From the couple… We first met fifteen years ago in Berkeley, but spent the next decade on separate journeys, exploring the world and growing up. When our paths crossed again in New York in 2014, we discovered that we were re-meeting at similar places in life and had more in common than we could have imagined. What started as an art delivery (an oil painting of Natalie on a denim vest) ended as a profound connection, and we fell in love! Since then, we have rearranged our lives to be together, moving to Los Angeles and celebrating our love and friendship every day.
One Friday evening in March, as we drove up to Griffith Observatory to watch the sun set over Los Angeles, Nathaniel had a ring in his pocket and a surprise in mind. However, LA and the radio conspired to spoil his plans: “For your love/ I’d bring you diamond rings and things right to your door,” sang The Yardbirds through the car radio on our drive up. The road to the observatory was a veritable LA traffic jam and there wasn’t a single parking spot available on the way up or down the hill—a typical LA story. Instead of battling traffic and fate, we went back to our home and Nathaniel got down on one knee.
I was never the kind of girl to daydream about my wedding day, so I didn’t start the planning process with a dream wedding in mind. All I knew was that I wanted and an intimate, aesthetically captivating, and meaningful experience that our family and friends would enjoy as much as we did.
We got engaged at the end of March 2016 and were married about eight and half months later in November. Aware of my perfectionist tendencies, I gave myself a short timeline for wedding planning so that I couldn’t overthink the details or spend years in the planning process. Even though planning really started only six months before the wedding date, all decisions were made thoughtfully and vendors were very carefully vetted. And in the end, I couldn’t be happier with our all-star team and how everything turned out.
Since we wanted a visually stunning setting, I searched for a unique, distinctive venue for our marital soirée and was thrilled to find Lloyd Wright’s Sowden House. We were obsessed with the 1920s Neo-Mayan architecture and the gorgeous, lush landscaping. We also love that the house has some Hollywood history and isn’t a traditional wedding venue. This architecturally striking, historic house ended up setting the aesthetic tone for the entire celebration, with a nod to Old Hollywood.
In the tradition of quirky L.A., we had an unconventional yet beautiful, meaningful ceremony involving crystals and burning sage, officiated by my best friend. In addition to the vows we made to each other, our officiant led a community vow of love and support that our family and friends repeated to us. We also made individual commitments to ourselves, each with a hand-selected crystal to keep as our lifetime “wedding stones” to guide and protect us, as well as to remind ourselves of the power of our own strengths as we continue our personal journeys as individuals and as a married couple.
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