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Often times my favorite piece to a wedding feature are the stories that come direct from the couple.  The photographs are what catches our attention, the design and details keeps us scrolling, while it is however, the novel behind the love story and wedding design, that makes it all so wonderfully complete.  When you read through the love story of Angela & Ian, the choices they made around their wedding day begin to paint a beautiful fingerprint of their life!  Now living in LA, Ian a member of the film industry, the choice of the iconic Sepulveda Home with its rich vintage old Hollywood feel reveals itself as the perfect choice!  Nestled gorgeously into a botanical world, Angela & Ian’s garden wedding at the Sepulveda Home took on the most glamorous yet cozy of feel.  Tables were placed into their garden world while details rich in crystal created an elevated chic world around them.  A soft palette of metallic & blush served as the perfect jump off point for their romantic garden wedding, while special touches like hand crafted watercolor table numbers in striking hues injected the perfect amount of flavor.  California wedding photographer Elizabeth Burgi Photography was on hand, doing a splendid job of fully bringing to life their unique suburban garden setting.  Working with the couple to playful stroll around the grounds, the trio captured sweet moments that play out like a page of an old Hollywood novel.  Garden weddings are dreamy as it is, turn up the volume with a serious dash of glamour, and I am fairly confident there are a few bride’s to be who just got a bit weak in the knees!

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Novella of the Bride…

Ian and I are college sweethearts!  We met in university at a Taiwanese American Society – after meeting me, he apparently stalked my Facebook and found out I could play erhu, the “Chinese violin”.  He then learned how to play erhu over winter break, then approached me to start a traditional Chinese music ensemble!  We started dating shortly afterwards, and together we lead a very successful new performing group.  After we graduated, we lived together close to NYC as Ian pursued his Masters in Film Composition as I started my finance career.  We then moved together to LA so that Ian could be close to the film industry and start his film composing career.  We’ve been together for over six years now and are each other’s best friends.

We wanted a quiet but not too formal outdoor intimate, romantic garden wedding, and I think all of our details enhanced what we were going for – we always told every vendor, “a relaxed outdoor wedding”.  Of the many venues we visited, The Sepulveda Home was the only venue that had it all “set up” when we went to take a look – Sara recommended we come in the evening to see the lights and how it looks in the evening.  When we arrived, walking up to the iron gate, we were sold immediately from the classy and intimate atmosphere in the green lush venue, with jazz music playing softly and the lights enhancing the romance of the place.  We were looking for a unique, intimate place, and this venue was the exact vibe we were going for – the vintage espresso machine, the draping pepper tree, the barrels in the bar area with cigars for purchase, a fireplace…perfect!

We made our own chalkboard bar sign, our own table numbers (we were on our knees a week or so before, writing and painting!), embossed and designed our own invitation suite.  I’m going to seriously start thinking about doing it for fun!  We also got small likenesses of ourselves to put on the simple and elegant cake, including an instrument each to represent our music backgrounds.  To enhance the personal and genuine feel we were going for, we didn’t have matching bouquets for the bride and maid of honor since I wanted hers to reflect her personality and it had a cute little sunflower to mirror my pink peony!

A Little Help From Their Friends ~ We had our talented mutual college friend Ryan play the guitar during our ceremony.  Even though he’s most comfortable with a piano, he practiced to get our songs right and strummed “here comes the bride” for me, all smiles.  We also had our charismatic mutual friend Michael from our college days officiate our wedding, and he kept his script secret until the wedding day and did a fantastic job marrying us.  He also managed to procure my favorite beer, Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro (at the time, not yet distributed in California) and flew with a supply of it all the way from New York (legally, of course)!

Favorite Moments ~ We loved our entire wedding day of course, but the most striking moment for us was, after our sparkler exit, we entered our car, I stuffed my dress into the passenger seat, and Ian started driving to our wedding night hotel.  Not a minute afterwards, we stopped at a stop sign, and we both turned to look at each other at that moment, big eyes and huge smiles on our faces.  I exhaled, “that went really well”.  “Yeah”.  And in that raw moment, we felt so exhilarated and so MARRIED to have just enjoyed our dream wedding with the best people we knew.

Vendor Love

Photographer: Elizabeth Burgi Photography | Venue: The Sepulveda Home  | Hair + Makeup: Juli Tang  | Transportation: Jumbo Tours  | Music: VOX DJs  | Florist: 800 Rose Big  | Caterer: Made by Meg  | Baker: King’s Hawaiian Bakery