Romantic LA Wedding with Lovely Details & Chic Style

Romantic San Diego Wedding by Nicole George Events and Katie Pritchard Photography 31

We have such a pretty real wedding to share with you today, all the way from sunny Los Angeles.

LA might be synonymous with glossy and glamorous occasions, but it’s also home to great food, cool architecture, gorgeous style and talented wedding vendors.

All of which were celebrated in Tonie & David’s fun, intimate and romantic wedding day at Carondelet House.

Captured by Katie Pritchard Photography and planned by Nicole George Event Planning & Design, the styling of their day was endlessly chic.

From the sharp suits and gorgeous dresses (Tonie looks so beautiful in her Romona Keveza gown and we’re loving the bridesmaids in Joanna August) to the tablescaping and the florals (we want that Casa De Perrin crockery please!), every last detail was romantic and personalised.

This wedding really is all kinds of lovely…

Our Love Story

It was August 20, 2011. We had both just moved to New York City and were incoming students at Columbia Law School. During one of the first orientation events, we locked eyes, and the rest is history!

Long nights in the library and visits to each other’s hometowns during our breaks brought us closer together.

But the real turning point in our relationship was Tonie’s brother’s wedding, where David met Tonie’s entire crazy Mexican family! Despite having a job lined up in San Francisco, David worked hard during our last year of law school to get transferred to Los Angeles.

In the time we’ve known each other, we’ve taken amazing trips to Alaska, Europe, and the Caribbean, explored LA’s most delicious restaurants, and made countless more perfect memories together.

Our wedding day was August 20, 2016 – five years to the day since we first met!

Our Wedding

Three words to describe our wedding would be intimate, chic and romantic.

We wanted a romantic urban feel, with blush, ivory, and gold.

We really liked Carondelet House’s historic nature and exposed brick which created a cozy atmosphere in the middle of downtown LA.

Our focus throughout the planning process was to find top quality but reasonably-priced vendors.

Some might say that our decision to hire a full service wedding planner was a “splurge”, but Nicole George’s amazing services from beginning to end were money well spent!

She made the process fun and took so much stress off our shoulders – we’d highly recommend full service wedding coordination to other couples with busy work schedules.

The Ceremony & Music

Our wedding mass featured the traditional wedding coins (arras) and cord (lasso), reflecting Catholic traditions shared between our respective Mexican and Filipino heritage.

Ceremony Prelude: “Make You Feel My Love” by Adele

Processional: “Canon in D Major” by Johann Pachelbel

Recessional: “The Wedding March” by Felix Mendelssohn

First Dance: “Latch (Acoustic)” by Sam Smith.

The Photography

We wanted a photographer who could document our story in an authentic, intimate & real way. Katie Pritchard is young, dynamic, and had photographed at our venue before, which was a huge plus!

We discovered Ellay Films through Katie Pritchard’s “Vendors I Love” list on her old website.

Tonie must have watched every single video in Ellay’s portfolio and couldn’t wait for Kim and Jaymee to capture our special day.

The Reception

We included a lot of candles, which created a soft and romantic ambiance and focused on texture with wooden farm tables, hemstitch runners, gold flatware and classically beautiful tabletop elements from Casa De Perrin. All of the details and décor were simple, chic, and elegant.

Specialty cocktails were a Paloma & French 75 (representing our Mexican and French backgrounds). Dinner was a buffet. Wedding cake was passion fruit & raspberry with buttercream!

Our favorite moments were on the dance floor! Our friends and family certainly brought their dancing shoes, and the DJ kept the energy way up once he saw that our crowd wasn’t messing around!

It felt great to let loose once the cake was cut, bouquet was tossed, and there were no more “to-dos”.

Advice for Other Couples

Tonie was a fan of The Knot’s “Wedding Planner” app, particularly for its checklist of to-do items and budget feature.

Tonie also used Pinterest to give our wedding planner an idea of her dream wedding vision, and bought items from Etsy for her bridesmaid gifts and party favors.

David wished he’d started thinking about groomsmen gifts earlier in the process – he ended up paying extra for expedited shipping of custom etched pint glasses from Etsy.

David would encourage the groom’s party to rent from brick-and-mortar tux shops, rather than using an online service. Multiple shipping errors, forced David to spend hours on the phone with customer service in the days leading up to the wedding, and promised (partial) refunds that never came.