The bride and groom stand before a small gathering of guests in the backyard of a home once owned by Frank Sinatra, the San Fernando Valley stretching out below them as their wedding celebrant invites the couple to kiss.
Jeff Baleja leans down to embrace his new wife, Serena, as their gathered friends and family applaud, then reaches into his left pocket to retrieve a small container.‘You may now smoke with the bride,’ the celebrant says, as the groom pulls out two enormous joints. Jeff and Serena light them from the same flame provided by the celebrant and inhale deeply, the California sun beginning to set behind them. Their shared marital marijuana is not the only time the plant surfaces during the wedding; cannabis is, in fact, a central theme of the day. The groom is a marijuana chef who’s starting a company to produce cannabis-infused vegan popsicles, and the wedding is peppered with weed, from the decorations to the food to the recreational offerings on hand. Serena’s bouquet and Jeff’s boutonniere feature marijuana leaves, and guests are invited to try an assortment of weed-infused treats; tables manned by ‘budtenders’ display rolled joints, edibles, cartridges and other options. Even the chocolate fountain is infused with cannabis, and many of the nearly 40 guests partake. Jeff, 29, and Serena, 27, say that cannabis consumption has been central to their relationship, and they couldn’t imagine their big day without it. And they’re not alone; as more and more states legalize marijuana, the demand for weed at weddings is growing.
Jeff Baleja leans down to embrace his new wife, Serena, as their gathered friends and family applaud, then reaches into his left pocket to retrieve a small container.‘You may now smoke with the bride,’ the celebrant says, as the groom pulls out two enormous joints. Jeff and Serena light them from the same flame provided by the celebrant and inhale deeply, the California sun beginning to set behind them. Their shared marital marijuana is not the only time the plant surfaces during the wedding; cannabis is, in fact, a central theme of the day. The groom is a marijuana chef who’s starting a company to produce cannabis-infused vegan popsicles, and the wedding is peppered with weed, from the decorations to the food to the recreational offerings on hand. Serena’s bouquet and Jeff’s boutonniere feature marijuana leaves, and guests are invited to try an assortment of weed-infused treats; tables manned by ‘budtenders’ display rolled joints, edibles, cartridges and other options. Even the chocolate fountain is infused with cannabis, and many of the nearly 40 guests partake. Jeff, 29, and Serena, 27, say that cannabis consumption has been central to their relationship, and they couldn’t imagine their big day without it. And they’re not alone; as more and more states legalize marijuana, the demand for weed at weddings is growing.
It’s very important that we share cannabis together and our guests,’ Jeff tells DailyMail.com at the reception. ‘It’s just a bonding moment; it’s very important.’ He adds: ‘Everyone’s having a wonderful time.’‘I think cannabis spreads a lot of happiness, and you can see it when you look around the wedding,’ his new bride says, with a tranquil smile. Jeff’s native California is one of nine states that has legalized both medical and recreational use of marijuana; it’s legal for medical purposes in 21 others. The demand for cannabis celebrations first surfaced in the trailblazing state of Colorado a few years ago, prompting one entrepreneur, Bec Koop, to not only tailor her floral business to the demand but also to begin a cannabis wedding expo which has now spread from Colorado to California and Nevada.
She came up with the idea for the event, she says, ‘because of the fact that I was turned down from a traditional expo.’ And then there was another that told me we could only bring photos of what we do; we could not even bring a bouquet that had cannabis in it or anything along those lines even if it was fake cannabis [if] it looked too much like the real deal.’ She says she joked around with another cannabis entrepreneur, Philip Wolf, that they should start their own expo. The joke turned into reality, and the expo debuted in Denver in 2016 with about 25 vendors; by the second year, that number had tripled. The event expanded to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, and next year the fourth year of the expo will include Las Vegas. One of the vendors earlier this year in Los Angeles was Ohio native Jamie Lee McCormick, who grew up around flowers in his mother’s shop in Ohio.
He started his own California business, The Flower Daddy, and specializes in cannabis weddings and he was hired by Serena and Jeff to plan a whirlwind wedding after their engagement just over six weeks ago. ‘We always smoked together and have been involved in this growing industry over here, and it kind of is like, why wouldn’t you want to smoke at your wedding?’ says Serena, a London native who works in social media marketing. ‘We didn’t really ever envision a wedding without this because of how involved it is in our lives and how often we partake.‘So it just felt really natural … it’s now legal; why wouldn’t we have a marijuana bar next to our usual bar? And as soon as I found out that this is a plausible thing that can happen, I wanted to run with it.’ She sought out a wedding planner that would ‘have experience in finding a venue and all of the ins and outs and legalities’ of such an event, settling on The Flower Daddy.‘I’ve always been a huge cannabis advocate and plus a user, and I’ve always been a huge connoisseur of cannabis and I’ve always wanted to keep it legal,’ ‘It’s part of my life; I use it for anxiety, I use it for energy. I’m a pretty motivational stoner.’
She came up with the idea for the event, she says, ‘because of the fact that I was turned down from a traditional expo.’ And then there was another that told me we could only bring photos of what we do; we could not even bring a bouquet that had cannabis in it or anything along those lines even if it was fake cannabis [if] it looked too much like the real deal.’ She says she joked around with another cannabis entrepreneur, Philip Wolf, that they should start their own expo. The joke turned into reality, and the expo debuted in Denver in 2016 with about 25 vendors; by the second year, that number had tripled. The event expanded to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, and next year the fourth year of the expo will include Las Vegas. One of the vendors earlier this year in Los Angeles was Ohio native Jamie Lee McCormick, who grew up around flowers in his mother’s shop in Ohio.
He started his own California business, The Flower Daddy, and specializes in cannabis weddings and he was hired by Serena and Jeff to plan a whirlwind wedding after their engagement just over six weeks ago. ‘We always smoked together and have been involved in this growing industry over here, and it kind of is like, why wouldn’t you want to smoke at your wedding?’ says Serena, a London native who works in social media marketing. ‘We didn’t really ever envision a wedding without this because of how involved it is in our lives and how often we partake.‘So it just felt really natural … it’s now legal; why wouldn’t we have a marijuana bar next to our usual bar? And as soon as I found out that this is a plausible thing that can happen, I wanted to run with it.’ She sought out a wedding planner that would ‘have experience in finding a venue and all of the ins and outs and legalities’ of such an event, settling on The Flower Daddy.‘I’ve always been a huge cannabis advocate and plus a user, and I’ve always been a huge connoisseur of cannabis and I’ve always wanted to keep it legal,’ ‘It’s part of my life; I use it for anxiety, I use it for energy. I’m a pretty motivational stoner.’
