Heartfelt Wedding with Personality at the Santa Barbara Zoo

We are loving today’s featured wedding full of personality and the cutest animals at the Santa Barbara Zoo. Beautiful flower arrangements from Louloudi Design and elegant white table decor stood out among the natural evergreen of the venue, and the couple’s unique character was mirrored in every detail.

From the Bride:

We met as most modern couples do—through a dating app, but from our first encounter at the charming Little Dom’s in Los Feliz that was full of effortless conversation and non-stop smiling, we knew this was anything but typical. After almost two years of smiling, when it came time to plan a wedding, we embraced our status as kids at heart and the Santa Barbara Zoo seemed like a natural fit for where we wanted to celebrate the start of our life together as a married couple. Once we set a date and booked the venue with Rincon Events who produced the ceremony and reception, everything else seemed to fall into place (with the help of our stellar planner Tanya Boyd of XOXO Weddings who expertly guided us through what could have been a daunting process).

I’m immersed in the world of architecture so for the design of the event, I knew I wanted something modern that was visually interesting and graphically striking with varied heights, textures, and featured the perfect font. I also took cues from the zoo itself and incorporated greenery inspired by the grounds and of course, we had to acknowledge the animals. The intended result was to create an elegant event with bits of whimsy that would make for a wedding that was distinctly us.

We fully-embraced all that the zoo had to offer and after the heart-felt yet hilarious vows were exchanged (courtesy of the amazing celebrant Marie Burns Holzer), we treated our guests to giraffe-feedings and what was appropriated dubbed, the flamingle hour—a flock of flamingos interacted with our guests while they enjoyed their first cocktails. After a beautiful sit-down dinner (also catered by Rincon) and delicious cakes provided by Santa Barbara’s Crushcakes, we danced the night away to the Straytones, a local Los Angeles band that featured a violinist who rocked (to say the least). It was the wedding we didn’t even know we could dream of. 

Venue: Hotel Californian, Santa Barbara Zoo | Caterer and Rentals: Events by Rincon | Planner: XOXO Weddings | Photographer: Alexandra Wallace | Florist: Louloudi Design | Officiant: Let’s Get Married by Marie | Music: Crowd Theory Entertainment | Wedding Dress: Sarah Seven | Makeup: Monica Vasquez | Cake: Crushcakes | Videographer: Geoff Rivers