Wedding | Rae & Max
- 9 hours ago
- 8 min read
Tell us a little about yourselves!
Max and I (Rae) are both tattooers in Los Angeles! We’ve been together for almost 6 years and have built our relationship and love story through shared love of art, travel, hockey and baseball, and beagles (especially The Peanuts & Snoopy). We actually met at a tattoo shop before I had started tattooing and started dating 3 months later. Max tattoos very classic American traditional and I tattoo more fine line with traditional influence and Snoopys, Betty Boops, and other cute cartoon based on vintage stickers and childhood books.
We love going out and having fun (drinking martinis!) and spending time with our friends on the weekends. We love to travel and get tattooed in new places together (even though Max is almost out of room now). We have 2 beagles rescued from testing labs in Korea who are the best ever. We spend our summers going to Dodgers games and our winters going to LA Kings games. We really enjoy nice dinners and drinks and trying new foods. We are both very eclectic, artistic, extroverted people and love collecting art, knick knacks, records, and art books. Our house is full of fun things to look at - art on every inch of the walls, books stacked on the coffee tables, floor to ceiling shelves filled with trinkets and knickknacks from places we’ve traveled.
Why did you decide to get married where you did?
When we were looking for venues, we really struggled in finding a venue that felt truly like ‘us’. We really looked through pretty much every venue from San Luis Obispo all the way down to San Diego and although so many venues were gorgeous, nothing quite felt like Max and I fully. We knew we wanted something funky and different that showed our artistic side, but we also wanted it to be a really upscale and classy wedding. We also had very strong opinions about having the majority of our guests stay at the same hotel as us all weekend long for the ultimate ‘summer camp’ style weekend!
We always sort of envisioned ourselves getting married at an outdoor venue of sorts (as most are), but then when we finally stumbled across The Lafayette, we immediately knew it was the place we had to have our wedding. We wanted something that could easily go late night (a 10pm cutoff simply wouldn’t cut it for our crowd). We wanted eclectic, over the top, but never wanted it to read tacky. The Lafayette perfectly encapsulated it all. The hotel truly felt like a movie made for Max and I to be the stars. With their (semi) recent renovations, they really hadn’t done many weddings at all when we inquired and they made it known they really did not want to turn into a ‘wedding venue hotel’ because they love having shows open to the public on the weekends.
The only thing that was missing from the perfect hotel weekend was a ceremony space. Max’s family is Greek Orthodox and everyone in his family has been married in the church. They had mentioned it to us as a possible option, but we’re happy with us doing a normal ceremony too if the church wasn’t an option with whatever venue we chose. As we began looking for an off-site ceremony space close to the hotel, the most beautiful Greek Church (that our family friends also got married at a few years back) was perfectly a 4 minute drive away form The Lafayette - we knew it was fate and decided keeping the the family sentiment of the Greek Orthodox ceremony was absolutely necessary. It all worked out perfectly and became the perfect (all indoor) wedding venue that felt chic, polished, eclectic, and (most importantly) the perfect place to throw an epic party!
How many guests did you have?
180
What was your budget?
Our budget was around 125k for the whole weekend (icluding the ehearsal dinner, welcome drinks, wedding, & Sunday’s pool day). The total was closer to 160k.
Tell us about your outfits.
Well before we had even been engaged, Max was set on a custom embroidered suit from LA designer Rosecut (Judith). He knew he didn’t want to be every other groom in a black suit. We worked with Judith throughout the whole creation process 1 on 1 in her downtown studio. Max and Judith worked together to choose specific imagery heavily influenced by traditional tattoo flash, western elements, and old folk art. Max wanted his suit to give an ode to his life as a tattooer and artist, but wanted to make sure the final product didn’t read as “one big flash sheet”. Max based his suit off a beautiful 1950’s suit he already owned and had his wedding suit re-created in the dark green. Judith hand chainstitched all the designs and custom created the suit and all the Colonial ties for Max and the groomsmen. On top of the suit, Max used another LA based designer, Second Layer (Josh), for his boots. They were the perfect tailored, sleek dress boot to match the suit’s whole vibe. Max’s ‘2nd look’ outfit change consisted of a good friend of our’s brand: The Man Who Captured Sunshine. Henry is an OC based designer and his Jesus tank perfectly aligned with the tattoo through-line. The whole look came together seamlessly. Judith, Josh, and Henry (a groomsman) attended the wedding to all see their designs in action.
When I (Rae) began trying on wedding dresses, I was almost certain I’d go vintage and I swore I’d go for a big ballgown. Ironically, I ended up with neither of those. As much as I wanted vintage, I’m a very type A girly and after I went to a few vintage stores and left with nothing, I realized I may not have the patience to wait for “the perfect vintage wedding dress” and I needed to start looking at some newer designers so I could get my dress ordered with plenty of time, if needed. As I tried on ballgown after ballgown, everything looked fine, pretty, but nothing stood out as the one. After going to 3 or 4 boutiques, I wanted to go to En Blanc in Santa Monica specifically for one designer, Kyha. After trying on both Kyha and other brands (all still ballgowns), my stylist suggested trying on a different silhouette as a palette cleanser. As soon as I tried my dress on, completely different than what I had envisioned, maybe besides the off shoulder, I finally felt the ‘it’s the one’ feeling.Cue the tears, cue the champagne. I bought my dress before anything else had been booked; I said to myself: well now it’s time to actually plan a wedding. I loved the vintage influence my dress had while still being new. Never thought I’d have a tight dress, never thought I’d have a leg slit, never thought I’d have a huge train … but the dress was perfect. And I’m still SO in love with my dress.
