Arcadia Wedding

Arcadia is a U.S. city in Los Angeles County, California that is located about 20 miles Northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley, at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. It is the site of the Santa Anita Park racetrack and home to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 53,054. The estimate for 2005 is a population of 56,565.

Arcadia's beginnings go back over 3,000 years to the Tongva ("Gabrielino") Indian tribe, whose inhabitants lived all over Southern California. These people were also known as the Gabrielinos, a name taken from the Spanish San Gabriel Mission (in present-day San Gabriel, California), and under whose control these people were enslaved during the mission period in California. Arcadias settlement of these Native Americans was known as Aleupkigna (or Aluupkenga) (McCawley, William. The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles. Malki Museum/Ballena Press, 1996) on what became the Rancho Santa Anita, one of many land grants created during Mexican rule of California (1821-1848). The Gabrielinos were quickly wiped out through a combination of overwork and exposure to "Old World" diseases.