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The Offbeat Bride: Catherine
Her offbeat partner: Agustin
Date and location of wedding: Huron Substation Los Angeles, CA — May 18, 2013
Our offbeat wedding at a glance:
I wanted everything to be as hand-made as possible. I started thrifting plates and furniture as soon as I locked a location in January. I have a small succulent garden, so I started taking clippings and succulent soil and potting my own favors in baby food jars. I found a sewing machine in table at a Salvation Army, so I grabbed it and repainted the table, and then antiqued the whole thing for our gift table.
Agustin spent a few months rolling crepe-paper flowers that I would then hot glue to styrofoam balls to make our flower pomanders that lined the stairway, aisle, balcony, and tables. He also learned how to etch, burn, and cut with wood to make the “Señor” and “Señora” signs for our seats, the cards sign for the birdcage, and a cake topper that ended up not even on the cake because the flower on top was too pretty to ruin!
We focused on finding a venue with history and had indoor/outdoor options. Oh, and that allowed dogs, as our rescue shiba mix, Sakura, had to be in the ceremony. We adopted Sakura the day we signed our first rental paperwork. She's been with us since we've lived together and has been the best surrogate child we could ask for. If she couldn't be a part of our wedding then it just wouldn't be right.
I wanted to incorporate some of the traditions and heritage of my husband's Mexican background, as his parents don't speak much English and I wanted them to feel very welcome. Instead of table numbers, we scanned Loteria cards (a form of Mexican Bingo), enlarged them, and cut them out in the shape of our invites.
My sister made piñata cookies, and we had a taco bar and a margarita bar. I also made signs in both English and Spanish, and part of my vows were in Spanish. Our caterer surprised us the day-of with Mexican blankets under all the food tables! The groomsmen secretly brought Mexican Wrestling masks at the reception, too.
Tell us about the ceremony:
I wanted to include my love for The Little Prince as well, since I practice my Spanish by reading it out loud to Agustin with my Spanish edition. Our readings for the ceremony were taken from the book. We included on the bottom of our programs the landscape of the desert with the Little Prince, and I brought my half dozen copies of the book in its different languages to include on our guest table and by the photo booth.
Our biggest challenge:
The budget was our challenge. The Dollar Store was my bff. I got all the jars, cocktail tableware, easels, and centerpiece supplies from there. The only thing I splurged on were the tables and chairs. I was hoping for farm tables, which are not cheap. But I got incredibly lucky when, two months before the wedding, the Huron Substation contacted me saying they were going to offer farm table rentals along with chair rentals. Apparently they had been building and staining them and they were ready in time for the wedding!
My favorite moment:
My necklace, earrings, and bracelet were all my maternal grandmother's jewelry for her 1940s wedding. She passed when I was 12, and I was very close to her.
My funniest moment:
We had two characters from Game of Thrones in figurine form by our guest book, and they represented what my two-year-old lantern bearer thought was Agustin and myself when he visited our house one day. He saw the Khaleesi (blonde like I am) and said “That's Katie. Where's Agustin?” Then I showed him Khal Drogo, and he laughed, saying “Oh, there's Agustin,” and then put us together. It was too cute not to use.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Photography: Fash Photography
- Hair and makeup: Cici Andersen
- Dress: Moonlight Bridal
- Shoes: Rachel Roy
- Bride's ring: Bandscapes
- Grooms and groomsmen tuxes: Friar Tux
- Groom's shoes: Custom Converse
- DJ: My WeddingDJ App
- Venue: Huron Substation
- Caterer: Event Theory
- Cookies: Cookie Love STL
- Cake, cream puffs, and dog cake: Cakes by Roobina
- Toffee: Pop Candy
- Photobooth software: DSLRBooth
- Decor: the bride
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Three things that immediately come to mind:
1. I want to cuddle with your dog.
2. THAT DRESS. Your face. Both perfect.
3. Your groom’s face in that last picture cracks me up.
What a beautiful wedding. The love you share and joy you spread is apparent on everyone’s faces!
Thank you SO much!! My dog Sakura is the BEST THING EVER. She was more popular than me at the wedding. 😀
I LOVE my dress. It was SUCH an amazing find. I drove by a vintage store that also has wedding dresses, and they had a VERY similar dress in the window, but it was strapless. I really wanted something more. So I searched like crazy for a dress with the same belted look, and found this one. The designers were having a trunk show the next weekend (perfect timing), and I tried on this dress and one other, but this one had all the other brides in the boutique swooning and crying (one size 2 bride walked up with tears telling me I was the most beautiful bride she’s ever seen… um, serious confidence booster!!). Had to have it after that.
My groom is a big kid. He’s so amazing. He was constantly making faces, it’s part of his hilarious charm! I am so lucky!!
Thank you so much for your amazingly sweet comments!!! I just wanted to have fun and give all my guests a chance to have a relaxed, chill time. I’m so thrilled.
Weddings like this make me wish I had more patience for and skill at crafty things! It all looks so beautiful. And I love the bright yellow dresses and flowers and cake and everything!
Thank you so much, yes it was a ton of work but I’m a freelance artist, so I had the time and patience. And my husband helped SO much with all of it.
Love your pretty headband and hair!
Thank you!! My friend is an amazing hair/makeup artist, and she did everything with my hair. I made the headpiece, as I’m a designer and seamstress. I am thinking of making and selling more on etsy, but it’s saturated with wedding hair pieces…
OH MY GOODNESS THE DRESS!!!!! I love it.
You both look radiant, and it seems as if everyone had a really excellent time. What a beautiful venue and wedding.
I’ve been in love with succulent favors since I noticed how quickly my own little garden propagated, yours were beautiful! Also, is that a dress form guest book?
Yeah, I love the succulent favors. I have a tiny little garden and started making clippings from the plants I have, and in no time I had enough for the wedding favors! It was perfect!! And I still have guests texting or facebooking me about their little succulents growing strong!
And yes, it’s a dress form guest book! I’m a freelance costume designer, and I wanted something that people could sign that could be displayed in our future house and still fit with our personalities. And I had an extra design form that I got for $10 at a Universal Costume and Prop sale a few years back! The guests loved it, and we’ve got it on display in our apartment for everyone to see. I wanted something that I hadn’t seen in wedding blogs, and I think the mannequin was it. Everyone’s done the mason jars, chevron, and chinese lanterns. But mannequin guest book? (I’m sure someone has done it… but I like to think I’m the first! ;D)
Seeing the photos makes me want to explore the options of having a wedding closer to the outdoors…..
Love the unique touches that made it your wedding and the Mexican heritage details were wonderful. One question the little tickets on the table on the photo say June 23, was that the original date of your wedding?? Best wishes and love to you both!!
I’m afraid there was an error in the article here… The wedding was on June 29th (which the font on the programs looks like a ‘3’ from this angle, but it says 9…)
🙂
Yes! Khal Drogo and Daenerys! The wedding couple does look a bit like those characters! Very cute wedding.