The glamour of staging a wedding in a far-flung locale does not necessarily have to involve chartering private jets or commandeering entire hotels. Victoria Miller and Lance Pereira took their wedding guests to Morocco for a night – without ever leaving downtown Los Angeles.

For Victoria and Lance it was important that their guests be incorporated into the wedding experience and not just be observers, that the day be special for everyone and not just for the bride and groom. They realized that a great way to do this would be to plan a destination wedding without the hassles of travel. Pulling this off required finding the ideal location, and the Figueroa Hotel could not have suited their needs more perfectly. Stepping through the doors of the Figueroa is like stepping straight into North Africa, and there isn’t a corner or crevice that doesn’t boast an exotic detail that supports the fantasy of being transported to an expatriate outpost in Marrakech or Casablanca. Having unearthed their perfect location, the couple got busy. Once they decided to get married, they wanted to do it right away, and took only two months to plan their wedding.

Victoria and Lance had a traditional Jewish ceremony, officiated by a rabbi, in the hotel’s Rabat Room. The floral design incorporated the rich jewel tones of the room and the reds, oranges, and burgundies of the desert sky at sunset. Candles everywhere helped create an appropriate old-world feeling. The huppah, the Jewish wedding canopy, was made of burgundy Moroccan fabric embroidered with silver flowers, its poles adorned with jewel-toned roses. The seven wedding blessings usually bestowed upon the bride and groom by the rabbi were read aloud by friends and relatives, another way to incorporate guests into the event and to make an ancient tradition more personal. Victoria recalls the exhilaration she felt when she entered the ceremony space and saw her parents waiting to walk her down the aisle to Lance, surrounded by familiar and loving faces.

In keeping with their idea of a destination wedding in one location, the newlyweds kept the party moving. After the ceremony, guests moved outside to the pool area for cocktails, then re-entered the Rabat Room that had been turned to accommodate the sit-down dinner of ethnic cuisine including lamb and couscous. Floral arrangements surrounded Moroccan lanterns, and halfway through the meal two belly dancers performed, an apropos enhancement of the theme. Wedding cake was served and the unique favors – a CD of Lance and Victoria’s favorite songs that best typified their relationship – were passed out.

At this point in most receptions, the party is winding down. But not at this wedding: Victoria rang a large bell and gave a shout out to everyone who was ready to party to follow her. She and Lance led over 100 guests through the hotel lobby and down stairs strewn with rose petals and lit by more Moroccan lanterns to the Club Fes, a “casbahlike” club. The intrepid partygoers had no choice but to be entertained by what awaited them there. They could dance to the percussive beat of a DJ and four live drummers. They could sip mint tea and indulge in Moroccan sweets. They could get henna tattoos from hired artists. Or they could simply soak up the ambience and pretend that once outside it would be camels and not cars that would carry them home.

The newlyweds traded their wedding illusions of travel for a real honeymoon trip to Thailand. But marriage itself is a journey, and Victoria and Lance invited their wedding guests to take the first step with them in a manner limited only by their own imagination.