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Real Wedding | Jessica & Jonathon



Tell us a little about yourselves!

Jon and I met over 10 years ago in Los Angeles and after dating casually, we went our separate ways across the country from each other. Over the years we continued to cross paths, a little too frequently to be coincidence, bonding over food, travels, design - really the best things life has to offer.


Jon eventually moved to NY and after a weekend being the 11th and 12th wheels with our couple friends in Rhode Island, we never looked back. Both irrationally logical, a few years later we decided to move back across the country, driven by our need to create a home for our TBD rescue dog. With this departure from the city to our home in the canyon, we finally learned how to cook, could now house our treasured art and antique finds, took up a garden that solely fed all the local squirrels and pretended like we hadn’t turned into quintessential people in our 30s.


Why did you decide to get married where you did?


Who doesn’t love a house party? Having our wedding at our home definitely meant an extra layer of planning that venues don’t require, but it also meant there were no rules and we could truly do whatever we wanted.  


Our home is also an incredibly sentimental place to us - we bought together when we left NY for CA and have worked to restore it over the past few years. It’s incredibly meaningful to have bits and pieces of the life we’ve already built together in the background of our photos, whether it’s an art piece from travels or a lamp we scored on Marketplace.  


For the rehearsal dinner, Pace was the dream option. We both love places with history, Pace has a place in Jon’s family’s heart and certainly in Laurel Canyon’s heart as well. It was buzzy, crowded in the coziest way and other than bringing in dark red roses, we didn’t touch an ounce of their decor - it was already perfect just as is.


How many guests did you have?


65.


What was your budget?


$60k.


Tell us about your outfits.


Jess - I searched high and low for my bridal outfits, dead set on wearing a bias silk dress for my wedding dress. After trying on an assortment of silk slip dresses that ultimately felt too simple, I stumbled across Katherine Tash and loved her updated approach to classic silhouettes and absolutely stunning silk. I was lucky to find it on Still White after trying on the dress at LoHo Bridal in Los Angeles. The girl selling it had changed her mind, never wore it and even brought it to my home for me to try on! I managed to find my bridal shoes (unworn vintage Stuart Weitzman’s) online after A LOT of hunting. They were the pair randomly in the dressing room for people to try on gowns with, but I had felt they paired perfectly.


One of the main wedding traditions we kept, was I didn’t let my husband see my wedding dress, not even a photo. This made picking out his outfit a bit challenging, but Jon has great taste. I encouraged the navy blue tux since he regularly wears suits for work and I feel navy blue has a softer and slightly more relaxed vibe than classic black. Tux was custom via Beckett & Robb which is based in SF and where he gets all his suits made.


What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?


We really wanted to have a good time! With all the effort that goes into planning a wedding and bringing all the people we love together, it sometimes feels like couples don’t focus on how the event feels. While it was important that our wedding felt elegant and elevated (it’s a wedding after all!), we wanted a relaxed atmosphere that allowed everyone to have fun too - things can’t be too manicured.


The limitations of our home drove a lot of the decisions, ultimately aligning with our ideal vision - including smaller guest count and no seated dinner due to space.  We were especially nervous to host a wedding without a seated dinner - would people get fed, would family get tired - but it worked perfectly. La Morra cranked out different passed foods all evening long, starting with small bites and progressing into pizzas, plus a charcuterie area for people to congregate around. We scattered parent and best friend speeches through the early evening, they were sentimental and humorous, leaving a lot of the crowd kneeled over in laughter.


In order to execute our vision and vibe, we hired people where we already loved their style and skill set - then let them do their thing. Zoe Zar turned our home into a floral wonderland, all while making the florals feel natural and as if they were already part of the landscape.  DJ Catch Feelings is a close friend and brought the vibes, getting the dance floor packed in broad daylight well before originally intended. 


Harper Pictures captured the pictures we will cherish for a lifetime - as someone that doesn’t love to have their photo taken, it always felt organic with Harper and like she also truly cared about being a part of our day. 


Treated Sweetly (Brittany) made a raspberry / strawberry angel food cake creation, so pretty it felt like a crime to cut into.


For general aesthetic, Jon and I took a lot of that on ourselves.  We sourced silver trays, vintage linens, crystal for tea candles, vintage velvet stools - something we generally love doing together, but also contributed to a less matchy, more authentic approach.

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?


Our dog! I know dogs can be polarizing, but our dog made my husband and I truly a family. We felt so lucky to have him pop around getting ready and during the ceremony, but then had him whisked away when the party truly kicked off.


Chuppah! We really wanted to honor Jon’s Jewish tradition of getting married in Chuppah - loving its representation of the home we are building together.  Since we did not have the space for a formal structure, we creative directed my gracious brother to crawl inside our hedges and screw wooden beams fabric could be draped over. Honestly it turned out great, but don’t ask him how many times I ask him to tweak the positioning just another inch.


Reading our own vows - to us, this was the most important part of our wedding. Neither of us enjoy being the center of attention but, in my opinion, if you are going to bring all the people you love together to support the forever relationship you are about to have, you need to speak all the words of love, commitment and promises out into that space. What a blissful feeling to both hear and share those sincere statements.


Any tips for couples getting married?



We loved the size of our wedding.  Limiting guest count can be painful (and it was painful for us - there are still people we are sad couldn’t attend), there is only so many people you can spend time with in a weekend.  With our guest count around 65, we felt like we got to truly be present with everyone (and each other), never was pulled in another direction nor overwhelmed by the amount of eyes / attention on us.


Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?


We love Harper Pictures our photographer, so much. Finding a photographer was a daunting decision and we just happened to stumble upon Harper’s work naturally. She is truly talented at capturing emotion and the little moments you really want to have memorialized. There’s so many images that tug at our heart strings and, I mean, could you ask for anything more?

































































Photographer: Harper Pictures @harperpix | Flora: Zoe Zar @ZoeZar | Ceremony & Reception Location: Personal Home | Celebrant: Nick Lerner | Hire: Town & Country @townandcountry_eventrentals | HMUA: Isabel Williams @mymakeupbible | Catering + Beverages: La Morra @lamorrapizzeria | Cake: Treated Sweetly @Treated_Sweetly | Stationery: Drawn by Friend & Bride | Entertainment: DJ Catch Feelings | Wedding Dress: Katherine Tash @katherinetash | Suit: Beckett & Robb @beckettrobb | Veil: Etsy @etsy | Engagement & Wedding Rings: Custom | Shoes: Vintage Stuart Weitzman @stuartweitzman | Ring: from Jess' Grandmother | Pearl Earrings: Vintage The Real Real @therealreal | Bracelet: Gift from Jonathan


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