If you hear wedding bells in the air, it’s probably October. If it’s not wedding bells, marauding bachelorette parties and/or overbooked caterers are your next clues. At Desert Magazine, we decided to honor that tradition with this Fall 2025 issue.
Greater Palm Springs is a major wedding destination in March, October, and November, according to Michelle Garibay, owner of Michelle Garibay Events – one of the premier wedding planners in Southern California. “It’s the most popular among my clients … [because] Palm Springs has its own personality,” Garibay says.
I can attest to this. My wife and I got married in Palm Springs on Oct. 19, 2014. We lived in a converted church outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the time. Though that might sound fortuitous for wedding planning, Santa Fe was a tiny town that simply would not work for the 100-plus people on our guest list. However, a poll among family and friends proved that everyone would come celebrate with us in Palm Springs at the drop of a hat.
That was more than fine with us. I’d fallen in love with the Valley when I first visited in the early 1990s. A friend had inherited a large estate in Old Las Palmas, and she offered it as the site for our reception. That sealed the deal.
The choices we made were pretty classic for out-of-towners. Our rehearsal dinner was at the Ace Hotel, where many of our guests stayed. Saturday morning hikes at the Lykken Trail were organized, and a bachelor lunch was held at Le Vallauris. We were married at Palm Springs Presbyterian Church. Sunday brunch for approximately half of the guests who remained consisted of trays of blintzes, lokshen kugel, and bagel platters from Sherman’s Deli & Bakery.
Our expectations were high – and they were exceeded. Though many of the details were awesome (who doesn’t love a specialty cocktail station?), our desert oasis was the star of the show. I remember that several times, we detached ourselves from our guests during the reception and went up to the roof terrace to take in the view of Mount San Jacinto and the sea of palm trees that surrounded us. The weather was perfect, the air felt intoxicating, and the soft light at sunset was unspeakably romantic.
I had a word for it and found that many of our friends and family members used the same word: magic
