Joey and I during Cocktail hour on the patio
We arrived at the wedding about half way into Cocktail hour due to the time we taken to do portraits, which wound up being just about the perfect amount of time since many of our guests who were using GPS systems got lost on the way to the reception site. Apparently Newport Beach has two 15th streets that do not connect in any way, and many of guests received messages from their GPS systems about “getting on a ferry”, so we actually arrived around the time most people were still showing up.
Our venues appeal stemmed a lot from its location and the indoor and outdoor nature of the spaces. When guests first walked into the space there is a large indoor room with a big opening that overlooks the harbor and sailboats passing by. We decorated the main room with a variety of jack o’ lanterns, and various other Halloween imagery. At the center of the room there was a black willow tree covered in purple lights with dozens on miniature pumpkins hanging from it (an homage to the Ray Bradbury book The Halloween Tree) at the base of which were picture frames of classic horror films and in front of them were our “Escort Card-Zoos”. Instead of table number we opted for movie monster names, so each kazoo said the guests name and “You are seated at Frankenstein” etc. and then had an image of the monster itself on the kazoo. We also had a candy buffet set up with a variety of different apothecary jars filled with candies we love and in our wedding colors.
