See Why Couple Wins the Award for Most Unique Venue!

Categorized | Indoor Ceremony, Indoor Reception, Modern, Offbeat Bride, Offbeat Venue, Real Wedding, Real Weddings, romantic wedding, The Blog, unique venue

Posted on 01 October 2016.

If there ever was an award for a couple that chose a totally unique venue, then Clara and Tim would absolutely win it. For the venue they chose for their colorful and modern celebration was none other than an old smog check center (I mean, how unique is that?!)! It’s a day that’s both contemporary and crazy chic and thankfully Ether & Smith has captured it all in The Vault.

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From the Bride… One can find love in a lot of places- ours just happened to be in the library memorizing the brand and generic names for the Top 100 Drugs. Tim and I met in USC School of Pharmacy back in 2009. One would think having two meticulous pharmacists plan a wedding could be either a gift or a curse- but one thing was for certain, every little detail of the wedding would not go untouched.

One of the biggest challenges was picking a venue we both equally loved and that represented us as a couple. Tim is your typical guy who loves cars, racing, and video games, while I am your typical girly girl who loves all things bright, sparkly, and pink. We were lucky enough to find SmogShoppe, a gem hidden in the heart of Culver City. It used to be an old smog check center in to 80’s, so it still has old car parts hanging on the walls and bits and bobs from its past life. Tim loved the fact that the reception would be inside of a garage. In addition to the industrial feel, the massive succulent walls and seas of green added a secret garden feel that I loved. Although the venue was beautiful as is, I wanted to add splashes of bright color and Milieu Florals went above and beyond in creating the most beautiful arrangements using all of my favorite flowers.

Since details were very important to us, we wanted someone on our team who thought so as well. We were so blessed to have had the privilege to work with the amazingly talented Catherine Leo (from CCL Weddings) who was our biggest cheerleader throughout the whole wedding planning process. Although there are tons of great inspiration on Pinterest and on various wedding blogs, Cat constantly challenged us to take those ideas and make them our own. For example, we named our signature drinks after prescription drug names, put a silhouette of our dog on our cocktail stirrers, and custom made car air fresheners that doubled as our escort cards/gift for the guests with the phrase “Love is in the Air”.

If Tim and I had to choose one thing to eat for the rest of our lives, it would definitely be oysters on the half shell. So it only made sense to have an oyster bar during cocktail hour for our guests to enjoy our favorite food. Hungry Bear Catering made our dream a reality by shucking three different kinds of oysters and serving them along side three delicious sauces. Not only is their food hands down THE BEST catering we’ve ever had (and we’re not just being biased- till this day our guests still RAVE about our food!), their presentation and plating is equally as stunning.

Our favorite moment of the wedding was when the entire wedding party was gathered in the bridal suite as cocktail hour was about to begin. The bridal suite was an open loft so we were able to look down into the crowd and see the faces of all our loved ones gathered together in one place to celebrate our love story. Tim and I just looked at each other and smiled, and knew we were the luckiest couple in the world to have such loving, supportive, and inspirational people in our lives. Surrounded by our family, friends, and vendors who we’ve grown attached to throughout the year, we definitely felt that love was in the air.