Downtown Los Angeles Wedding // Lucky Day Events Co. // Gregory Ross Photography

Featured on Inspired By This // Valerie + Ryan // Los Angeles Loft Wedding

August 23, 2016

We were thrilled to learn that Valerie + Ryan’s Downtown Los Angeles Hudson Loft Wedding was featured on Inspired By This! Read on for Valerie + Ryan’s touching story:

Most couples hope for cloudless skies and warm weather for their wedding day. Some couples expect bumps in the road and others are ready for last minute guest list changes, but none would expect West Nile Virus in Downtown LA to postpone their wedding entirely.

All vendors on board agree that Valerie + Ryan were a dream couple to work with from the get-go. Valerie had a modern vision of what she wanted for her wedding; an “urban jungle” with lots of greenery adorning the brick walls of the Hudson Loft in Downtown LA. Hanging fern chandeliers, a postmodern feel to her rentals and an intimate dinner and dance party were everything she dreamed of. As coordinators, the closer we got to their big day, the more excited we became. Two weeks away from saying the “I Do’s,” the guest list was being finalized and the Circa Rentals were ready to go.

On Sunday of the week of the wedding, Valerie sent us an email. Expecting to be updated on more logistics, we opened it to find that they were en route to the ER. Ryan had been experiencing flu-like symptoms and not responding to antibiotics. Our hearts sank and we hoped they would give him a new prescription and send him on his way. With positive thoughts, we proceeded with all wedding details and continued printing their timelines for the wedding now six days away. On Tuesday evening before the wedding, Valerie called us again from the hospital. Not only was Ryan not responding to medication, but he wasn’t eating, couldn’t walk and was thought to have Viral Meningitis that they strongly believed was West Nile Virus.

This is a virus you hear about on the news, not something that happens ever to someone you know. We were in total shock and immediately went into crisis management mode. Valerie was faced with the terrible position of concern for her fiancé’s life on top of deciding whether to proceed with the wedding. Praying for the best, we waited another day before we made any judgment calls. On Wednesday night, with Ryan’s health on the line and Valerie in the hospital alongside her fiancé, we made the difficult decision to postpone the wedding. The process of contacting all the guests, canceling flights, postponing the honeymoon and notifying the 13 wedding vendors began.

We could go into the details of what postponing and moving a wedding looks like. Or explain in length the amount of emails and phones calls exchanged to friends and family. But what we took away from all this and what we hope all those around did too– is that no matter what hurdles both Valerie and Ryan faced and no matter how dire those circumstances looked at one time, their dedication to one another never wavered. Seeing the unconditional love these two had made everything else background noise. Ryan made a full recovery and thankfully was released from the hospital back to his love and his life the following week. Seeing all of their incredible vendors rally alongside these two and have full flexibility and support in moving plans around was such an amazing experience to be a part of.

Valerie + Ryan were married on March 12, 2016. Oh yeah…their wedding was pretty kickass too 😉