Citrus Post-Nup Reception at The Greenhouse PNOC, Southern California

We nixed our big fat 2020 church wedding because of COVID, married at The Greenhouse PNOC on November 28, 2020 with just our parents/siblings, and postponed the PARTY until May 28, 2022. Ryan is from the East Coast and Laurie Ellen has lived all over the world, so we held the our post-nup party on Memorial Day weekend to give our guests time to travel to California. We wanted the day to feel like a huge party for our family and friends who we weren’t able to have at our wedding! Laurie Ellen incorporated elements of her and Ryan’s backgrounds into the occasion – Laurie Ellen lived in New Orleans for three years during law school so she made customized Mardi Gras beads for all guests with a tag showing where they are from – a maple leaf for Canadian cousins, college/grad school insignias, the South Sudanese flag where Laurie Ellen used to be an aid worker – the couple used a world map instead of a guest book and invited guests to write a fun memory/place they met on the map so the couple would have the map as a memory for later, Laurie Ellen really wanted guests to explore the venue, her family’s nursery/greenhouse property, so she created a scavenger hunt for all guests and folded them into origami leaves to match the nursery theme, making sure all guests explored the full property – including planting a succulent in a pot as their party gift – when you’re at a nursery/greenhouse you have to pot something!

Laurie Ellen and Ryan are huge Mexican food fans – Laurie Ellen as a native Californian and Ryan as a transplant, and we wanted to share really good Mexican food and drinks with our guests. We had five different types of tacos catered, tortillas hand pressed in front of our guests, a plethora of Mexican appetizers including ceviche, and an elaborate salsa/guacamole bar. We then had four signature cocktails, all tequila based, including tequila sunrise, paloma, and champagne spritzer, and then served Mexican beers – Modelo, Lagunitas, a popular California beer, Golden Road, Mango Cart, that the groom loves, all beers that pair great with tacos! All of the fruit used in the mixers came from the nursery! And then served a variety of California wines for our guests to sample the tastes of California.

For decor we wanted a really natural look – citrus – a bright, happy, bringing together of family and friends from all over the world! We started by beading our family and friends when they arrived, started with cocktail hour, then moved into the greenhouse for dinner and cake! For cocktail hour we used high rounds with olive branch greenery from trees on the nursery, peach and orange roses that the bride arranged herself, with oranges and lemons from the nursery as table decor. We used natural wood tables in long rows inside of The Greenhouse to bring everyone together, everything was about re-building community after COVID, long garlands with peach and orange roses on the tables. A lounge in the greenhouse with a bright orange couch to match the citrus theme, natural plants, flowers everywhere. We cut the cake and thanked everyone for coming – the cake had dried citrus slices, a three tier beauty with flavors like pistachio and rose water, made by Laurie Ellen’s good friend CocoaBerry Cake Co. The music throughout the night was Eta James meets elder Emo, Ryan is an original Emo kid so the music selection was all up to him, with Sam Marsey strumming and singing guests through the night with his awesome voice and guitar stylings. Everyone has been saying it was THE MOST FUN party, the FOOD and DRINKS were amazing, and MUSIC was awesome!!