A Spring Wedding at Hummingbird Nest Ranch

Production & Design by Center of Attention Events | Photography by Gloria Mesa

On May 24th, Center of Attention Events returned to one of Southern California’s most beautiful wedding settings, Hummingbird Nest Ranch, for a spring celebration at the ranch’s Sitting Bull venue.

Lauren & Mitchell came to us with a dream to make their day as beautiful as their love. They shared their thoughts of Studio Ghibli, ethereal floral pastels, and desserts for miles.

With its Spanish-style architecture, stone walls, mature trees, cobblestone courtyards, and pool on the patio of the traditional Spanish home, Sitting Bull comes with character of its own. For this wedding, we worked with the setting rather than against it, creating a day that felt elegant and romantic while still leaving room for the personal, playful details that made this celebration so specific to the couple.

From nearly 200 handmade origami swans to freshly blown candy, an incredible dinner, Bottega Louie pastries, Japanese taiyaki, and late-night tacos by the pool, guests found something new around nearly every corner.

A Ceremony Beneath the Trees

As friends and family arrived at Sitting Bull, they were greeted with a lemonade station. Nearby, a copy of The Resident Dog acted as a non-traditional guest book for the couple to sign. A book that is special and unique to them, which they could keep at home as a reminder of everyone who celebrated with them. It is in those small details that the day feels personal.

The ceremony took place beneath one of Sitting Bull’s beautiful mature trees, surrounded by the natural landscape of Hummingbird Nest Ranch.

The tree created a canopy over the couple as they exchanged their vows, with the grounds of the ranch stretching out around their guests. There was no need to compete with the scale of the property. The setting itself gave the ceremony a sense of intimacy while still feeling fitting for a celebration of nearly 200 people.

After the ceremony, guests made their way into cocktail hour while the property was transformed for the evening ahead.

200 Handmade Swans

For the seating assignments, the bride and her family handmade an individual origami swan for every one of the couple’s nearly 200 guests. Each swan held a guest’s seating information, turning the escort display into an installation made almost entirely by the family.

Hundreds of carefully folded swans together made a beautiful display, but knowing the hours and hands that went into them made the details even more special.

Cocktails, Boba and the Art of Hand-Blown Candy

Cocktail hour was filled with food and experiences for guests to discover.

Passed hors d’oeuvres included mushroom toast with Parmesan, chives, and black pepper on brioche; fried chicken and mochi waffles with seasonal fruit compote and maple syrup; and blue crab rolls with dashi soy-marinated ikura, yuzu, and furikake on brioche.

Alongside the bar, guests could visit a dedicated boba station serving three different varieties throughout cocktail hour.

One of the best show-stoppers of the night was our talented Shan the Candy Man. Shan practices the rare art of hand-blown sugar candy, shaping hot hard candy by hand and blowing it into delicate animal figures. He is one of fewer than twenty people in the world still practicing this dying art. Throughout cocktail hour and post-dinner reception, guests could watch him work and request their own candy creations.

Dinner on the Spanish Cobblestone

For the reception, guests moved onto Sitting Bull’s Spanish-style cobblestone courtyard for dinner.

The estate's architecture became part of the reception design, with the couple seated beneath a beautiful stone archway overlooking their guests. As evening settled over the ranch, the old stone, cobblestone, and surrounding landscape created a warm backdrop for dinner, lit only by candles and golden hour.

The three-course menu began with pan-seared scallops served with kabocha purée, yuzu, balsamic, currants, and brown butter.

The second course was a fresh take on a Caesar salad with honey gems, citrus, cucumber, tomato, Parmesan, lemon zest, Caesar dressing and pepitas.

For the main course, guests selected from three entrées. Miso carbonara pasta was served with soft egg, broccolini, peas, seasonal mushrooms, Parmesan and black pepper. Korean short ribs came with seasonal vegetables, kimchi, perilla and short-grain rice, while the koji chicken was served with yuzu scallion ginger sauce, XO fried rice and seasonal vegetables.

Dessert, dessert, dessert

After three courses, there was still plenty more to come.

A three-tier wedding cake served as the traditional centerpiece of the dessert, but we also created a much larger dessert experience for guests to explore.

A gorgeous mirrored serpentine table became the foundation for a display of pastries from Bottega Louie in West Hollywood. Rather than using identical serving pieces, the desserts were arranged across a collection of mismatched cake stands, platters, and risers at varying heights.

The mirrored surface reflected the pastries and serving pieces above it, while the mix of shapes and heights gave the table the feeling of an abundant pâtisserie.

Nearby, a vendor prepared Japanese taiyaki fresh for guests.

The fish-shaped cakes were cooked on-site and served warm, adding another interactive food experience to the reception. Guests could watch each batch being made before receiving one straight from the iron. Each taiyaki was filled with either chocolate, custard, or red bean.

A Poolside Party

Once dinner was finished, the celebration moved again, this time to the pool at Sitting Bull.

We love when a wedding uses different parts of a property throughout the day. Moving guests from the ceremony beneath the trees to cocktails, dinner on the cobblestone, and finally the pool allowed each part of the celebration to have its own atmosphere without ever leaving the estate.

By the pool, the formal dinner gave way to a much more relaxed late-night party. And after an evening of scallops, short ribs, Bottega Louie pastries, and taiyaki, there was still one more round of food waiting.

A taco station opened for the after-party, serving fresh late-night tacos to guests as the celebration continued around the pool. There is something particularly satisfying about a hot taco after hours of dancing, and they were exactly what everyone needed to keep the night going.