Wedding | Tesily & Shane

Tell us a little about yourselves!

Both born and raised in San Diego (we actually went to the same high school!) we now live together in Los Angeles along with our sweet and spicy chihuahua Laverne and her new chiweenie brother Angus.

Tesily’s a video producer and designer who loves roller coasters and going to the movies. Shane’s an electrical engineer who will never pass up a long day at the beach and is co-founding a photo booth company!

After nine-ish years together, we decided to get married!

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

Rancho Guajome Adobe was the first place Tesily thought of. Growing up in San Diego, it was a field trip destination, but even as a kid she felt it was special, especially the tiny chapel. It’s the most peaceful place you can imagine, totally imbued with history. The property was once a wedding present itself over 100 years ago!

We considered a lot of venues in and around SoCal, debated a courthouse wedding, even thought about flying out of state. But ultimately we thought, “Why go somewhere we have no connection to?” Rancho Guajome has such good energy. Every time we’re there, we feel relaxed. The chapel only seats 60 people but has this authentic, unpretentious intimacy that felt really profound to us both.

As a California state park, it comes with restrictions (you gotta be out before sunset!) but it’s a total blank slate, perfect if you want complete creative control like we did. There are lovely outdoor spaces with mature trees that made an August ceremony totally doable. We actually went back a few days after the wedding day to have a picnic and recap the whole blur in an audio message so we wouldn’t forget the small details. It’s a sweet memory, and we love that it’s a place we can visit anytime.

Ultimately, it allowed us to scratch every creative itch. We wanted something we could curate to our heart’s content, which wouldn’t have been possible at prix fixe package places. We both wanted to shape it into a fun, relaxed party for our friends, family, and ourselves.

Since we had to be out by sunset, once dessert was over at the ranch we bussed guests to the “after party” at a listening bar called Sound by the Sea. It’s a fun lounge about a block from the ocean with an outdoor patio and amazing speakers. We hired our friend Max to spin records as we danced the night away and munched on empanadas!

How many guests did you have?

71 wonderful people!

What was your budget?

We looked up the U.S. national average for a wedding and said “Yeah... let’s try to stick to that.” Not super easy in Southern California, but all in all it came very close, not including our personal items and outfits.

What that meant was getting very crafty with it: Tesily hand-drew the drink menu with friends, we skipped paper invites and sent emails to a custom website instead (Shane did the code, Tesily did the graphic design), we used Spotify playlists for all the music prior to the after party, many items were bought at estate sales and rehabbed (thank you to Tesily’s parents for storing things for months), and we even enlisted family and friends to help make 12 custom butter yellow tablecloths. By the time you add up the hours and money spent on supplies, it probably wasn’t exactly “cost-effective,” but we were so happy with how it turned out. We have these great memories of working with our loved ones to bring it all together. That’s priceless!!

We also share a controversial belief that the drinks at a wedding are way more important than the food, so for dinner we went with a very affordable crowd-pleaser: pizza! The caterer brought a wood-fired oven so the pizzas were always hot and fresh, and we got tons of feedback that it was delicious. Since it was a hot day, we had locally made ice cream for dessert along with our all-time favorite chocolate chip cookies (Shout out to friends Lily and Tyler for delivering them from Proof Bakery when we refused to settle for any lesser cookie!)

Tell us about your outfits.

Shane wanted to find vintage or vintage-inspired suits (he notes: have you ever Pinterested “men’s suits”? It’s a nightmare) and on the first try at Todd Snyder, he struck gold: a textured brown suit with a linen shirt that needed almost no tailoring. He also picked up a pair of Italian leather loafers.

For the reception suit he went to Reese’s Vintage Pieces out in La Verne, CA. Benny is the incredibly knowledgeable owner of a small but seemingly endless warehouse of vintage menswear. Shane spent hours trying on suit after suit and walked away with two options and a couple radical ties. Benny recommended soaking the suits with a special detergent before dry cleaning, and Shane was able to get out decades of embedded cigarette smoke. They’re so cool, and he can’t wait to go back. Shane’s oatmeal-colored reception suit was worn with a woven top from Mohawk General Store and a pair of Adidas sneakers.

