Erica Tighe and Paul Campbell Catholic Los Angeles Wedding

December 7, 2020

The Campbells

December 8, 2018

We were married on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception in Los Angeles, California. The wedding ceremony was at Holy Family South Pasadena and the reception was held at The Fig House.

The Feast of the immaculate conception

When we got engaged on the Epiphany and started looking at dates near the end of 2018, there was only one Saturday left at The Fig House, which was our dream venue (Mandy Moore got married there a few weekends before us!). The interior was designed by Emily Henderson and it was always a dream to have my wedding reception there. Paul quickly fell in love with it, too. So they said if we wanted a date in 2018, December 8th was the only one available and we'd need to put down a deposit immediately. The Immaculate Conception, on a Saturday, we knew it was perfect. Paul is from San Antonio and I am from Phoenix so we wanted to show our families all of the things that we loved so much about Los Angeles.

I had designed many wedding invitations before and it was a bit overwhelming to decide on ours. We had them blind embossed at The Paperleaf Press on double ply paper. I hand lettered the envelopes and found some fun vintage stamps. Wedding invitations are the first impression that you give to a guest and help them know what to expect of the day and even how they should dress. We wanted people to expect a casual elegance.

My bridesmaids and I rented an airbnb for the weekend as a place to get ready. I was frantically trying to finish the place cards the morning of the wedding as my friends were trying to match them with their appropriate table numbers. I had shapes cut from brass and my loving family put together hanging pieces for each guest. I wanted to place cards to also be part of their wedding favor. My mom did my make up and my friend, Sirene did our hair.

I custom ordered my veil from someone who I had been following on instagram, Monirose, and she took the idea that I had and made it exactly how I imagined it. I ordered my dress from BHLDN and had it altered to fit just right. I loved the simplicity of my dress that felt so naturally me.

The bridesmaids dresses were from Ozma of California. The flower girl dresses were from Doen and their clogs were from Sven.

My bouquet still takes my breath away two years later. It was arranged by East Olivia and I love the pop from the red poppies.

the sacrament

We were married at Holy Family South Pasadena where Paul and I had been attending Mass for the previous year. My spiritual director, Father Michael, flew in from Brooklyn to officiate. Emily Wilson was our singer. We had The Paperleaf Press print beautiful Mass programs.

I also asked East Olivia to adorn Mary in flowers to honor her feast day. It was so insanely gorgeous.

Portraits

After we were married (!!!) we headed over to The Fig House to do some photographs. Cocktail hour was happening simultaneously.

Reception

Part of our story is that we both got sober before meeting. We wanted our guests to be able to enjoy nice cocktails and we wanted to enjoy good coffee and Topo Chico. We turned this little room into a coffee spot and asked the barista from our favorite coffee shop to make pour overs (for me) and cold brew (for him). We got our coffee from Trade Coffee. I made little stamps of us for the coffee cups.

We had so many kids at the wedding that we wanted to create a special kids table. We had some hired babysitters to engage the children so that their parents could enjoy dinner. We had low tables and pillows, I made an activity booklet with a drawing of each of them on the cover. I had customs stickers made and we had a special food line where they could serve themselves.

We had a wall of votive candles with a gold foil pressed Our Lady of Guadalupe design. Each guest's name was on the back side of the candle and it acted like the escort cards.

We had gorgeous linen napkins from Heather Taylor Home and custom made recycled denim table runners from Atelier Saucier. I found enough midcentury vintage candle holders for all the tables and had acrylic sign holders made for the menus. We wanted long tables so that it felt like a giant family dinner.

When it was time for the first dance, each guest took their lit candle and surrounded the dance floor. It was to symbolize that they are the little lights of our lives and will be there for us when we need hope. It was divine.

Rather than a wedding cake, we chose to bring in the best churros we've ever had from Echo Park Lake and vegan (and regular) ice cream from Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. We rebranded it to be "Franklin's" because their shop was on Franklin Ave. and since I could never remember the name, we started calling it Franklin's. I made little ice cream stamps for the cups. It was a HIT. I also made little envelopes with Churros written in gold foil.

And last, but not least, our amazing photographer Sylvie. One of my best friends, Hannah, also took some photos before the wedding and the reception. And my other friend and old roommate, Tag Christof, also saved the day taking so many gorgeous photos at Mass for us.