Today we’d like to introduce you to David Hahn.
Hi David, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I can point to 9/11 that sparked the unlikely journey from selling homes in the Hollywood Hills to hosting weddings in the Texas Hill Country. I had just adopted two amazing little boys from an orphanage outside Kharkiv, Ukraine a few months before when the real estate industry came to a standstill overnight after the day that changed everything. Feeling the pressure of now having to provide for a family, I pivoted to floral & event design for which it turned out that I had a knack for. Within a year, I had designed flowers for the celebrity lounges at the SAG Awards and American Idol and was featured among Hollywood’s top floral designers by Los Angeles Magazine, L.A. Confidential, Details and elite interior designer, Jonathan Wong, in his book ‘Flowers That Wow’. Eventually, I became the exclusive event designer for luxury car brand, Audi, travelling the world, designing their lifestyle events such as parties, media launches and executive events from Aspen to the Cayman Islands. It was an incredible opportunity to travel with my team of handpicked designers from all over the country and spend days or even weeks at a time in some of the most exclusive venues and resorts in the world, whether amidst a priceless car collection in the Silicon Valley or at a haunted mansion on the Hudson River in Upstate New York. By the time my boys were graduating high school, the demands of the job, such as flying back and forth from L.A. to D.C. in a single day for a simple site visit, began to wear on my well-being, and I longed for a more ‘normal’ life. I had the idea to take all those years producing events in the most rare and idyllic locations in the world and create my own wedding & event venue. It took two more years of searching for the perfect property that checked all the boxes; location, logistics, beauty. I knew I had found it the moment I drove onto ranch and spent two more years, with my sons by my side, building the celebration venue that continues to exceed every dream. It’s simply the perfect wedding & event venue. After over ten years of countless successful weddings and overjoyed couples, King River Ranch is truly a place where so many dreams come true.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Going from Beverly Hills High School to unloading hay in rural Texas had challenges for my boys initially, but it was some of the happiest years of our lives. We worked morning until night, seven days a week, for five years; two years building the venue, then three years of perfectly executed weddings. The non-stop nature of starting a wedding & event business was grinding, but the ranch is simply the ideal venue as I had predicted when I saw it for the first time. In over a decade, we have never had an unhappy client, which is remarkable in the wedding industry. The pandemic hit in 2020 which upended the event world from which it is still recovering. We were forced to close for almost a year and contend with the aftermath of having to reschedule so many weddings and abiding by all the restrictions once public gatherings began to resume. It made me reevaluate everything that is important, like so many others, and the result was our transition from bigger and better weddings to smaller and more intimate affairs such as micro-weddings and elopements.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I began as a floral and event designer since 2003 in Los Angeles and San Diego. In 2008, I was asked to travel the country designing the lifestyle events for Audi of America which included florals, lighting, furniture, linens/glassware/silverware, etc. Even for the smallest executive dinner it was always quite a production. The event programs could be anywhere in the world, and the challenges and pressures of having to adapt to each situation, often in a city or location we had never been, while representing the face of a world-class brand, became just part of the job. One week, we could be loading flowers and furniture into a gondola going to the top of an Aspen mountain, and the next, we could be craning an Audi Spider to the top of the hotel on the Sunset Strip. We had one mantra: It had to get done, it had to get done right, no matter what. That is the heart and nature of weddings and events. Shortly before I began working with Audi, my house and design studio burned to the ground, with me and my children inside. The firefighters left in the early morning, and we had lost everything, even our shoes, literally barely making it out alive. But all I could think about was that the flowers for an event the next day for Scripps Hospital. We arrived at the flower market as soon as it opened, still covered in ash and soot, and rebought all the flowers. We barely made it to the Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla and installed all the flowers, wearing flip=flops borrowed from neighbors, still looking like nuclear holocaust survivors. I heard later that the guests to the event were told my story, and we were given a standing ovation. You get it done, you get it done right, no matter what.
What makes you happy?
I heard once that happiness is when you align with the vibration of our dreams and desires, which you can only find when you know who you are authentically. It’s creation that makes us happy. I am a suicide hotline counselor for LGBTQ youth, and after years of hearing these kids on the edge, their hopelessness is always rooted in some grown up telling them that their dreams and desires don’t matter. Be authentic, be loving, just be.
Pricing:
- RIVERSIDE PROMENADE (half-day) $2,750
- HILL COUNTRY REVERIE (full-day) $4,500
- KING’S CHOICE BUNDLE (full-day + overnight) $5,250
- ELOPEMENTS (Mon-Thurs) $950
- OVERNIGHT STAY (up to 20) $1,200 average
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thekingriverranch.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kingriverranch/
