The Los Angeles River Center

I've been searching for locations on every "wedding planning" site.

herecomestheguide.com
gatheringguide.com
projectwedding.com
theknot.com

but the best site I've found for researching wedding locations is suprisingly Flickr!

I found my FAVORITE location on Flickr that has none of the "fatal flaws" I mentioned in my last blog. But I ran a search for "los angeles wedding locations" and the first picture that came up was this:

photo by h0llyanna

It's of the Los Angeles River Center in Downtown L.A.

I had never heard of this place before and was immediate intrigued. So I did a little research and found only good things!

It was built in the 1950s to house the headquarters for Lawry’s Products, Inc. (of Seasoned Salt fame!) The site, which had fallen into disrepair in the early 1990s, had been scheduled for demolition in 1998 but the local community fought to save it and they succeeded. With the help of the State, County and City of Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy purchased the property and restored it. It's not completely finished but it looked perfect to me when I went to check it out the other day!

Here are some of the pictures I took before my camera died:

the front gates

the fountain in the main entrance courtyard

they have this cool water feature running down the middle of their stairs to the main courtyard. 

Aaron said this reminded him of Michigan for some reason. (that's where he's from)

the large main courtyard with the three tiered fountain in the middle

A view of the building from the sight were I'd like to get married

And then my camera died.

I absolutely loved this place I was smiling from ear to ear when we were walking around. Aaron wasn't all that into it. Which made me sad. But I told him that he has to see the potential in the sight, and when it's all decorated it's beautiful. Especially as it gets dark and the lights are twinkling in the trees. I told him just to wait until we get home so I could show him some pictures.

This one finally won him over:

I have a meeting with someone on Tuesday to talk about wedding stuff. I'm sure that's when the "fatal flaw" will come out, if there is one. But for now this is number one on my list.