Halfway between planning a traditional wedding and going to the courthouse, JdV Petite Weddings was established during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to curate impeccable, meticulously curated and intimate wedding celebrations that leave the stress of planning behind and prepare couples for an idyllic day filled with joy. The team of gifted, industry-leading creatives behind JdV Petite Weddings has decades of experience designing fabulous celebrations for couples. Leading the team and taking care of all planning and design is Jennifer Hronek. We asked Hronek to tell us more about the origins of the team and how they are making the best out of a tough situation for so many couples.

Pictured above is the California Club. Find out more about JdV’s offerings for a wedding at the California Club here.

Q: What sparked your interest in leading the JdV Petite Weddings team? 
A: We had already created our smaller “Los Angeles Elopement Team” three years ago to design exclusive boutique destination elopements in Southern California. We knew there was a market for couples to come from other states and countries to marry in Los Angeles and we wanted to create luxurious experiences for those couples and their guests. When COVID-19 struck, it was a natural transition to curate a more extensive and inclusive team of creatives to offer couples a chance to have an expertly designed wedding in 2020 with all of the elements in place, but on a smaller, more feasible scale considering CDC and local guidelines. Some of the couples with whom we have spoken have planned their weddings two or three times. They want to get married – the last thing they want to do is to have to plan their wedding again. With JdV Petite Weddings, the couple simply needs to arrive and everything has been taken care of for them.

Q: What issues did you run into as a stand-alone designer/planner that could be solved when coming together as a professional collective team? 
A: As a stand-alone designer and planner, I am limited to the circles of vendors and clients that I have developed. As the JdV Petite Weddings team, not only do we collaborate to build on each others’ experience and ideas, but we each have different contacts and clients, which ultimately provides a larger marketing reach. Each of us has relationships with different venues, which allows for a wider range of available locations.

Q: What are the major benefits for couples who choose to work with JdV Petite Weddings? 
A: By scheduling several weddings at the same location on the same day, each couple is able to have an amazing wedding for a reasonable price that is truly an incredible value – all at a venue that might not usually be available for a small wedding. Our packages are designed for discerning couples who are seeking good value for their investment and are geared to exceed their high expectations and standards. If we were to plan the same wedding at the same venue for one couple on any given day, it would be much more expensive than our Petite Weddings approach. With JdV Petite Weddings, not only does the couple benefit, but it is good for the environment as well! When you bring a strong group of creatives together, their combined years of experience help the team become exponentially better. Our officiant/notary completely handles the couple’s marriage license so couples do not need to go to the courthouse, or, at this time, try to get an appointment. (Our team has heard of people needing to wait two months just to get an appointment to obtain their marriage license.)

Q: Where do you see the wedding industry going in the future?
A: It is hard to know where our wedding industry will be in three months, six months, or even a year – we all want to have a crystal ball that will tell us! I think it is going to take several years until the wedding industry even closely resembles what it was prior to COVID. On a more positive note, people love to celebrate life’s milestones, and weddings are the most popular celebrations of all. People are craving personal connections more than ever. Some couples will choose to invite 200 people via zoom, some will share images and videos later, some will have extraordinary decor, and others will keep it more simple. But any way that a wedding is styled, it will be beautiful, special, and memorable for each couple. We hope that gradually, as the guidelines are lifted, we will be able to allow more people to attend our Petite Weddings. A wedding is and should always be a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we want to help people achieve that.

For more information on JdV Petite Weddings and their offerings, visit here. If you are looking to plan your intimate wedding somewhere other than Los Angeles, luckily, there is a litany of planners and industry professionals just waiting to make your wedding dreams come true! Whether you decide to go with a smaller celebration now or a larger one later (or both), the creative and innovative folks of the wedding industry abound, ready to help you say “I do.”