WIPA Los Angeles Wedding Design Challenge 2019

The Southern California chapter of Wedding International Professionals Association (WIPA) hosted a design challenge that evoked the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and I was psyched when Holly from Anything But Gray Events asked me to collaborate with her for the 1990s table.LA in the 90’s was a scary place. The city was dealing with the LA riots, lots of social + cultural change, but at the same time there was a boom in art + mixed media.The thing about working in the wedding industry is you’re always creating beautiful things. That is fun, but creating art can be more than that. It can be pushing boundaries + trying to evoke emotions beyond just joy. Holly’s vision was exactly that, celebrating not just the wall art but the street details of LA: chain link, street signs, basketball hoops, and even hanging sneakers on phone wires.For the paper goods, I wanted to incorporate all those details without overwhelming the rest of the decor in the space. For the menus, I created a backer with a graffiti pattern and overlayed it with vellum and tied the two pieces together with chain link. For the place cards, I used porcelain tiles spray painted then applied decals of the names on top. It was really fun playing around with lots of mixed mediaI’ve only been an LA resident for 19 months, but what I’ve come to love about this city is the diversity. Sure, it’s got its gritty areas, and it’s not the picturesque landscape of Connecticut where I lived for 30+ years before, but Los Angeles is a city of stories. People from all walks of life, being who they are, and you feel it all around. You could be walking down an ordinary back alley, then you turn the corner and find yourself right in front of the most beautiful + colorful street mural you’ve ever seen. It’s a city of diversity + excitement, and in some ways that is a deeper version of beauty. Now you want to hear the best part? We won! Our colorful collaboration beat out 5 other extremely talented designers with larger-than-life displays. We were the smallest, but truly the mightiest! For more background on our table + this event, visit Anything But Gray’s blog post! And be sure to check out the video clip of the event, including shots of the other amazing decade tables.

Be sure to scroll down to the bottom to see all the other talented creatives who I was honored to collaborate with on this project.

CREATIVE VENDOR PARTNERS

VENUE City Market Social House  @citymarketsocialhouse ORGANIZATION WIPA SoCal @wipasocal DESIGN Anything But Gray Events @anythingbutgrayevents FLORALS Whit McClure Floral Design  @whit_hazen RENTALS Premiere Party Rentals   @premiere_rents La Pinata Party Rentals  @lapinataparty GRAFFITI ODDER  @odderizm LIGHTING Vox Productions  @voxproductions PHOTOGRAPHY Jenny Quicksall   @jennyquicksall VIDEOGRAPHY Marshall Camera Wedding Films @marshallcameraweddingfilms LINENS BBJ Linen  @bbjlinen STATIONERY Roseville Designs  @rosevilledesigns SIGNAGE Signs of Our Lives @signsofourlives CAKE Sugar Studio  @sugarstudiola CATERING: TGIS Catering @tgiscatering Fundamental LA @fundamentalla DJ: Dash Entertainment: @dashentertainment