Simple summer wedding in Long Beach

Summer is in full swing in the Southern California area — I’m blasting my air conditioner as I type — so I figured I’d revisit a few summer weddings that have been sent to me.

All photos by Bob Christian. Thanks Bob!

This wedding took place in June 2006 at the Reef Restaurant in Long Beach. Now, remember what I said earlier about summer weddings and your guests? Please provide shade! These poor folks. There’s only one canopy, for the musicians. But you really can’t argue with the venue. Let me show you the view from the back…

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Getting married on the beach in Long Beach

This is a very late post, but better late than never. My friend Sam above got married on the beach in Long Beach in July 2007. I think I initially didn’t post this because I didn’t anticipate blogging her wedding. Lo and behold, here I blog. As with most of my friend’s weddings (since they’d like me to be able to enjoy the wedding), I did not do these decorations. The bridal flowers were by a florist whose name Sam couldn’t remember the other night, Sam and her bridesmaids did the table arrangements and most of the draping decorations were done by the venue, La Palapa Delmar Restaurant.

La Palapa Delmar’s location was spectacular — right on the sand in Long Beach. But it being July, it was quite hot. La Palapa was a visually interesting venue, but perhaps not well ventilated. Thankfully, its right on the beach, so it wasn’t hard to get out and catch the ocean breeze.

Sam’s parents escort her to the altar. One of the things about getting married at the beach is that you might end up with an audience not included on your guest list. Unless you somehow end up on your own private beach; if you’ve got game like that, then you probably don’t need this blog anyway.

You can tell I wasn’t expecting to blog this wedding by the complete absence of overall room pictures. I’m usually pretty good at that. Anyway, if you look past Sam’s very adorable mom, you’ll see the draping that’s already included in the room, from the chandelier in the center of the room. There are a few other restaurants that have similar ceiling drapes, like Almansor Court. But the room, in my opinion, didn’t need much in terms of decoration — check out those burgundy drapes and the fancy sheers. Plus, the room itself was not your usual blank canvas hotel banquet room — like I said, visually interesting on its own.

Sam and her maid of honor with their yellow rose bouquets.

The places of honor, decorated with fancy netting and candelabra.

The places of honor, occupied.

Finally, the newlywed couple’s first dance.

It was a great wedding, with great music deejayed by my buddy Moonie — yes, Moonie, whose wedding was once also featured here. It was also my first time at La Palapa — seriously, I was surprised I’d never heard of the place before.
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Family at the Long Beach Airport Marriott

Just now, as I was gazing at these pictures, I remember why I felt so tired on this particular morning. I had just worked a 4-midnight shift, but not only that – my tire on my new car had gone flat. So my husband had to come from Ventura to pick me up after my shift, and we drove back home together to Agoura Hills. Then, because I needed to get all the way to Long Beach by 8 a.m. to decorate this wedding, then get back to my work‘s parking lot, where I left my car, to take care of my tire – I needed to take my husband with me. I felt really bad for him, seeing as how he needed to do so much extra driving, so I left him sleeping in the car as I finished decorating. Anyway, this is the before.

Here’s after. There are no flowers yet because they’re still at the church – a money-saving tactic.

I forget exactly what was going on this day, but I believe there was some sort of function going on in the rooms before the actual reception. So all of the table arrangements were outside, waiting, but ready to go.

Of course, the requisite happy couple pictures on display, plus my mom’s oh-so-fabulous arrangements.

I really wish I had been able to do more for this wedding, since the bride was my second cousin, Vanessa, below. She has really turned out to be a hottie! I couldn’t even stick around to see her in her bridal gown, but ah well – I know I left her wedding behind in good hands.


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