wedding was timeless romance! At one point I came up with a super specific story about circular love where I wanted circular elements in every room. But decided that was way too involved and what mattered most to me was to add sustainable and ecofriendly elements. Overall I wanted soft pinks, ivories, with hints of metallics, while being mindful about overall consumption and waste.

Our venue only provided tables, chairs, an arch, and some equipment. So it was up to us to decorate the entire space. I am so thankful for my mom and my aunt because they spent hours thrifting pieces that matched our theme! I also thrifted quite a few pieces for the wedding (including my wedding dress)! The best thrift find was definitely the boxes and boxes of Ling’s Moment flowers my mom scored at Savers thrift store for a fraction of the actual price!

Since it was a mansion, there were so many rooms and mantles and random things to decorate! The venue was beautiful and charming on its own but adding our personal touches made it feel like us. One of my favorite touches was adding conversation cards* at the reception tables to break the ice for guests.

We also rented additional flowers and decor from Something Borrowed Blooms!  They were kind enough to provide a store credit in exchange for some Instagram content! Our bouquets, boutonniere, floral combs, floral garland, neon sign, and little vases all came from them!

Then our food! Our main focus was to have good food at this event. Our caterer was amazing! They provided a delicious array of appetizers, a delicious dinner, and a great bartender (our venue allowed us to bring our own alcohol, which was a huge saving for us.) Then our cake! Not only was it beautiful, but it was also delicious! It was strawberry champagne on 2 tiers and crème brûlée on the 3rd! I feel like we definitely are a foodie couple so we were happy to report the food was tasty and we went home with lots of leftovers.

Originally, when we just had good food and some dancing planned but realized we wanted our wedding to stand out and be extra special since people traveled states to attend. Some things that we felt made it special were having a caricature artist draw our guests as a souvenir, adding patio games for people who didn’t want to dance, and getting sent off in a butterfly wing Tesla! We also have nieces and nephews ages 3-8 so they made the day extra cute and quirky!

We spent the day taking a lot of pictures. I didn’t mind because honestly I do not enjoy dancing but my husband said he wishes he could’ve danced a little more! At one point We did do the electric slide with all of our guests so that was fun and we also took a shot with all of our guests (I’ve never taken a shot with my parents before, so that was definitely fun and memorable).

Couples always say this, but the wedding day really did go by so fast! I replay the day in my head over and over and I’m still in awe at how perfect the day turned out. It was heartwarming seeing our loved ones together in one room celebrating our love!

Please let me know if you have any questions about the wedding!

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Vendors

Venue: The Maxwell House / Caterer & Bartender: Cutting Edge Catering / DJ & Officiant: Add Creative Excitement / Makeup: Makeup by Ava Tula / Dress: Allure Bridal from Facebook Marketplace / Tuxedo: Friar Tux / Florals: Something Borrowed Blooms / Cake: Fantasy Frostings / Photography & Videography: Fun Lovin Camera / Caricature Artist: Laura Lineback / Wedding Coordinator: Wynndy Johnson / Day of Coordinators: Braggs Planning Group & Events By Kirk / Car Rental: Turo / Groom’s Hair: Locafella Loc Studio