06 April, 2020 BEVERLY HILLS LGBTQ WEDDING // AMANDA + LINDSEY
Hey! We’re Amanda & Lindsey and we’ve been together 3 years this coming June. We just moved to Portland, OR from Los Angeles where we both lived for over 10 years. When we aren’t working we love to throw a good house party with friends that includes a lot of wine, tacos, games and dancing in the kitchen! We love to camp, go on road trip adventures and swore to ourselves we’d visit Yosemite at least once a year.
What is the first thing you remember about the other when you first met?
After stalking each other on social meeds for an undisclosed length of time, we finally met at Amanda’s Hollywood Hills studio in the summer of 2017 during Pride weekend for a wine night with Amanda’s friends. Lindsey pulled up and met Amanda outside so she could guide her to a parking spot. Lindsey cracked a joke about some girl standing behind Amanda in a long red skirt asking if that was her. We parked and Lindsey brought Amanda a gift; a campfire scented candle of course. She asked Amanda to close her eyes, trust her and “smell this”… We went on to drink a lot of red wine, had some sing-alongs and danced in the kitchen. Amanda walked Lindsey to the car where the first kiss took place and Lindsey’s coconut chapstick had Amanda hooked (as if that’s all it took). Amanda went back inside and told her best friend “I’m going to marry her!”.
How did the proposal go down?
The proposal was a secret 3 month production by Amanda. She had some of our friends and family come together during one weekend in March of 2019 and filmed an epic music video to Tina Turner’s song, The Best. The plan was to show Lindsey the video on our two year anniversary, but that didn’t go as planned. Amanda simply couldn’t wait, the video was done in May and we had a trip to Maui planned. Although a little cliche, we are like that sometimes and it made perfect sense! Unbeknownst to Lindsey, she watched Amanda lug a backpack and her laptop around everyday during our Hawaii trip. Apparently, Amanda was just waiting for the perfect moment. As an adventurous couple, she wanted to do it during a sunrise hike on top of Haleakala Summit or while hiking through Iao Valley State Park, but she felt rushed and stressed trying to making the moment perfect. So on the morning of the last day of our trip Amanda went down to the lobby of our hotel to get coffee and realized “this was the perfect moment”. We had just woken up with salty beach hair, no make up…just us being us. Amanda came back to the room and said “I have something to show you, come sit on the bed”. She had set up two different camera’s and had the laptop open on the bed. Lindsey thought she was going to surprise her with a paddle boarding session that they swore they would do that trip… she knew as soon as the video started it was a proposal. After watching the video, Amanda hopped up on the bed and got down on one knee and proposed. It was truly perfect.
Was there a memory from your wedding that sticks out more than others?
We think the surprise was that we weren’t intending to have an actual wedding ceremony. We had planned to have a little courthouse paper signing moment with some close friends and family before our move to Portland. We thought that was a perfect way to say goodbye to LA, where we met and fell in love. However, it turned into our perfect little wedding ceremony mainly due to our good friend Megan Cody to ordain the civil ceremony. She turned this moment for us into a perfect description of our love and our relationship citing personalized vows that included our love of Brandi Carlile, Nahko and taco nights. The funny surprise….well after a private dinner at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood, we went down the street to a little local gem called Saddle Ranch. There we drank a few too many doubles (because they were $0.50 extra) and wound up riding the bull (Lindsey’s was in a dress and her spanx may or may not have been shown).
What is one piece of advice that you would give to other couples planning their wedding?
Always keep each other and what you both want out of your day at the forefront of your planning. It is after all about you and celebrating your love. It should be exactly what YOU want, whatever that is, small or big. We initially were planning a rather large wedding with all the bells and whistles…what we didn’t know was we didn’t need any of that. We just needed each other tear.
Why did you choose the wedding venue/location you did?
Since it was originally going to be a courthouse wedding, we wanted to choose a courthouse/city hall that was aesthetically pleasing…after all, it was for the photos right! We chose the Beverly Hills city hall because of it’s beautiful architecture and palm trees and it was right in LA, where we met. We then chose to throw one more house party to say goodbye to all of our friends before the move. We did this the very next night after the wedding and surprised everyone in attendance! It was emotional and lovely and we were able to toast our going away as well as our new marriage. Our good friend Travis Howard and his wife Brittany performed John Prine’s In Spite Of Ourselves which turned into a group singalong of all the classics, including our proposal song, The Best.
Top 3 things that make a marriage last?
Humor
Communication
Unwavering support
What do you think can make it hard about planning a wedding without the support of your family?
It’s emotional. It’s difficult to imagine your wedding without certain key members of your family in attendance due certain beliefs. It feels lonely. Some struggled more than others, but everyone came to support at the end; which was even more emotional!
Why’d you choose Steph to document your wedding day?
Because she’s one of our best friends and we actually only invited her to come as a guest. She always told us she wanted to be a guest (or ring bearer) and not work our wedding. But we knew she’d bring her camera and that she just can’t help herself!
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