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.”…