The Masala Ranch
August 26th, 2017: Our wedding was set in Pioneertown, California, an unincorporated community of the Morongo Basin region of San Bernardino's High Desert, 12 miles outside Joshua Tree National Park. We chose this rugged landscape for its intense beauty and immediate disarming quality - a place where we are free to be our true, unfiltered selves.
Ryan grew up in Warsaw, Indiana and moved to New York at 17. I grew up in Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada and for most of my upbringing, my family was the only visible minority in our town. Often times, we both felt like outsiders in our communities and independently made it a point to pull ourselves through some hard years and build our lives on our own terms. That said, we both had the privilege of being raised by the most loving parents one could ask for.
We love many of the same things in life, and early in planning, I realized that there was a unique intersection of the music we grew up listening to - Ryan on Classic Rock and me on Bollywood and Grunge. That was the charming intersection that became how I merged our cultures together for the event.
Pulling in musical and visual inspriation from 1960-1970’s Americana and Bollywood formed the basis of the look and feel of our wedding. Thousands of marigolds, embroidered saris, henna, cheeseballs, whiskey, and pickup trucks brought our two wonderful cultures together.
My Role: Groom | Creative Director
Timeframe: August 2016-August 2017
Team:
Danielle Leeke | Wedding Planner
Kalie Patterson | Graphic Designer
Gabriel Gastelum | Photographer
Pierce Larick | Videographer
Core Challenges
Climate: August in the desert provided a series of climate challenges - primarily daytime temperatures upwards of 100°F.
Permanent Pieces: The property had several stationary pieces that were not removable that needed to be incorporated into the design (an abandoned bus, a red pickup truck, disjointed picnic tables, and a small elevated platform.
Cultures: Our vastly different cultures and our desire to bring them together into a thoughtfully curated, unified experience.
Solutions
A vintage art deco broach I found at Decades of Fashion drove the inspiration for the creation of the henna-style mandala that became the logo for the entire event. The mandala was used to brand everything from parasols to programs, cocktail glasses, window clings, flags, and a projected light gobo thrown onto the dance floor.
The heat was combatted with individual branded parasols for each guest, rattan hand fans, and a frozen nitrogen cocktail bar that turned into a nitrogen ice cream parlor after dinner.
The abandoned bus (shown in the backdrop here) was turned into a rickshaw with the seating chart displayed along the side. This was the most highly photographed installation at our wedding.
The small elevated platform became our DJ booth and was covered with marigold garlands.
The disjointed tables were leveled, connected, and dressed in heat resilient marigolds and desert greenery to form one lush, continuous runner down the center of the 125-person harvest table.
Food stations were representative of both cultures (Gujarati and Midwestern) with several offerings tying the culinary program together.
“Welcome to India(na)” welcome party - a Henna & Haldi Ceremony was accompanied by wood fired pizza, whiskey tasting, and cheeseball rolling - a tradition that has been in Ryan’s family for three generations.
Musical selections included a classical Hindu prayer, Wild Heart by Stevie Nicks, and Proud Mary by Tina Turner performed by our musically gifted friends and family interwoven with our officiant’s storytelling.