I love this wedding. I love it. Everything about it. I love the pretty pinks paired with the strong, sort of boy-ish/cool backdrop of the Marvimon. I love the bride’s effortless grace. I love the peonies and the handcrafted details and the subtlest of chevron prints sprinkled in here and there, all captured so beautifully by Britt Rene. And I sort of love/hate that it took me twice as long as usual to choose the images to feature because there was literally more goodness than I could wrap my head around, so promise promise promise me that you’ll make a quick pitstop in the gallery to see all of the loveliness for yourself.
And don’t miss the beautiful video from Forrey Films:
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From the Bride… Nick and I knew we needed a unique venue for our wedding. After dating for nearly eight years, we had been to quite a few weddings and didn’t want to do what other friends did. Plus, we aren’t exactly the most traditional couple, so a ballroom or hotel banquet hall would never be our style! When we found Marvimon, we knew it was the place for us! The venue offered a lot of inspiration to our design – with the vertical garden, exposed bricks and high ceilings I knew I wanted to add some touches of softness and romance to balance the feeling of the space. Without doing it too intentionally, my dress turned out to be quite romantic, and the flowers I loved most were also soft and girly (peonies and dahlias in various shades of pink). Besides the venue, our invitations by Umi, which I fell in love with instantly, were the driving forces to all other design elements. The invitations gave me the idea to tie in the use of brown kraft paper and lots of use of the chevron print – even the bridesmaids had chevron rings! I took on quite a few projects myself such as the programs, menus and photo booth backdrop. We also tried to add extra sentiment to the day – a thank you in our programs to our guests and parents, candles being lit for the grandparents who are no longer with us, favorite sweets baked by both sides of the family added to the dessert table and my parents wedding song being played. Another huge part of the wedding that added personality was our music. We attend many concerts each year and always have music playing in our home, so we really wanted every song in our ceremony to have meaning to us. After handpicking each song months before and listening to them often leading up to the big day, by the time the first song started I got chills and knew this was exactly as it should be.
It’s so hard to pick a favorite memory of the day since there were so many but for me, our first look was really special. I am a very emotional person, and I knew I would never be able to get through my vows without having a first look to calm me down. When it was finally time, and I saw Nick facing the other way, I couldn’t reach him fast enough. As soon as I saw him, I was able to cry just a few tears of joy and then was just on cloud nine after that. It was a really intimate, private moment for us, and I loved it. Also, after we exchanged rings, we presented Nick’s daughter with a necklace so that she could have something to symbolize the day. It was a really special moment for the three of us to share.
Advice for other brides: You will hear it a million times, but it really is all about you two. We kept the whole planning process really lighthearted, fun and stress-free. When we would start to get stressed or tense about wedding details, we would stand back and realize why we were doing all this. Having the whole experience be fun and done pretty much all by us made the wedding day even sweeter. It was fun to see each component come together and have the memory of us staying up late to finish certain things together. Mid-reception, my husband actually told me, “All your work really paid off — everything looks beautiful.” It was a wedding created by us, for us!
Wedding Photography: Britt Rene Photo / Wedding Venue: Marvimon in Los Angeles, California / Floral Design: Twig & Twine / Wedding Cinematography: Forrey Films / Desserts: The Sunday Sweet / Wedding Invitations: Umi / DJ: Mo DJ / Getting Ready Venue: The Standard / Wedding Dress: Jorge Manuel / Hair: Ashley Brown of Hush Hush Bang Bang / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: J.Crew