Valentine DTLA
A 9,000 square foot 1920s seafood-market building in the DTLA Arts District, where a glass-roofed greenhouse, a palm courtyard and sculptural bars sit inside reclaimed lumber and steel.
A century-old seafood market, now full of plants
Valentine is built inside a former seafood-market building from the 1920s, with reclaimed lumber, exposed steel and original flooring left where they were found. Wedgewood Weddings operates it now on an all-inclusive model, bundling catering, DJ, coordination and decor into one package. What makes it worth photographing is the collision: greenhouse foliage and glass roofs against genuinely gritty industrial materials, which is a very different room from a ballroom that has been dressed to look interesting.
Botanical light in front, street light out the back
Two very different looks live in one building. Inside, the greenhouse plants and glass roof give you soft top light through towering birds of paradise, played against exposed steel and reclaimed wood for something moody and botanical. Out the back, the alley and the skyline give you gritty editorial frames after dark. A timeline that gets the couple outside for ten minutes at dusk gets both, and most couples do not realise that until someone suggests it.
Good to know before you book
- Valet parking is mandatory and adds real cost. Budget for it and warn guests.
- Packages start around 10,690 dollars, but couples consistently advise planning for 30,000 or more once the package scales to a full celebration.
- Everything is in-house. There is no outside catering and no blank-slate room, which is the trade-off for the lower-stress all-inclusive model.
- The spaces are heavily designed already, so a strong outside design vision may fight the building rather than use it.
- The surrounding Arts District is a working urban neighbourhood. Guests should be told what to expect on the walk from the car.
- Day-of coordination is included and, by every account we have read, genuinely good.
Where we like to shoot
- The Grassroom greenhouse under the glass roof, which is the best natural light in the building.
- The Palm Courtyard among the tropical planting, especially during cocktail hour when it fills.
- The sculptural bars, which give a clean graphic frame that most venues simply do not have.
- The Sunset Room's clay murals for reception detail and first-dance coverage.
- The Back Alley Lounge and the skyline beyond it, once the light goes.
How a wedding day moves through the building
The greenhouse, and the usual ceremony room: towering birds of paradise under a soaring glass roof. It is the reason most couples book Valentine, and the reason the ceremony coverage here looks like nothing else in downtown.
Where cocktail hour happens, among tropical planting and the sculptural bars. It works as an overflow portrait location too, since guests spread out rather than crowding one corner.
Dinner and dancing take the Sunset Room, with clay murals and industrial texture on every wall. The Back Alley Lounge behind it is the golden-hour and after-dark option, and the only genuinely outdoor space.
Planning your day at Valentine DTLA
Similar venues we photograph
Vibiana and Millennium Biltmore — the grand historic end of downtown, if Valentine's industrial edge is not quite the look.
Greystone Mansion for formal gardens and stonework on the Westside.
Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, for couples weighing a city venue against a canyon one.