We thought that we found a location, but sadly it was not meant to be.
When you are planning one of the most important events in in your life, and spending a ton of money you want the people you’d be trusting to pull off that event to be responsive and not blow deadline after deadline, even the ones they set for themselves.
We soon found ourselves struggling to find a place that could accommodate our likely 200 attendees, let us have a caterer who could do both gluten-free and kosher, and be affordable. And that’s when we decided to bring in a wedding planner to help out, it was something Kerry and myself decided was worth it enough for us to pay for ourselves, for our own sanity. And importantly, so the days leading up to the wedding and the day itself would not fall on our family/friends shoulders as much, and they could enjoy the event, instead of working it.
The trick was finding someone who didn’t laugh at our budget, our 200 person guest count, our dietary needs and was cool with a same-sex wedding. We found the perfect fit in Teissia from Firefly Events. Teissia comes from a non-profit background and is full of enthusiasm and DIY spirit. With her help we are now contemplating two locations and two caterers, working to find the best combination of a beautiful place with great energy, good food, fun music and fit it all in our budget.
The first is the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens. Yep, snicker away about the L.A. River, but the place is actually really cool and Kerry has some family history with the place. It used to be Lawry’s headquarters, which they build in the mid-century in a spanish style. Now it is run by a non-profit. But when Kerry was a kid, it was a Lawry’s Mexican restaurant. She used to go there nearly every Friday with her parents, brother and her parent’s best friends and their two boys. The kids would run around, while the parents drank some crappy margaritas.
We didn’t know it was the same place when we went to visit it. After all, why would you think L.A. River Center = old Lawry’s restaurant. But Kerry mentioned on the way out that it reminded her of a place she had been too a bunch as a kid. I thought she was nuts, but she insisted I google it. And low and behold it was the same place. They even had a going away party for her uncle Ward 25+ years ago there, in the courtyard where we are thinking of holding the ceremony.
Most of the day would be spent outside, except for the cocktail hour, which would be in an sunny atrium. The location is near Dodger stadium, not in the nicest of neighborhoods, but you wouldn’t know it when you are inside. And it has plenty of room for our guests, plus is so pretty that we would barely have to do any decorating. Plus, it has plenty of room for a band to set up with a large dance floor. After all, there will be some Hora-ing.
The second location option is Rancho del Cielo (Ranch in the sky), which is as the name suggests high up in the Malibu cliffs, with an amazing panoramic view. On clear days you can see all the way to Catalina. It has a great energy, partially because it is actually somebody’s home with a beautiful yard.
We would need to shuttle guests up to it, since there isn’t enough parking up there and Malibu city ordinances make a live band impossible. Thus we would have to give up on having live music, something we really wanted, and get a DJ instead. But the place is beautiful. It even has Kerry, who didn’t care as much as me about the location, working hard to make the budget fit to have it there. Like the LA River Center, it would not need much decorating, helping keep costs down (weddings are damn expensive).
So this weekend, as we head to my friends
Julia and Kerry and Baby 