The Quest of Reception Site - Part I

This is probably all hindsight view now to recall our quest of reception site hunting.  Being able to host our reception at Walt Disney Concert Hall (WDCH) was a perfect decision and I wouldn't change my mind if we started all over. But still, it was quite a journey to get there, so we'll start from the beginning.

After proudly booking the Wayfarers Chapel in such a swift manner, the mission of flying down to LA in March for scouting was a logical next step.  We got some tip from friends that good sites are normally booked at least a year in advance.  Having that in mind, we started the mission.  I searched through various of websites: wedding wire, the knots, project wedding, ... etc, all the popular and non popular ones. Also just went to google map, zoom to the big LA area and search for "wedding reception".  Kudos to Google, a lot of great ones came up.  As organized as I am (okay, that was a joke.), here's the proof of the map with all the candidates that I filtered down to.  (I'm not giving Chris any credit for this and he'd agree.) We already had WDCH on the list and I was in love with it for a long time. But at that moment we both had the assumption that we wouldn't be able to afford it.

View Wedding Reception Candidates in a larger map

Two and half days we covered a lot of ground in big Los Angeles area.  Everyday was at least a 100 miles drive.  We started off right at one of the Patina Group restaurants called Leatherby's Cafe Rouge in Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.  It locates in Costa Mesa and the stunning building was the key thing that drew us there.  Now you see that we have a thing with funky looking places.



It wasn't open on that day (my bad on not doing the homework!). So we simply walked around the building and left.

Continue on with a beautiful sunny day we headed to Huntington Beach, just about 30 miles south of Palos Verdes but the drive would take up to almost an hour because the only way to reach there is via Highway #1.  The plan was to start from there then drive down along the coast to Newport and then Laguna Beach. 

The coast was beautiful as usual SoCal, the hotels had typical 5 star resort atmosphere. The ballrooms were okay.  We were not particularly thrilled by any one of them and yet the minimum cost was definitely OMG-California high. 

Hyatt Regency at Hungtington Beach - 1

Hyatt Regency at Hungtington Beach - 2

Going back in time, it seemed that everyone but me and my betrothed by default knew how much a wedding could cost or how huge the whole wedding business in U.S is.  We didn't learn that till the very moment when the event sales handed us their beautifully binded brochure.  While digesting the humongus cost estimate, the standard ballroom didn't impress us enough.

Hilton at Huntington Beach

Marriot at Newport Beach - 1

Marriott at Newport Beach

Moving on with some financial shock wave in mind,  we came all the way to a place that I was very excited about and actually had quite some conversation with them prior to the visit.  Seven Degrees.

Their reviews online were all 5 stars, the wedding pictures that people had were amazing looking.  I was almost certain that this one might work out.  It wasn't easy to find this place as it stood among all the neighborhood buildings despite the unique looking itself.

Seven Degrees - Outside

Inside the building, the space was big enough for approx. 130 people and all the professional lighting, sound equipment were all built in already.  We visited right before another wedding's ceremony, so we could see their setup.  It was definitely clean and elegant.

Seven Degrees - Reception Room

Since we've already had some conversation over emails beforehand, we took quite some time there to talk about details with the owner.  She gave us some price break for the whole package and definitely seemed to be passionate about hosting wedding events (kinda basic attitude you'd think right? Actually you'd be surprised that a lot of places didn't give you that vibe.).  Now here's the thing, we both could imagine ourselves hosting event there but none of us said: This is it! Frankly speaking, my excitement was slightly diminished since I was concerned that the place was buried among other random buildings and the surrounding neighborhood was simply odd. Well, it was still early in the game.  Nothing was set in stone yet.  However, it was definitely on our list.

The first day was quite productive but we were still putting hopes on the 2nd day which was Rancho Palos Verdes itself, Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach at the north side. (To Be Continued.)

Wayfarers Chapel

It's been 18 days since our wedding and I always wanted to write down more about the whole process so we could remember everything years later.  So let me start with the holy place where we vowed to be with each other for richer or for poor - Wayfarers Chapel.

People thought that it might have taken us forever to decide on where to get married but we booked the Wayfarers within 5 days after our engagement. We saw this chapel on one of my favorite TV show: The O.C.  and both of us fell in love with the chapel instantly.  We joked about how we're going to get married there even before the engagement.  To quote myself back then it was "If I ended up marrying anyone (so there's no pressure!), I'd get married at this beautiful place!" It was a no brainer after the engagement for us to make a decision.  Chris remembered it.  We set the date and then we booked the chapel without personally ever been there at all.



The chapel locates at the tip of Rancho Palo Verdes, California, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  It was designed by Lloyd Wright who is the son of the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.  The chapel is also called the Glass Chapel as its roof and walls are made with glasses which is the contemporary theme that we tried to infuse through out our wedding.  As the warm sun shining through the glasses into the chapel, surrounded by flowers, trees and the ocean breeze, together with the chapel bell ringing signaling you that this is the moment, everyone there couldn't help but indulge in the atmosphere of happiness.

We made it down to LA 3 months after engagement for scouting our reception place and also visiting the Wayfarers Chapel. Our good friends Simon and Maggie went with us and thanks for their pictures that you see here.  As soon as we arrived, we knew we made the right decision. (It's not like we could backout at all. =P)  The view was just breathtaking. It was a clear day too. As you could see in the picture, even it wasn't at Spring time, it was just purely gorgeous.  Bathing under the sun, the serenity simply crawled into mind while walking in the chapel.  It was perfect.

The contribution to the chapel was $2500 and tax deductable but could not transferred from one couple to another. (So you'd better be sure!)  I didn't know that $2500 for a ceremony facility rental is considered above average till much later. However, a little advice for future bride is, all the cost should be budgeted as a whole instead of individually.  In our case, the chapel provided the reverend, musician and coordinator for the 2-hour event. Since it's so beautiful by itself, any extra floral decoration would just ruin it.  Therefore, we didn't have to spend money on musician, reverend and floral decoration at ceremony which made the overal cost fairly reasonable.  The ceremony usually won't take more than 20-25 minutes, so 2 hours is considered to be enough. However, as much as we love taking photos, it was very tight for us to do some wedding portrait, family photos and such on the day of.  But quite frankly the wedding day itself is usually packed already no matter where you hold your ceremony/reception.  I think it went pretty well for our day eventually.

Our guests already knew that we ended up choosing the reception place a little bit far from here.  The story is worth another blog post so you'll know about it later.  However, everyone made it! That's the most important part.

I want another different post about the actual wedding day. So we'll save the part about the actual ceremony for later.