A Unique, “Alien-esque” Wedding in Joshua Tree

For Bea and Blake Hodges-Koch, there was no dramatic proposal, no over-the-top surprise, no engagement announcement, and no big diamond ring (she chose an antique opal and sapphire one, instead). It was simple—they just knew. “We knew from very early on in our relationship that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together,” Bea says. “We never had a formal engagement. We did have a series of conversations about what marriage would look like while walking our dogs in the fall of 2020. I fondly think of those as our ‘engagement walks.’ But the first thing we decided was that we wanted to both elope and celebrate with our family and friends, so we did!” They eloped at The Integratron in March 2021, and a year later, on March 12, 2022, “we welcomed everyone we love to our corner of the desert to celebrate.” 

Their “corner of the desert” is a remote part of Joshua Tree, where they live full-time. “We wanted the celebration to feel like us,” Bea says. “We fell in love in and with the desert on our first trip as a couple, and we wanted to share that magic with our guests. For us, that meant doing away with a lot of traditions that didn’t feel authentic and bringing in every unique desert element we could.”

In fact, when their original, more traditional venue fell through seven weeks before the big day, their pivots felt even more authentic. “Our new venue—which we booked just seven weeks before 165 of our family and friends were set to join us for a three-day celebration—gave us complete freedom to do what we wanted,” Bea says. “It was a bigger challenge than we expected, but so very worth it. We had two months to completely redesign our wedding from the ground up. Unpredictable weather that season forced us to get a tent a week before and the uniqueness of our activations required extremely specific contractors and processes—the list goes on. There is no way we could have pulled any of this off without Melissa Sullivan of Studio Sully. We needed someone who understood us to help make our crazy dreams come alive—and also reign us in when needed.” When things got too stressful? The couple just stepped outside. “We are so lucky that we live here in Joshua Tree, so whenever it got to be too much, we could just take a walk in the desert and remind ourselves of what was important and why we wanted everyone out here with us.” 

Since nearly all of their 165 guests would be traveling in, the couple curated a whole weekend of desert events, including a sound bath and hikes through Joshua Tree National Park. It culminated in the big celebration: a retro-chic, alien-esque, completely unique fête with no formal ceremony, some wild fashion, and a whole lot of fun. Cedar & Pines Photography was there to capture it all; keep scrolling to see it come to life.

“Choosing to have the wedding in Joshua Tree was one of the most important and grounding choices we made,” Bea says. “Joshua Tree is a part of our love story in so many ways, and it was so meaningful to get married here.” But that wasn’t the only way they made the weekend their own. “Blake is an immersive producer with a particular affinity for escape room experiences, so it was important for us to weave that into our celebration,” Bea says. 

“We kicked things off at a welcome party at our home, Wild Heart Ranch, where Blake has built a fully immersive experience into our Airbnb. The journey continued through our wedding celebration and even into brunch. There were secret assignments, a meditative experience, an outdoor beach, a custom card game that Blake designed (it’s called Invasion! Joshua Tree, coming soon), an audio/visual psychedelic sound bath art installation, and a boat lounge overlooking projections by a local visual artist. Guests were given desert passports when they arrived, explaining all the different activations and encouraging them to explore!”

Bea initially went wedding-dress shopping the traditional way, but didn’t enjoy the experience. “I felt so uncomfortable,” she remembers. “Ordering dresses online made so much more sense for me personally. I’d really encourage brides to shop in whatever way they feel comfortable.” Also, she adds, “online shopping doesn’t have to mean alone.” For her, she was poolside in Palm Springs on a girls trip when she came across her cream tulle Teuta Matoshi dress, embroidered all over with daisies. “I chose it because I’ve always loved the part in Gilmore Girls where Lorelai says that an engagement should have 1,000 yellow daisies.”

She paired her wedding dress with a pair of low-heeled pink shoes by Repetto and found white cowboy boots on Etsy to wear with her second look. “Both were extremely comfortable, which is what mattered to me most,” she says. As for beauty, “I wanted to look like the best version of myself. I do not wear makeup in my everyday life, so I knew I didn’t want to have my makeup professionally done for the wedding. I did my own: I wore a little blush, a little eyeliner, and a little lipstick.” Her go-to? FACE Stockholm veil lipstick in Cranberry. “I always feel pretty and put together when I wear it, but it also fades nicely, so I didn’t have to worry about reapplying all the time.”

She tapped a friend, Stefano Frederick, to do her hair and showed him a picture of Keira Knightley at the ball in Pride and Prejudice. “I told him I wanted braids, and he did it so perfectly. He added baby’s breath, which made me feel like a fairy princess.”

For his look, the groom originally interviewed a couple of stylists, but didn’t feel like any fully understood the vibe he was going for. “So, after spending days on Pinterest and scouring vintage outlets, he slowly pieced together the outfit himself,” Bea says. “He wore a sky blue velvet tuxedo jacket, a flocked black and gold polka-dot shirt with matching bow tie, tuxedo pants, and Chelsea boots.” He finished the look with a vintage Casio watch and a gold “B” jacket pin that Bea gifted him when they eloped.

Of course, the couple’s dogs, Ham and Fiona, were in attendance and ready to make their grand entrance as well.

