We’ve been told by everyone we know (except our moms) that a wedding planner is a must. Well guess what? We’re not getting one. Take that, everyone!

We’re two dudes on a budget and decided we could handle the wedding industry on our own. So if you enjoy watching others suffer or you’re just are crazy as we are, you’re in the right place!

To catch you up to speed… we’ve got a venue. Yipee! So we just have to figure out food, alcohol, accommodations, color palette, décor, music, invitations, guest list, and of course bachelor party (parties?). (send help pls)

So since we’ve only filled in one checkbox, let’s talk about that. Location, location, location. You see, Cristian's from Atlanta, where his dad and step-mom still live, but his mom and step-dad now live in Cape Cod. Neither of his parents is actually from Atlanta though so family members are spread out all over the country from Miami to Louisville to San Diego. We met in college in Pittsburgh and then moved to NYC for 5 years and now we live in Los Angeles. And Corey’s family for the most part lives in Michigan near Detroit. Oh and btw, our friends mostly live in NYC, San Francisco, and Seattle. So we picked the place where we live because either way... everyone is going to be traveling somewhere!

With LA in mind, we started shopping around for venues. We got engaged in Joshua Tree and as much as we’d love a JT wedding with flower crowns and tons of draping blush chiffon, we’d be making our guests who are all flying cross country drive another 2-5 hours out into the desert. (Maybe worth it? jk, but desert wedding though...) So we started scheduling tours of venues nearer to central LA. The first one was down the road from our apartment and had a lot of expected renovations that weren’t done yet, specifically a giant rooftop we could have the ceremony on. In the end, it felt too risky to book a place that wasn't built yet so we let go of our hold on the place and kept searching.

Fast forward through tons of googling and we scheduled our second tour. This one ended up becoming our venue! Cristian had been pouring over venue listings all over the Internet and he found this site called Splacer that had all these venues we hadn’t seen elsewhere. It’s like an Airbnb for venue rentals and they don’t specifically cater to weddings, which means the prices aren’t jacked up for no reason. Well I contacted the owners of this warehouse creative space thing about setting up a visit and they were still available for our weekend so we drove over to Cypress Park! You know how sometimes you just know something’s right? That’s how it was when we walked in LA River Studios.

With so many hours being spent in the same venue, we were looking for somewhere with multiple spaces and boy did we find it. This place has the 5 (arguably 6) different areas and is just a big empty warehouse. It’s really meant for photo shoots but they were open to a wedding. I even made sure to ask if they would have any issue with a same sex wedding – they were mortified I was asking and said of course there would be no issue. Nowadays, I figure it’s worth asking though since anti-discrimination laws could disappear with the ink of a pen. #amiright

So there you have it! We’re looking at a beautiful warehouse wedding that comes with a mid-century furnished loft overlooking the space, an outdoor area that’s food truck friendly, a gallery we have no idea how to use, and a couple prime spots for dancing, lounging, and selfie-ing.

We’re so excited to have a spot picked out for the big day! I got the booking confirmation email today so it’s official. And we’re getting ready to plan everything else.

Are there any parts of the planning process you really want to hear? Or that you noticed missing from our laundry list above? Leave a comment below to let us know!

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