Street Food Wedding in Bel Air - Sweet, Smart & Eco Friendly Weddings

When I met Blake, she was torn between a Startrek theme and a street food wedding bash in her family mansion in Bel Air. Startrek would have been a great match as she played Synon in Deep Space Nine and K’Porac in the Klingon Academy video game. And, aside of roles in shows like CSI, Criminal Minds and Leverage and in movies like The Sessions and Mulholland drive, she was part of the cult Sci Fi “Starship Troopers”. But facing the danger of her wedding becoming too Comic Con, we decided on a county fair with jugglers, psychics, fire eaters, magicians, Henna tattoo artists and organic street food, which fabulously juxtaposed the polished mansion of her family in Bel Air where the wedding was going to take place.

Her girl friends were astonished why Blake, whose mom poses with John F. Kennedy on pictures blessing the basement’s hallway, wouldn’t hire celeb planner Mindy Weiss? Who’s Angelica Weihs? Good question. Blake wanted something amazing but eco conscious, passionate but down to earth; she wanted awareness in affluence. I had been the first wedding professional to open a green wedding company in 2005 and she liked that I had risked everything to go green. I had become an expert in eco and am a Sci Fi writer at heart; perhaps she was meant to stumble over my humble website of 2010. Stephen, her fiance, producer of world moving documentaries, (Fuel, Climate refugees) and edgy movies like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Sessions (2012) and Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001) arrived for our walk through the mansion’s grounds in a zero emission SUV and couldn’t get it green enough.

Cool ideas and unique decor is one thing but keeping it all on the eco happy side of life was a bit of a challenge, so our battle plan grew by the minute.

Blake promptly received a couple raised eye brows about task No 1: not mailing paper invites. Her emailed save-the-dates pointed to RSVP’s on her wedding website, which was even if not “from the rack” but custom designed, still a bit questionable for the rizzy crowd four years ago.

I’ll never forget the last half hour before the first guests were expected to enter the one and only entrance gate. Classic Party Rentals had just solved a broken pipe problem, which had caused a huge soaked patch on one of the lawns of the reception area. Relieved I hurried to check to front yard, the first stage of our multi-level, multi-action day.

Everything at the front of the house was ready to go: a petting zoo, organic lemonade stations (spiked and non spiked), a pop corn cart, fresh pressed organic juices, Roeckenwagner’s pretzels, Brazilian musicians, a vintage photo booth from the 60’s and 500 freshly wiped wooden chairs were waiting to welcome the guests – but it seemed that nobody could get in or out as this moment. Several vendor trucks blocked the welcome yard and each others final work or wrap. I stared at the bridge we had built over the creek bed to make space for the Bohemian Chuppah between huge jungle-like trees, a scenario evoking the idea that Indy would swing in any time now…and I needed a savior. I was encircled by valets and discombobulated vendors who all talked at the same time. Chaos. The feeling of panic. And then something clicked, I solved the puzzle. Just for ten minutes I became the general one of my forefathers must have been; I hit my team with tasks and commanded the vendors: You do this, you do that, you move, you stay, you leave in 5….my voice firm and demanding, my arms like windmills. When Stephen’s parents strolled down the entrance way lined by rows of sunny sun flowers a little later, they saw the break lights of the last truck leaving. I never smiled this relieved before.

Not just the day of, the entire week had been packed with busy set up: Not only did we build a bridge, we covered the tennis court with fake grass for kids games like a graffiti wall, a skeeball machine and a cow milking contest, and we had divers in the pool covering it up for additional space. The Jacuzzi became the platform for the Moroccan cake temple, which was an ode to Stephen’s love for wild life protection. The rehearsal dinner was at the Eco Station in LA.

Stephen is one of the most invited party guests in California and after thousands of mixers, fetes and celebrations one of his pet peeves became the annoying over-use of glasses. So we got County Fair mason jars (with handles like German beer mugs) as gifts for the guests, who were asked to tag them with their names and use them as much as possible. If you start with an organic spiked lemonade other cocktails follow well – but to Stephen’s dismay we felt we needed wine and champagne glasses at the wine bars. I think in the end we were forgiven, cause Stephen, the prince of countless parties and bored at many of them, was thrilled that he had unexpected “absolute fun at my own wedding.” The delish street food from Bite catering was farmer’s market fresh and organic, “Zebra’s” entertainers strolling through the crowd were quirky fun and our band, PCH, played perfect tunes from the roof terrace followed by DJ Blass L. at night. While Blake rocked a song with PCH, Stephen loved the mic on the dance floor.

And of course there was the design.

Blake and I had checked out several florists; the first celeb designer disapproved of pesticides free flowers: “too hard to get and OMG! too limiting” and the next fancy shop owner kinda reprimanded us and our strange ideas… Blake consequently found my guys from Dandelion, with their re-purposed tires in front of their eclectic shop and a bunch of cool and not so limiting eco ideas, rather charming.
That’s how we ended up matching veggies with wild flowers. The natural beauties like corn-bell – and sun flowers looked amazing paired up with cabbage, carrot and grapes and perfect on the Gingham linens or the polished wood of rustic picnic tables with matching benches. The dessert bar in our wild life temple was graced by a green leaved cake under jungle type vines (we could only get ivy) and was surrounded by colorful fun sweets from Sweet’n Saucy.

Guests found their way through the various stations of the expansive property via an artist friend’s maps printed on recycled paper and her hand painted vintage white washed signs on recycled wood. The house itself was a treasure chest for usable items: hundred of flowery plates for the cake, baskets, cushions and candle holders… Our cutlery and dinner ware was from Verterra, the paper napkins were made from recycled paper and we had recycling trash bins, which unfortunately, despite all efforts to keep it low trash event, were stuffed to the rim.

A friend donated several hundred tiny bottles of Blake’s favorite hot sauce, which became her cute and personal favor and the owner of a small sun screen business brought sun screen for everybody to take home.

Blake’s dress was another highlight, an out-of-the-box Bohemian dream by Les Habitudes. But not eco. The wedding dress is the one item I always feel we have to cheat with. I researched a bunch of green designers and most dresses are frumpy or at least have the home made anti-couture touch. No, thanks. Nobody can convince me, not to talk about a bride as conscious as she might be, to wear “that”.

Our Bel Air county fair saw amazing fashion, cool hats and casual designer wear. Actor – and movie industry buddies, colleagues, family and friends mingled and danced from the afternoon into the late night, free people style.