Animals and Wigs Set Apart This Funky, DIY Wedding at Paramour Estate in Los Angeles

Tyler and Michael, "met at a whiskey bar while living in New York, migrated to the City of Angels, reconnected at a farmers market in West Hollywood and have been making extravagantly-detailed cocktails and pun-filled dinner party menus ever since. And last October, we celebrated our love with an all-out, wine-soaked, gluten-filled, pants-splitting dance party at a giant mansion in LA that may or may not be haunted (The Paramour Estate in Silverlake)," Tyler shares. As for the animal accents that were threaded through the couple's wedding, the venue's taxidermy served as pivotal inspiration. "Located on the highest promontory overlooking all of Los Angeles, the century-old 18,000 square foot mansion had the perfect mix of sultry and chic—and a brooding/spooky element that I thought would play so well to our October wedding. With some taxidermy figurines that adorn the interior of the venue, we decided to lean on the animal-print theme for our guests' attire," Tyler says. To bring their animal-centric wedding together, the couple leaned into DIY projects that made their wedding feel like them. Tyler, "created a custom logo to use on our branding and invites, made 200 gold tin candles for our guests, planted book 'terrariums' for our dinner tables and Michael and I built the arch that we got married under. My husband is an incredible baker, so he made loaves of sourdough the night before our wedding for our guests to enjoy with dinner. Our obsession with puns made it easy to name the tables: 'Loaf of My Life,' 'Last But Not Yeast,' 'Ferment to Be,' 'You Deserve Butter' and 'You’re Baking Me Crazy' to name a few." The couple also chose to go DIY with their dessert—cake balls! "Rather than do a traditional wedding cake, we opted to have a few smaller cakes from local bakeries and then made 300 cake balls with our friends and froze them weeks before our wedding for our guests to enjoy the night of. Finding those custom details that we could knock out weeks before the wedding really helped to make it special as well as save us money in the end," they share. 
Beyond baked goods and animals, the couple made their eclectic wedding even more funky with the addition of wigs. "I think one of the smartest decisions we made was to have an area off of the dance floor that was dedicated to WIGS. Lots of wigs in an array of colors. It was incredible how many people loosened up on the dance floor after wearing an 80’s perm blonde wig)." 
After bringing their wedding together all on their own, Tyler and Michael have two pieces of advice to current to-be-weds. "1. Make it personal – every element reflected some aspect of who we are and it did not go unnoticed by our guests. 2. Accept help when it is offered. It is so easy to fall into the trap of wanting to do everything yourself, but when guests offer to help you out – take them at their word. They love you, and want your wedding to be a success!"