“We did not have a traditional ceremony because we eloped the previous year,” Bea says. “But we wanted to take a moment to thank our friends and family for celebrating with us.” So, after spending an hour greeting and mingling with their guests, Bea and Blake snuck off for their surprise. “We got in a vintage speedboat in a trailer behind a truck and cued up ‘Good Vibrations’ from The Beach Boys as the truck towed our boat ‘down the aisle,’” Bea shares. “We rode in to cheers and people tossing flower petals, and it was this amazing moment of realization: This is actually happening. I just remember smiling so much my face hurt.” The couple and their guests then had a moment together beneath a Joshua tree before getting the party started.

There was no formal wedding party, flower girls, or ring bearers, but there were still epic fashion moments. “We encouraged all of our guests to dress up in their best ‘desert glam,’ and boy did they deliver,” Bea says. Their 165 guests showed up and showed out in prints, patterns, ruffles, retro and vintage pieces, and vibrant colors.

Yet another speed boat was turned into a lounge area for the cocktail hour and reception. A little backstory: “Finding a new venue at the last minute, let alone to accommodate our large guest count, required seriously open minds,” Bea remembers. “When we ultimately found our new location, it was pre-renovation construction, but we were so excited by its potential. One of the funnier things about our first encounter there was discovering a trio of power boats sitting in the middle of the desert landscape. We knew we had to use them somehow. We had the idea to convert one into a ‘vehicle’ for us to ride into our celebration and convert the other two into a lounge as part of our immersive activity program.” The project involved welding, trench digging to tow the boats across the property, and retrofitting new floors—then outfitting them with throwback décor. 

The tent was an even more last-minute addition when iffy weather threatened their perfect weekend. However, they were still able to take advantage of the outdoor desert feel. “My favorite detail by far was the blooming Joshua trees dotted all over the property,” Bea says. “Our brilliant planner, Melissa, made sure to set up the tent so that some of those Joshua trees were actually inside it, framing our dance floor.”

“Our florist, Under New Mgmt, did the most amazing job of combining all the things that mattered to me,” Bea says. “She included tons of orchids (my mom’s favorite flower) but also some of my favorite things, like mushrooms and rhinestone-bedazzled anthuriums.” The whimsical florals and taper candles lined bare wood tables inside the tent, and minimalist place settings held a meaningful meal. “My mom, who passed away when I was 16, grew up in Kentucky and her family owns a barbecue restaurant in Frankfort, so I’ve always dreamed of barbecue at my wedding,” Bea says. “Our caterer, Schaffer, did the most amazing job recreating some of the dishes I grew up with, like spoon bread and pulled pork.”

At the bar, guests ordered his-and-hers cocktails—but, in true Bea and Blake fashion, these weren’t just any cocktails. “Mine was a special French 75 with butterfly pea that changed purple for yet another touch of magic,” Bea says.

At sunset, the duo’s photographer, Cedar & Pines, pulled them aside for desert portraits. Picking their photographer had been the easiest part of planning, Bea says. “We stumbled on Cedar & Pines’ Instagram very early in the planning process when we were eating at a local restaurant and saw another young couple taking pictures outside,” she remembers. “The restaurant reposted their photo, and I saw they were incredibly talented wedding photographers who happened to live 10 minutes from us in the desert. It was kismet. And now they’ve become dear desert friends.”

A collection of disco balls were suspended over a holographic dance floor inside the tent. “The combination created a beautiful rainbow effect that reminded me of my mom,” Bea says. After changing into a short pastel sequined Selkie dress—“I bought it super last-minute, and it made me feel like a disco ball while I danced,” Bea says—she and Blake hit the dance floor to “One of These Days” by Bedouine.

A Dart Collective DJ—and later, a guest set by the couple’s friend Jason Millersmith—set the vibe all night, but, again, it was personal. “Blake had a big hand curating the reception music with ‘funky soul’ as the guiding theme,” Bea says. 

This wasn’t your typical dinner-and-dancing kind of wedding. “I love activities at weddings, so I ordered a ton of fun charms and beads on Etsy for guests to make their own desert charm necklaces. The beads and charms were hidden throughout the venue activations, so guests had to discover them as they wandered.” There was also a sound bath, multiple lounge areas (including the one on a speed boat!), and more.

“We cared a lot about working with small, women- or queer-owned businesses whenever possible; another goal was to include as many local vendors as possible,” Bea says. “So we hired Lisa from Fine Art Cookies for our incredible alien wedding cake.” This was no easy feat: “Our interactive desert dessert table featured a cake shaped like the Integratron (where we actually got married), crop circles made out of sugar, spun-sugar tumbleweeds, crystal mountains, and cookies with hand-painted portraits of our beloved dogs Hamilton and Fiona,” Bea describes. “Instead of a traditional cake topper, we had alien figurines to represent each of us. Oh, and a lot of it glowed in the dark.”

As favors, the couple printed a special wedding limited-edition run of the Joshua Tree card game Blake created. The next morning, guests gathered at the couple’s home. “It gave people a real sense of our lives out here and what we’re building,” Bea says. “Seeing so many friends and family experience the immersive experience Blake has built into and around the property was magical.” She advises couples to infuse the same authentic creativity into their own weddings. “Design an experience that is meaningful and unique to you. This is your day. Let your personality shine through.”