After much searching, Tesily decided to have two custom dresses made. Grace at  Jinza Bridal Couture was a blast to work with! The ceremony dress was Tesily’s own original design, with the hood being an 11th hour addition. She wanted something that matched the relaxed atmosphere of the ranch while still feeling vaguely at home with the early-mid-century aesthetic she’s always been drawn to. Tesily’s cousin Tamara did her hair and she did her own makeup.

For the reception, Tesily completely switched it up with a sequined mini dress that helped turn the whole affair into a disco (with her as the disco ball, obviously). The night before the wedding, Tesily’s cousin Christine whipped up a matching clutch from fabric scraps! She arrived at the lounge in sky-high stiletto mules but changed into white cowboy boots (an engagement gift from Shane’s dad and stepmom in Texas) for dancing!

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

We stuck to two rules when wedding planning:

1. Make it fun!!!

We’ve had the honor of being guests at a wide variety of weddings, so we tried to emulate all the most memorably fun aspects. Case in point: boarding a bus with your friends to a second location, which offers a convenient exit for people who are already partied out while breathing fresh life into the rest of the night. We worked hard with our coordinator and photographer to make sure every detail was well-paced, so guests would never be left wondering what was supposed to be happening and could just relax and enjoy the day!

2. Keep it sweet and simple

Just like the tiny chapel, we wanted everything to feel intimate, unpretentious, and true to us. We said our vows privately during the first look so we could write them for each other, not for a crowd. Our close friend Sarah Davis, a wonderful writer, agreed to be our officiant. Her speech (which she memorized!) was eloquent, personal, hilarious, and poignant all at once. She brought the house down just like we knew she would!

Part of why we leaned into 30s/40s/50s aesthetics was to emulate those little chapel weddings it seemed like everyone’s grandparents had 60+ years ago. Maybe it’s in our imagination, but those weddings seem so... relaxed! Effortlessly stylish! Happy to be in love! That was the type of day we wanted, where we had time to slow down and feel the love — not just from our guests but for each other. People warned us it would be a whirlwind, so we made sure to sneak away whenever we could to just look at each other and exclaim, “We’re married!!”

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

Shane is the co-founder of a fisheye photo booth company, New World Photo, so when Tesily had the idea to make a video guestbook, Shane made it happen (with no time to spare).

To use the machine, guests would pick up an old-school phone receiver to automatically have their video recorded as they left a message to the couple. Watching back all the messages was so hilarious and sweet!! Tesily edited them all into one long super cut, and it is truly one of our favorite videos in the world.

We also had a fisheye photo booth at the after party with a custom heart graphic overlay made by Tesily. Having something that Shane and his co-founder Alberto Lerdo created from scratch felt so personal and one-of-a-kind!

Any tips for couples getting married?

If you plan to get creative with planning your own wedding, a PowerPoint mood board does wonders!! Pinterest is a great start, but creating mockups and diagrams with pictures of the venue is extremely helpful when reaching out to vendors!

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

Angela Jazmín Studio did a beautiful job capturing our photos and video and was a wonderfully calming presence on the day!

Our coordinator Taylor Nicole also deserves a shout-out: she was a joy to work with, and her team did a fantastic job bringing all our wild PowerPoint ideas to life! Our labor team, Helping Hands, also did a beautiful job setting everything up exactly as envisioned!

Photographer & Videographer: Angela Jazmín Studio @angelajazmin.studio | Coordinator: Taylor Nicole Events @taylornicoleevents | Flora: Foof Floral @fooffloral | Ceremony Location: Rancho Guajome Adobe @sandiegoparks | Reception Location: Sound by the Sea @soundbythesea.listen | Celebrant: Sarah Davis @thebottleopener | Rentals: Archive Rentals @archiverentals | Wedding Day Set-Up: Helping Hands @helpinghandsteardown | Hair: Tamara Garrett @tghair_designs | Catering: Oath Pizza | Dessert: Hammond’s Gourmet Ice Cream @hammondsgourmeticecream | Ceremony & Reception

Dresses: Jinza Bridal Couture @jinza_bridal | Ceremony Suit: Todd Snyder @toddsnyder | Reception Suit: Reese’s Vintage Pieces | Engagement Ring: Foe & Dear @foeanddear | Ceremony Shoes: Loeffler Randall @loefflerrandall | Reception Shoes: Cavenders @cavenders