Melody and David Photography: December 2015

The Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles, I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of it. It’s been in countless movies, there’s a documentary out about it. Apparently it’s a really big deal.

This was supposed to be a concept shot for something after the ceremony. We didn't have time to get that shot, but I still like the concept.

Architecturally, it is quite the site to be seen. Four columns of independent hotel suits rise up around a fifth larger column in the middle of downtown L.A. The glass throws reflections of the sun all over the surrounding blocks making it so that one minute you could be standing in shade and the next in shaft of sunlight. It’s so striking that there are bridges from other buildings on either side of it to the terrace.

A view from the terrace while waiting on groomsmen. Loved the idea of the shadow of nature hidden away inside a towering city.

For as confusing as the light is outside, the interior is just as perplexing. If you’re in one of the suites, say, getting into your dress for the bid day or something, you have to go down to the lobby and cross over to another elevator located a hundred or so feet away to go up to another floor so that you can then circle all the way around to access the La Prime Steak House. You can’t simply drop straight down to the terrace because while all four towers are connected, they are all independent and require their own elevators.

I may or may not have gotten lost once or twice.

Not actually shot at the Westin. Check out Facebook to see what I had to stand on in order to hang this.

The Westin Bonaventure overlooks the ceremony site.

Jack loves the building. When I mentioned how confusing it was he beamed, “That’s exactly what the architect wanted. It’s what all architects want, for the people visiting the things we design to have to engage with them.”

Jack and Jamie are exactly that kind of couple. They’re people you have to engage with. They’re not passing faces, not folks you think you might have met at a party once, but people you don’t forget because they treat interactions with others the way Mr. Portman treated the design of that building.

They are also connected while still being completely separate. You can’t cross over from one of Jamie’s thoughts and arrive at Jack’s. They have their own unique ways of getting from here to there, but they do so as a unit.

Their coming together brought friends and family in from all over. In the same way The Westin focus is on people, so too was this wedding. Small, intimate, it was more about the coming together of everyone, not just the joining of two people in marriage.

Enjoy the imagery here, but remember that the antics are always saved for the Facebook gallery.