n n n ‘. concat(e. i18n. t(“search. voice. recognition_retry”),’n
A Silicon Valley investor’s wedding to an herb site in Utah was bigger than he had originally suggested.
A council member told Business Insider that Andrew Chen misrepresented the scope of the case.
The Bureau of Land Management had to clean up waste and abandoned properties.
A Silicon Valley tech investor and his fiancée, an attractive beauty pageant founder turned artificial intelligence startup, were married in September at the foot of a world-famous herbaceous site in Utah after promising enforcement officials of land that the agreement would be small and simple.
But the fallout from the Labor Day weekend ritual — adding leftover trash and a multi-day cleanup procedure — suggests the couple misrepresented the length and scope of their event, a local council member told Business Insider.
“It’s a lovely place. I don’t blame them for getting married here,” said Pamela Gibson, a councilwoman for nearby Castle Valley. “But whoever was in charge of cleaning up the domain didn’t do the homework they had done. “.
Andrew Chen and former Miss Ireland Emma Waldron tied the knot at the foot of Castleton Tower, a well-known rock formation about 30 minutes from Moab, Utah, over Labor Day weekend, SFGate reported this week.
The couple since then appear to have deleted or made personal all photographic evidence of the event, even though some screenshots and recordings of social media posts from the wedding are still on X.
Chen is the author of a tech newsletter popular with Silicon Valley founders, as well as the general spouse of Andreessen Horowitz, the emerging investor who has subsidized Twitter, Airbnb, Reddit, and Lyft, among others.
He did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The morning after the wedding, Gibson said she went for a walk in her six-mile direction that took her to the base of Castleton Tower, an impressive 400-foot sandstone rock formation.
The pristine herbarium site was occupied by staff dismantling the remains of a wedding the night before, Gibson told Business Insider.
Gibson said he was outraged and took pictures of the remaining trash and damaged glass strewn across the floor.
When he returned the next day to see if the pain was gone, Gibson said much of the trash still remained, as well as bags of food scraps.
“The animals surrendered and tore it apart. Trash everywhere,” he said. “I’m not satisfied with that. “
Gibson wrote a letter to the Bureau of Land Management to inquire about the event and share his photographs.
In an emailed reaction to Gibson and Castle Valley Mayor Jazmine Duncan, received through SFGate, the Bureau of Land Management said Chen and Waldron obtained permission earlier than the occasion to hold a “simple wedding rite with a small white tent” at the foot of the site. . .
But the agency’s rangers had to collect “abandoned property and trash,” according to the outlet, which cited the land control email.
The couple did not mention in their initial communications with the Bureau of Land Management that their “simple” business would also include a generator, food service, restrooms, a 24-foot cabin and a line of glass candles, Gibson wrote in a statement. . reply email to the company received via Business Insider.
“They occupied the base of Castleton Tower and closed the door to the public throughout Labor Day weekend,” Gibson wrote in the email. “If they had been fair and leaked those plans to the BLM, we, the BLM, would not have issued their letter of agreement. “
Gibson and other city officials are now asking the Bureau of Land Management to prevent such receptions in the future.
He told Business Insider that he didn’t need Chen and Waldron to be embarrassed about having their wedding near Castleton Tower; he understands why they would be drawn to a place like that.
“However, it is an event that is beside the point. It shouldn’t have happened like this,” he said.
“It would be great if the couple sent an apology,” Gibson added.
Read the article on Business Insider