Venue Location: The 1909 | Catering: The Topanga Table | Dress: Dreamers & Lovers, Designer – Yanique Barnes Rings: Corinne Simon Jewelry | Officiant: Nick Ullett | Day of Coordinator: Patrice Frazier | Flowers: Suzi Marks | Makeup: Octavio Solis | Ceremony & Acoustic Music: Alicia Champion & Danielle LoPresti | Reception Music: Chris Mulkey & Deluxe | Dessert: Katherine’s Sweets – Katie Rosario | Invite/Graphics: Susie Marks
I felt very fortunate to photograph the wedding of Actress Annika Marks and her now husband Director Rich Newey, at The 1909; a rustic event space located in the hills of Topanga Canyon, in Los Angeles, California. The two of them are both artists and therefore have a great sense of style which translated directly to their Rustic, DIY wedding. From the flowers, to the table decorations, every detail of this celebration set the mood for a fun filled day of love, laughter, and romance.
From the Bride:
“Rich is a director and I’m an actress. We met on my first episode of “The Fosters”, when I joined the show in their second season. Rich was shadowing a good friend of his, who was directing that episode. It turned out we had a few friends in common, including Rich’s manager, who I had known for many years as well.
He waited until after the episode had finished filming before calling me. We went to breakfast together, which turned into a 4 hour morning. When the restaurant we were having breakfast at needed their table back, we moved to another restaurant down the street and ordered dessert to sit and talk longer. We had both been through a lot in the years leading up to meeting, and neither of us were looking for a relationship, but what we discovered together was undeniable.
Early on Rich took me to Sycamore Mineral Springs for a weekend away, and while we were there we hiked a 1 mile trail (which at the time Rich felt was a lot – mind you, a few years later we’re taking our Honeymoon to hike Machu Picchu) where we discovered a kid had hung a “PROM?” sign on an electrical substation. A year later he took me back to that same resort, and while I was getting a massage he ran up that 1 mile hill and hung a “MARRY ME?” sign.
“Sadly, Rich’s dad passed away 2 weeks after we got engaged. So we didn’t talk about the wedding for about 9 months – instead, we navigated through that terribly difficult transition together. Having gotten through that tremendous grief as a team, about a year after we got engaged, we realized we were so much more prepared to get married than we had been when we got engaged.
We gave ourselves about 5 months to plan our wedding, which was scheduled for Sunday Nov 6th, which was my parent’s 45th wedding anniversary. Then I booked a play, “The Model Apartment”, at the Geffen Theatre, and I had to agree to be available for all shows produced, and the play ran all the way through November, 8 shows a week, with only Mondays off. So, we moved our wedding 24 hours later, to Monday Nov 7th. Our guests were amazingly flexible, our vendors and venue were so accommodating, and it proved to us, once again what a fantastic team we are.
We had our rehearsal dinner between my matinee and evening show on that Sunday, and we got married on my 1 day off – which meant Rich carried most of the wedding planning weight. In the end, our wedding was more authentic, more of a team effort, less precious than it might have been, and only focused on the important stuff. It was perfect.”
The decorations for this wedding were amazingly elegant and beautiful. Rustic with a blend of new and old. What really makes this extra impressive is that everything was done by the Bride and Groom along with their family and friends! This is truly a couple that is well loved and supported, and why wouldn’t they be? These two are so sweet and down to earth they could make a stranger feel like family.
The Review
“Remo and his team were absolutely brilliant. Not only did they capture every precious moment of our day but they were so lovely and upbeat and enjoyable to have as part of our celebration. They blended in with our guests and added to the loving, nurturing energy of the day while doing a fantastic job of photographing it. We wanted a more artsy look and feel for our pictures and Remo took that request to heart, finding all sorts of interesting, intimate, creative ways to capture moments throughout the ceremony and reception but he also made sure we had planned, posed pictures with our families and closest friends so that we had the best of both worlds. Our wedding was primarily outdoors and Remo and his team did a great job of working with the available light and the uneven terrain while subtly adding the elements they needed to get the clarity and exposure they wanted. We couldn’t have been any happier and can’t recommend Remo enough!”
– Annika and Rich