Zella took a unique approach to helping curate her bridal party’s looks. “I gifted each of my bridesmaids five yards of yellow silk and one yard of chiffon that I sourced in downtown L.A.,” she shares. “I wanted them to be in the same color and fabric, but to create a dress they felt really good in.” The groomsmen were also given an assignment: find a black suit. “It was fun to see the mix of different button-ups and accessories that each guy wore,” says Zella. “They all have fun personal style as well, and at the end of the day, we wanted our friends in the wedding party to have fun with the assignment.”
The celebrations kicked off on Friday night with a welcome party at the dance hall The Devil’s Backbone. “Our friend Matt Tedder played Texas Swing with his jazz trio, and our other friend Josh Pearson gave two-step lessons at the beginning of the night, which was the perfect ice breaker for the weekend,” shares the bride. The night was vibrant with guests sipping on Lone Star beers, playing pool, and dancing out on the floor.
The wedding day arrived along with a rainstorm. “It poured 15 minutes before I was supposed to walk down the aisle—so much so that a little river started to form in the middle of Pioneer Town, making it so that they couldn’t set the tables and all the guests had to take cover,” shares the bride. “I finally had my sister close the curtains so I could shut it all out and center myself.” Luckily, five minutes before she had to walk down the aisle, her stepfather arrived smiling with news of parting clouds and sun.
The song “Chapel of Love” played as guests found their seats. “It smelled of rain as my stepfather led me out into the sun and held my hand to cross the babbling stream that had formed,” says Zella. A version of “God Only Knows” on banjo and steel pedal began playing as they approached the chapel. At the doors, Zella’s stepfather escorted her mother to their seats, and her father took her arm for the rest of the way down the aisle. “It was deeply important and meaningful to honor both father figures in my life,” says Zella. “It made the procession feel complete.”
“Our best friend, bandmate, turned officiant, Beau Bedford, opened up the ceremony by asking Jesse and I to look around the room at all of our loved ones,” remembers the bride. “With the chapel being too small to hold more than 60 people in the pews, everyone else had gathered around the chapel to watch from the windows. When I looked around and saw everyone’s smiling faces looking in at us I started to cry. We were truly surrounded by love, an image and feeling I will cherish in my heart forever.”
After reciting personal vows and saying “I do,” Jesse’s nephew rang the chapel bell, and his father, a Jazz trombonist, led a quartet to Louis Armstrong’s “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” as guests danced out of their seats. “As the horns played, everyone—and I mean everyone—gathered in front of the chapel to take a photo,” shares the bride. “In my opinion, it’s the photo from the wedding.”
