Behind the Scenes

The bride insisted on adding some delightfully unnecessary creative tasks to the wedding planning process. Why exactly? Who knows, she doesn't like having any free time, I guess?

(Yes, she knew all these things were optional, and there were other alternatives. Chu reminded her often in moments of her own personal crisis.)

Designing Wedding Website, Emails, and Signage

With her undergraduate background in web design and graphic design, because why not design your entire wedding website, suite, and come up with a logo and mini brand style guide while you're at it?????

Designing the Stickers for the Sticker Vending Machine

Making sure she squeezes every possible dollar out of her Cal Lutheran Multimedia degree, Allyssa decided to design stickers for the wedding. No AI here! The bride even engaged the help of her very talented illustrator, tío Mario, to help with designs.

Designed by Mario Urbina
Fun fact, Allyssa has become a birder since her late 20s. A perfect way to blend this interest of hers was to put the national bird of Nigeria, the Black Crowned Crane, with the Salvadoran national bird, el torogoz.

Allyssa designed this sticker to honor the two cats she adopted with Chu in 2024. Suya and Pepita Henrie are featured, abducting their favorite toys, which are always found lying around the house.

This sticker was designed to represent Chu. Did you know Chu loves bunnies and dreams of having a pet Flemish Giant Rabbit? Did you know he also loves Diet Pepsi like no other?

This sticker was designed to represent Allyssa, complete with her favorites: cats and matcha, with a slight ode to Pompompurin, IYKYK.

And to round out the sticker designs, Allyssa made one last one representing their favorite fruits. Cherries for Allyssa and Mangos for Chu.

Sourcing Sticker Vending Machine

To go along with the stickers she designed, the bride also wanted to have a sticker vending machine. But of course, she wanted a bargain. So she bought a lot of vending machines on OfferUp, sold the rest, kept the sticker machine, and got to work repairing it with her mom and Manny's help. Manny made a nice box to make it even more wedding-esque, and Mom helped spray-paint it all one even color. Allyssa even did extra research to make sure she bought all the right parts so the machine wouldn't need actual coins and changed the mechanisms herself.

Florals: Ikebana Arrangements

Allyssa had a very specific vision for florals. Naturally, she signed up her and her mom for several Ikebana classes in downtown LA over the course of five months. Allyssa's mom even learned how to weave baskets in one of the sessions.

Hand Building 30+ Ikebana Vases

And of course, to go with the Ikebana floral arrangements, Allyssa dedicated many hours and weekends to pottery. Folks at her pottery studio were concerned for her sanity and checked in often. Only two vases cracked and were lost to chaos in the kiln.

Florals: Ceremony & Reception Decor

Meanwhile, Allyssa's mom, a natural creative, decided to add some her own wedding tasks to her plate and designed all the florals you saw at the ceremony and scattered around the venue. This was made possible with help from Allyssa's paternal grandmother, Miriam.

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