4th of July Wedding at La Valencia Hotel

Today we're sharing a fabulous destination wedding with you from La Jolla, California. Mediterranean style architecture, swaying palm trees, a lush garden setting and oh yes, beautiful ocean views. We were thrilled to plan and design a truly unique wedding experience for our amazing clients, Warren and Scott, and their closest family and friends.

First, a little background on the couple. Warren and Scott’s story began in June 2013 when they met on OKCupid, an online dating website. Scott was attracted to Warren’s online profile, which featured many photos of Warren’s two adorable cats, Milo and DJ.

Scott’s pickup line, “Hello, Fellow Cat Lover!” was unusual but very refreshing, thought Warren. Warren liked Scott’s online profile as well, which featured his adopted cat son, Jack. It was clear Warren and Scott shared a love of felines. Warren responded to Scott: “You had me at ‘cat’!” And the rest, as they say, is history. These two greetings are now engraved on the inside of the couple’s wedding bands. But we're getting ahead of ourselves! Let's talk wedding plans.

Warren and Scott wanted to make their wedding special- unique, light-hearted, fun- understated and yet memorable. Hosting a destination wedding was a strong desire for the couple as they wanted a warm climate and a weekend of festivities. The chosen location was La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla, California, July 3-5.

Welcome Dinner: Hospitality is a key ingredient to hosting a destination wedding. What better way to welcome guests than with an intimate dinner party as a kick-off to the week's celebration. On Monday evening, Warren and Scott hosted a welcome dinner on the terrace of The Med, the hotel’s ocean view restaurant. All guests were invited to meet and greet, including 4 dogs who had traveled with their owners. The tables were set in Beach House Blue linens with 16 floating candles in the center.

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The Wedding Design: The couple’s own three cats, DJ, Milo and Jack set the theme for the overall wedding design. Modern and clean design were the key. While the idea of a “cat themed” wedding sounds like it could get terribly tacky, our goal was to design the events with sophistication and class.

The Wedding Invitations: We all know your guests’ first insight into your wedding theme is the invitation and this event was no exception. The creative team at Yonder Design created a modern “cat herringbone” pattern for the invitation which became an anchor of the wedding design.

The Ceremony: DJ the cat was the honorary ring bearer as he is the best behaved of the 3 cats. His special stroller was adorned with green garland, white hydrangeas and orange roses. He was parked behind Warren for the length of the ceremony, witnessing the whole event.

The Reception: The cat herringbone pattern was repeated over the wedding cake, recreated on fabric for custom monogrammed pillows in the lounge, served as the paper pattern for the dinner menus and was recreated as a light projection onto the dance floor. The wedding colors were orange, white, grey and taupe. The style was modern and clean with a touch of classic elegance without being over the top. Since the couple loves to have fun, they extended the dancing time with silent disco where guests could dance to the DJ's music wearing headphones. To cap off the night, fireworks lit the sky and guests created a Sparkler Tunnel. After all, fireworks are essential to any celebration on the 4th of July.

Farewell Brunch: As a final thank you to wedding guests for attending this destination wedding, we planned a farewell brunch the morning after the wedding. All guests were invited to The Med for a quintessential California brunch, complete with a mimosa bar. This event was the perfect ending to the week's celebration.

Special thanks to the following team who made Warren and Scott's destination wedding a smashing success: