A Drive In Wedding Ceremony: It Can Be Done and It Can Be Fabulous!

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

A drive-in wedding ceremony sounds like the most rad idea ever, right?? That’s because it is!! When Lauren + Nick’s wedding plans had to change due to Covid-19, they got creative and came up with an “out of the box” idea. Inspired by other pop-up style events around town, they decided to host a pop-up wedding at The Clara, where their loved ones could safely come watch them wed, and then share some burgers and fries while watching a movie. Talk about FUN! With the help of event planners, Tasteful Tatters, the couple pulled off an explosion of color in an unexpected and inspiring way.

We changed our wedding plans so many times, just like so many other couples during the pandemic. I lost my job at Disney and then lost my grandpa to covid-19 so we really struggled between needing to grieve but wanting to still get married because you just never know what is going to happen next. Although the grieving was, and still is, so hard on my family and myself, I knew my grandpa would want us to find a way to conquer this and still celebrate our love. We started brainstorming with our Wedding Planner to figure out something that was safe. We noticed that there were many pop-up events happening that were styled like a drive-in and we decided to create our wedding just like that, a drive-in movie style wedding. Although we didn’t have the traditional dancing and other reception rituals, it was still so much fun to have everyone together in a safe way and share snacks and watch a movie together.

Joe+Kathrina captured the coolest shots from this day! Let’s check it out!

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

The Bride

Teuta Matoshi

L’s Teuta Matoshi gown was so unique and perfect for their wedding style! We adore those embroidered flowers too. We had to ask how she found it:

I found it online before the pandemic hit. I ended up looking in-person for other dresses to see how I liked them and although I enjoyed the experience of trying different dresses on with my mom to see, nothing seemed to compare to the dress I found from Teuta Matoshi almost a year before. So I ended up ordering it online with one size bigger than I thought I was just to be safe and then had a local tailor take it in to fit perfectly. It isn’t categorized technically as a wedding gown but like I said about tradition not holding you back, if you love something then you should go with it and I’m happy I did.

Teuta Matoshi

Sabrina Delgadillo +  Jenny Zamora styled the perfect wedding day look to complement L’s gown!

Colorful Flowers for the Drive in Wedding

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

L + N wanted loud and crazy color, and Rogue & Fox Floral delivered! How fun is this backdrop full of paint splatters, patterns and columns dripping with flowers?!

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

MTB Event Rentals provided specialty pieces for the setup while Waveform Events took care of all the lighting details.

The Ceremony

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

L + N pumped the ceremony audio through each car’s radio!

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

L + N’s therapists, Friends of Spirit, officiated the ceremony, and the couple says it was absolutely perfect because they had already helped them grow and mature as a couple!

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

Our Favorite Memory From The Wedding

Definitely our ceremony and exchanging of vows. Even before the pandemic hit, we wanted to expand our ceremony to be more than just a few minutes because we disliked seeing other weddings have such fast ceremonies to get to the party when the ceremony is literally the whole entire point of the day. We integrated honoring our late grandparents and also played some voicemails of them talking to us wishing us a happy marriage or birthday (some messages we saved before they passed away) it was nice to hear their voices like they were there with us. Also honored our living grandparents, the aunts, and uncles who helped raise us, our cousins who were our first friends, family members who married into the family, our friends, nephew, siblings, parents, and our dog!

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

The Newlyweds

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

Just like L’s unique dress, N had an equally rad mauve jacket from The Black Tux!

Nick wanted color because he loves fashion and didn’t want a typical black and white suit. He decided on an incredible pink suit from The Black Tux that he ended up purchasing instead of renting because he loved it so much. He also wore fancy velvet shoes and I wore flat white huaraches- very much ourselves haha.

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

The Reception

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

OC Mariachi Toro entertained guests as they dined on burgers and fries in their cars.

Our Musical Choices

Processional: Honoring late grandparents, living grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins: Remember me (DĂșo) - Miguel | Honoring family who married into the family: So Into You - Childish Gambino (Cover) | Honoring our friends: Wannabe - Spice Girls | Honoring my nephew, our siblings, and our dog: Crazy In Love - Beyonce & Jay Z | Honoring grooms parents and stepmom and groom himself: We Belong Together - Richie Valens | Honoring bride's parents and bride herself: La vie en Rose - Louis Armstrong

Recessional: Recessional: This magic Moment - The Drifters and then @oc_mariachitoro performed while food was being passed out to cars.

First Dance: First Dance: No dancing. We watched Jurassic World instead of a reception to keep distance.

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

What’s a drive-in without classic drive-in food?? So cute!

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

Our Advice To Those Planning Now

Go to therapy! Cannot stress it enough. Everyone needs it as individuals and also as couples. It will bring you together for a stronger foundation or bring to head a realization if this is not the path for you. It wasn't all fun and sparkly, it got difficult and uncomfortable but that is exactly what we all need to grow instead of avoiding issues and expectations that will end up coming up even bigger later on.

Secondly, we would advise hiring professionals if you can! I understand we were privileged enough to be able to afford professionals that not everyone can; but if you can, I would look to save money elsewhere and hire professionals for planner, photo, video, officiant, communication coach, tech/DJ. You get what you pay for and LET ME TELL YOU we had a freakin dream team of vendors and it made our day absolutely perfect.

Lastly and most cheesy advice, enjoy the journey of planning! Everyone says it but it's true, it goes by fast and you should definitely remember to still date your significant other throughout the stressful time. Take a timeout to enjoy each other in the process even if there are 5 million things to do- your relationship and how you treat each other and yourself is more important than that damn to-do list.

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

Make your day uniquely you two and you will always love it even if it doesn’t match what others did. We mixed some traditions and some new things and are obsessed with how it came out :)

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

What a cute cake by Sugar Studio LA! We’re loving mini cakes for micro weddings.

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

Movie Magic

Drive In Wedding Ceremony

They finished off the night watching Jurassic Park, the first movie Lauren + Nick watched together on a date.

And be sure to check out their wedding film by Press Films

Congratulations you guys! Your adorable drive in wedding pushes the limits and shows us all how to think outside of the box to create a magical and memorable wedding day! Wishing you the best that married life can offer! -The GWS Team

photography: Joe+Kathrina // venue name: The Clara, Los Angeles, California, USA // event design: Tasteful Tatters // planning: Tasteful Tatters // florals: Rogue & Fox Floral // wedding dress: Teuta Matoshi // hair stylist: Sabrina Delgadillo // makeup artist: Jenny Zamora // groom attire: Black Tux // videography: Press Films // cake: Sugar Studio LA // specialty rentals: MTB Event Rentals // music: OC Mariachi Toro // officiant: Friends of Spirit // lighting: Waveform Events

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