Los Altos/Los Altos Hills natives Allie Nguyen and Thomas Rasmussen threw an animal adoption-themed wedding last spring with many touchpoints to their shared local community.
Nguyen’s family has been volunteers and supporters for Pets In Need, the animal shelter serving the area, and PIN agreed to participate in a fundraising photoshoot with puppies in lieu of bouquets at Lincoln Park. The reception featured an “adoption wall” profiling animals ready for adoption.
“We had a friendly competition between the bride and the groom to see which of the two (PIN) donation boxes the guests would donate to the most,” Nguyen said. “Thomas and I kissed every time someone donated money.”
The couple, one of the first to marry in the Los Altos Community Center’s Grand Oak Room, transformed the space with a “whimsical baroque” theme of fabrics and flowery art installations. From Nguyen’s halo crown to Rasmussen’s velvet-and-sequins tuxedo, they mutually embraced all things “sparkling and radiant,” as Rasmussen put it.
“As somebody who studied art and architecture in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, I loved the idea of a golden halo … reminiscent of things you would see in religious triptychs or paintings,” Nguyen said.
The couple aligned in their fancy for a modernized take on a “Versailles vibe” but shared roots made them choose to stay close to home as they manifested it, reinventing familiar spots like Lincoln Park and the community center for the celebration.
“Our whole love story was set in Los Altos,” Nguyen said. “We both worked on Main Street our junior years of high school (me at the now-closed Miyo Yogurt, him at Satura a few doors down), and we met at the Village Pantry.”
Nguyen, who is Vietnamese and Chinese, welcomed Rasmussen into her family with a Chinese tea ceremony that included her elders – and his.
“The tradition was new to my side of the family, and particularly my grandpa appreciated feeling that he got his time in the sun, and how nice it was to feel honored as an elder of the family. He was not expecting to have a role,” Rasmussen said.
Whimsical baroque could come with a truly magisterial cost, but local supporters turned that story on its head – Nguyen repurposed her sister’s prom dress for her golden reception, as well as a decorative wedding arch that had already been in the family for a full generation.
“We walked through the arch just like all of my aunts and my uncles and my mom and my dad, and it felt incredible,” Nguyen said.
A recently married local couple handed down their exquisite Vietnamese outfits for the tea ceremony at a steep discount, and Nguyen’s family spent months crafting thousands of paper flowers by hand for her centerpieces.
“Making sixteen centerpieces with hundreds and hundreds of flowers from thousands of coffee filters is an unbelievable endeavor and everyone volunteered … My grandmother spent all her days for weeks on end cutting coffee filters,” Nguyen said. They converted a room of their house into a flower storage area for about a month, but the paper abundance has since been dispersed to future homes. “I’m the first cousin to be married, that means that all of these centerpieces can be reused for all the subsequent weddings.”