My reception look came about as Max was designing his suit. I knew I wanted something different from all the other 2nd looks and couldn’t seem to find anything that really felt like me. Judith and I got to talking just through Max’s appointments and decided we should create the perfect mini to go alongside Max’s suit. I also wanted tattoos to be a main influence of my dress - cherubs, hearts, roses. Judith made all my dreams come true with this custom dress. I kind of just let her take the reigns and trusted her to make me something epic, and she really did.
A quick story about my shoes: Small designer brand, NOU, had made these beautiful snakeskin gem heels back in September before we had booked our venue. She only makes about 120 of each pair of shoes (and rarely restocks, if ever). Once we booked The Lafayette Hotel for our venue, I had reached out simply inquiring about any potential restocks because I really loved the shoes and thought they would be the perfect wedding shoe. She sadly said there would be no restock, however she asked my size and it was the same as hers. She sold me the one pair she had made for herself! It was so iconic I couldn’t even believe it. I’ll always love her for that. It was the perfect wedding shoe. It matched the venue and my bridesmaids’ colors perfectly. Thank you NOU!
What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?
We really just wanted our wedding to resemble us. Through social media, all the wedding culture can feel pretty overwhelming. We really wanted to do something different but still elegant. We wanted the balance of a beautiful, chic wedding and a crazy, maximalist, artistic wedding.
I wanted to be artistic and create a lot of things that felt refreshing to see and new to the wedding world. We wanted the venue and the weekend to feel somewhat unrealistic, like our guests had entered another world for the weekend. We wanted everything to just feel over the top and grand but still polished. Overall, we really wanted to have a beautiful wedding, but wanted our guests to really think “wow, this is so Max and Rae” - we really think we accomplished that.
Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?
Getting married at the Greek Orthodox Church and keeping the family traditions going. It was so special to be a part of such a beautiful and meaningful ceremony.
Our beagles! Always have to include the dogs. We made them into temporary tattoos, along with some other designs (also an important element to add as ode to our tattoo background without having real tattoos at the wedding). We also had their faces on drink stirrers, a classic.
Snoopy! He is very important in our relationship. He was also made into temporary tattoos! We also had vintage bride and groom Snoopys that were our cake toppers - my sister gifted them to us at our engagement party and for our save the dates, I drew us as Peanuts characters.
A martini fountain - Max and I both love gin martinis and had to include it in a fun way.
Any tips for couples getting married?
Just have fun! Be yourself (solo and as a couple), incorporate details that are special to you both. Don’t worry about being so ‘on trend’.
Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?
I feel like all our vendors just did a phenomenal job - I single handedly planned the whole wedding and DIYed pretty much everything (save the dates, invites, rsvp cards, menus, place cards, temporary tattoos, hand stamped over 100 cigarettes with custom sayings, made a 7ft tall cake, and more).
It really does take a village, and I couldn’t be happier with all our vendors and the hard work they put in. From all the clothing designers who created all our looks perfectly, to our florist who did the most beautiful job in all aspects (especially my purse bouquet, my favorite), my amazing makeup artist who came in last minute and saved the day for me, our photographers and content creators who so beautifully captured every second of our day, our coordinator who helped bring my vision all together, our DJ who spun vinyl and nontraditional wedding music for the ultimate dance party, the jazz band at cocktail hour who got the party started, and especially our good friend (who was also a groomsman) who hand-delivered our photo booth for us on the day of and also hand-painted our super special “land of love” sign that was a focal decor point in the wedding.
It was all so lovely, I feel so grateful for such an amazing group of vendors who made our crazy wedding day so perfect.
Photography & Super8 Film: Sand Weddings @sandweddings | Day of Coordination: The Social Event Planner @thesocaleventplanner | Socials Content Creation: The Wedding Feed @the.wedding.
feed | Florals: The Mad Florist @the_madflorist | Ceremony Location: St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church | Reception Location: The Lafayette Hotel @thelafayette; @downinthegutter; @loulousclub | Photobooth: Photomatica @photomatica | MUA: Ruby Vo @rubyvo_ | Hair: Rae did her own | Catering & Beverages: Lafayette Hotel @thelafayette | Stationery & Cake: by Rae @raerae.raeee | DJ: Wesley Herron @jungle_jungle_ | Jazz Band: Joseph Luna Band (Cocktail Hour) | Wedding Dress: Kyha @kyha
bride @kyhastudios | Reception Mini Dress: Custom Rosecut Clothing @rosecutclothing | Suit: Custom Rosecut Clothing @rosecutclothing | Veil: Various from Etsy | Max's Reception Top: The Man Who Captured Sunshine @themanwhocapturedsunshine | Engagement Ring: Custom, by a family friend | Wedding Rings: (Max) Father’s ring; (Rae) Grown Brilliance @grownbrilliance | Shoes: (Max) Second Layer @secondlayer_us; (Rae) NOU @shopnou_ and Maison Margiela @maisonmargiela | Jewelry: Vivienne Westwood @viviennewestwood | Martini Fountain, Custom Cigarettes & Temporary Tattoos:
by Rae
