Molly Manning, Managing Editor
Maeve Bauer, Spectrum Editor
Richmonders got “Lucky in Love” sharing sweet treats, art, tattoos and more at a Valentine’s Love Market Saturday.
The market —hosted by Lucky in Love Chapel — featured flash tattoos by fine-line and traditional tattoo artist Ryan Machado, who has been tattooing at Heroes and Ghosts in Carytown for two years. He got married at Lucky in Love in October and described his as a “million-dollar wedding for not a million dollars.”
Machado said he immediately offered to help out at any events or tattoo-related needs Lucky in Love had. For the market, he catered to the public with small, “lovey dovey” flash designs ranging for arms and legs in his style of fine line and traditional tattoos.
Other vendors included Field Day Boutique, which packed “pleasure boxes” filled with toys and accessories attendees could customize in addition to the other products they offered.
Photographer Aly Hansen, who photographs many of Lucky in Love’s weddings, took vintage-style polaroids for attendees.
For those who worked up an appetite between their tattoos or live doodles from Destiny Doodles, RVA’s Cake Pop Design Company sold festive pops in flavors like chocolate-covered strawberry and red velvet.
The “Lucky in Love Ladies” — Tia Ballard, Kasie Murphy and Savannah Manzie, all licensed civil celebrants and wedding officiants authorized to perform legal ceremonies in Virginia, created Lucky in Love in June when Ballard and Murphy “married” their individual wedding consulting businesses “Hello Love” and “How Lucky Co.” to open the chapel.
“I think it provides an affordable, unique experience for getting married and it’s inclusive for everyone,” Ballard said. “And we’re right in the middle of the city, so if you’re catching the bus to get married, or if you’re walking from your apartment, or if you’re driving in from Virginia Beach, we’re extremely accessible.”
At Lucky in Love, anyone with a marriage license has the option to book their wedding fully online or even make a same-day appointment for a ceremony that is fully customizable, Ballard said.
Ballard said Lucky in Love is the closest Virginians can get to a Las Vegas wedding without flying to Vegas — the chapel has space for about 20 people.
The market was the first time the chapel opened its doors to the public for an event, but Ballard hopes the market will become an annual tradition and that attendees become acquainted with the local vendors present.
“We get a lot of knocks on our door, but it would be great for us to have a day where we can welcome the city who has brought us so much into our space and just celebrate love, because that is clearly what we’re all about at Lucky In Love,” Ballard said.
One couple that found their way to the Love Market were Andrea Cayasso and Ari Ynovy. The two have been together for over six years and got engaged in November. After hearing about the event on Instagram they wanted to check it out.
“We have heard of the chapel before, and we’ve also heard of Field Day, so it seems super cute, super heart and love,” Cayasso said.
According to Ynovy, they are still figuring out details for their wedding, but Lucky in Love is on their radar as a potential venue.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misspelled Andrea Cayasso’s last name. The story has been updated with the correct spelling.