The California Wildfire that Nearly Crashed Ashely & Nick’s Rustic Wedding

Los Angeles WeddingReal WeddingsOutdoor WeddingsSouthern CaliforniaSummer WeddingTraditional WeddingRustic Wedding

Jun 4

After planning Ashley & Nick’s dream wedding for over 2 years, due to the pandemic and postponements, we never expected a wildfire to show up the day of the wedding!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, I need to start at the beginning of this crazy story...

I met the bride and groom through a childhood friend of mine who works with the bride, Ashley, at Cedar Sinai. Although we’ve been planning their wedding for gosh, over 2 years, we were finally able to celebrate their special day. The bride and groom were truly the most kind, and patient human beings to work with. Through every step, they kept saying to me, “we just want to have the best day together, with our closest friends and family.”

Ashley & Nick’s wedding was held at The 1909, a hidden gem built into the Topanga mountains that you’d never know was there right off the main street. The aesthetic of their wedding was Rustic Boho with traditional aspects, which I thought fit the venue perfectly.

Their wedding had the most beautiful details and decor, even personalized vases from the Groom’s aunt, who was a potter! She made these gorgeous centerpiece vases for guests to take home with Ashely & Nick’s names engraved in them.

From the start of the ceremony, I had seen wildfire smoke in the distance, which is all too common for California. Summer is unfortunately the SEASON of wildfires for California. This wildfire turned out to be a pretty large fire…

Remaining as calm as possible, we continued to carry on with the wedding and make sure Ashley and Nick enjoyed themselves, but that everyone was safe too. During dinner, the DC-10 and helicopters were working hard to keep the fire away. Right out front of the venue was a Command Center for the LACo Sheriff's department who I became good friends with to ensure they knew we were having a wedding and to inform us of any issues.

More towards the end of the night, as a surprise for the couple, a bridesmaid ordered 40 pizzas to be delivered as a late night snack. But, due to the main road being shut down, the pizza man COULDN’T DELIVER THE PIZZA! So, I (with the Bridesmaid) went out and convinced the Sheriff’s Department to offer the pizza guy an escort, up the shut down road, to deliver the pizzas. I swear I’ve never heard a bigger cheer from the guests when the pizzas FINALLY arrived.

Knowing that we might have to get evacuated soon, I pushed the important traditions up to ensure they got all of their photos and memories in, with time to dance. Then 1 hour before the end of the event, we were informed that we needed to evacuate. Everyone, including the Couple were extremely understanding.

Amazingly, we all had a great time and were safely evacuated. Even driving home, I had the Wedding Party & the Couple calling to tell me it was an amazing day!