Downtown Los Angeles Wedding

We recently introduced you to a new favorite venue in Los Angeles, Elysian — and now we’re back to share another wedding in this stunning spot! Photographer Caleb John Hill and event stylist Megan Elise Events helped make Nicole and Caleb’s dream day a reality, and we can’t imagine a more beautiful result.

From the bride, Nicole: When Caleb and I started thinking about our wedding, we wanted to find a way to include our two main styles that encompass not only our taste but also our lifestyle. Caleb’s an electrical engineer with a love of the outdoors and I’m a graphic designer obsessed with flowers. We knew we had to combine these two and we came up with this mix of industrial and natural. We wanted to find a venue that was clean and modern on the inside juxtaposed with nature on the outside since we knew we wanted an outdoor/indoor wedding. We wanted every single aspect of our wedding to remind our guests of us, so we made sure everything was unique and a decision we made together.

The best way I can describe our wedding is industrial modern meets the great outdoors. We didn’t necessarily have a color scheme, although grey was always apart of our vision. We really wanted the natural aspect of the flowers and the plants of our venue to set the tone of the wedding and our colors complimented those nicely. Our colors ended up being grey, peach and muted purple. Once we picked The Elysian as our venue, we made all decisions based on imagining it all at our venue. Being a graphic designer, I designed our invitation suite as well as all of the signage, programs, and table decor. Our invitations had hand painted watercolor and hand-lettering with a sans-serif thicker font to give it a clean modern feel in the design while keeping the natural vibe through watercolor. I also included a geometric shape that we carried through the decor with handmade metal shapes hanging on the walls and for our photo booth backdrop and glass gold terrariums used on the cocktail and side tables. My father is a carpenter and contractor so he had the hand-lettering I used of our names for the invitations blown up and cut out of leaf patterned acrylic. We also had signs I hand-lettered for our coffee and ice cream stations and pointing to our photo booth. We added as many personal touches as we could. For instance, I also work at a cafe for a local coffee roaster and had them serve coffee at the wedding which made it so special to have my coworkers there! We also had signature bride and groom cocktails that we picked along with a full bar option.

Flower recipe: I’m obsessed with lavender and eucalyptus plants so those were a must in my bouquet. Like I said, I wanted every part of our wedding, including the flowers, to complement our venue and the overall vibe we were going for. When I met with my florist, I showed them multiple pictures with lavender and eucalyptus so they understood the look I wanted. From there on I let them make decisions since they’re the experts. My bouquet included peach garden roses that brought in a beautiful romantic feel along with queen anne’s lace, peony roses, rice flower, jasmine, spray roses and pulmosa greenery. The other arrangements had sonia roses, rosemary, and rice flower additions.

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? Although it’s been said many times, make your wedding what you want it to be! Caleb and I had a VERY specific vision for how we wanted our wedding to be and not only aesthetically. We had been to countless weddings and had critiqued what worked well and not so well and used that knowledge to make what we feel was the best combination of all things that worked well. We wanted our wedding to embody us, who we are now and who we want to be as a now married couple. We chose to keep some traditions and change others up, for instance, we switched where we stood during the ceremony so I could see my girls behind my about to be husband and he could see his guys behind me. That made the ceremony even more special! We had multiple people tell us after the wedding how much the wedding embodied who we were and how every detail was so personalized towards us. Even though it can be overwhelming, think through EVERYTHING. Hire a wedding planner, ours was the absolute best and she understood our vision. Photography and music were a huge pieces to our puzzle so we hired a photographer who we felt would capture our wedding the way we would’ve if we could! Our photographer Caleb had the perfect artistic and journalism eye we wanted. We hired the best DJ we could find who never allowed people to leave the dance floor once they started. Work together and make this day about you, because people want to celebrate the two of you!

See Also

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Wedding Music:
We had a live band during the ceremony that one of my bridesmaids was a part of. We have been fans of them since their beginning and it made our day so special having my bridesmaid sing as I walked down the aisle.
Processional: “For the Widows in Paradise,” Sufjan Stevens (instrumental)
Bride’s Processional: “Come Thou Font,” Sufjan Stevens
Recessional: “Only Love,” Ben Howard
First Dance: “How Long Will I Love You,” Ellie Goulding

Wedding Location: Los Angeles, CA / Photographer: Caleb John Hill / Wedding Coordination: Megan Elise Events / Florist: Fabulous Flowers / Venue: Elysian / Getting Ready Location: The Ace Hotel / Wedding Dress: Panache Bridal / Wedding Shoes: H&M / Earrings: Kate Spade / Bracelet: Nectar Clothing / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: ModCloth / Groom’s Suit and Groomsmen Pants: J. Crew / Groomsmen Shirts: Target / Caterer: Anita Dillon Catering / Dessert: A La Minute / Coffee Cart: Augies Coffee House / Bartender: Liquid Catering / Band: Branches / DJ: Gary Ames from The Flash Dance / Rentals: La Pinata Rentals / Photobooth: Smilebooth / Wedding Invitations: Oh Lovely Paper Co. / Videographer: Chadwick Trentham