First Pick Planning captured the spirit of this adorable couple to a T for their summer celebration. From the frozen yogurt bar to their playful pooch, this wedding radiates the couple’s fun loving personality and after going through Cameron Leung‘s fabulous photos, I’m convinced these were some fun festivities as well. Taking a cue from this couple, I encourage you “treat yo self” and dive into these goodies below.
| Share this gorgeous gallery on | |
From The Bride…Paul and I met in our Engineering Calculus class in college. We chatted often after class, spent hours talking over the phone, and played many games of pool together. We remained good friends throughout our college years, but as time wore on, we lost contact with each other. It wasn’t until after college and well into our careers that we met up again. It was over a sushi dinner with one of my sorority sisters, Susan, that Paul came into the picture. She asked me if I remembered him, which I did, and she pushed me to call him right then and plan a dinner date. “He’s available,” she insisted. We met up the following Friday, April 1st for a casual dinner as friends. We talked the night away, reminisced over our college days, and as they say, the rest is history.
We started planning our future together a few years ago. We dreamed of purchasing and renovating a house, tying the knot, and moving into our home after we were married. As our plans were developing and running their course, my father passed away. My family is very close and his death was unexpected. We put our plans on hold. Two years later, Paul and I revisited our plans, purchased and renovated our home, and continued dreaming together. He asked for my mom’s blessing and gave me a beautiful opal engagement ring he designed/customized on an AutoCAD and had created by our jeweler. It was perfect.
Our wedding was a culmination of our nine years together. We wanted a beautiful backdrop to the most epic day of our lives and Rancho Providencia delivered. We visited the venue during the day and at night. It was absolutely breathtaking and magical. Rancho Providencia truly fulfilled our vision of an outdoor garden wedding. Our wedding colors of coral, yellow, and gold complimented the venue perfectly. As a wedding photographer, selecting vendors I have known for many years, such as our photographers, Cameron and Tracy of Cameron Leung Photography, and our wedding planner, Jen of First Pick Planning, was a no-brainer. Seeing their beautiful faces on our wedding day was so awesome!
My little crafty heart sang throughout the wedding process and every detail was so fun to make. I started with the invitations and enlisted my sister, Sonia Mae, to help. I wanted the invitations to be unique and set the tone for our beautiful garden wedding. Sonia Mae illustrated the wedding logo and full invitation suite by hand. I loved how she drew the flowers and hearts! I also calligraphed our names and a couple of elements on the invitation as well for her to add to the design. I scoured estate sales for vintage handkerchiefs and postcards of Yosemite. Throughout my childhood, my family and I would spend many summers in Yosemite and it was the perfect touch to personalize our RSVP cards. I created a stamp of the invitation, RSVP card, and wedding logo and spent a couple of nights stamping and crafting the invitations piece by piece. I also ordered 5×7 invitation cards from Wedding Paper Divas with our wedding website written on them to hold everything together. My sister, Darah, and cousin, Dawnabelle, helped package and quality check everything. I’ll never forget all the work and help they provided to make our wedding so memorable. I loved getting the RSVP’s back in the mail! Some guests even RSVP’d over the phone instead so they could keep it!
I loved my wedding dress from the minute I saw it and it was the first dress I tried on. My wedding dress was designed by Monique Lhuillier and holds a special place in my heart as we are both from Cebu, Philippines. I wore my mom’s vintage diamond jewelry as my “something borrowed.” My mom and sisters wore bright coral dresses from J.Crew and gold Kate Spade clutches. My bouquet was wrapped in the same lace as my wedding dress and hung a locket with my dad’s picture on it. I loved how the coral rose and peony bouquets looked with the gold and white ribbons cascading from it. Everything matched perfectly with the colors of the wedding.
Along with the vision of a beautiful garden wedding, Paul and I wanted to keep our wedding simple and decided to forgo some of the traditions. We had a first look and it was so special to start the day off with him by my side. We kept our wedding party small – my two sisters were my maids of honor and Raven, our pup, was his best dog. Paul also walked down the aisle with Raven. Seeing them both as I walked down the aisle with my mom meant so much to me. Our ceremony was simple. We honored my father in the wedding script. Paul surprised me with a gorgeous wedding ring instead of a wedding band during our ring exchange. We also took time during the ceremony to thank everyone around us. It was such a beautiful ceremony.
From the “Let’s Do This” sign to our photobooth backdrop, we incorporated a little bit of our personalities in each detail of our wedding ceremony and reception. My mom’s famous rice krispie treats were individually wrapped with our logo tag attached and placed at each table setting. We danced to “You are the best thing” by Ray LaMontagne and ended the night with “Poison” by Bel Biv Devoe. We surprised our guests with our favorite date night treat and had Yogurtland catered. We cut into our tasty cake from Magnolia Bakery. I topped it off with a customized a vintage cake topper I inherited from my photographer’s parents. Our cake servers, knife, and forks were customized by my sorority sister, Lindsay Mills of Made by Mills. Similar to our wedding invitation, the cake server included my favorite quote from E.E. Cummings, “I carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart).”
It was bittersweet without my dad there but we were incredibly grateful to be surrounded with so much love and support as we committed our lives to each other. Those memories we will carry with us and remember fondly for years to come.
Photography: Cameron Leung Photography | Videographer: Herman Au Photography | Coordinator: First Pick Planning | Floral Design: Flower Blush | Wedding Dress: Monique Lhuillier | Cake: Magnolia Bakery | Invitations: Lizzi Photography | Catering: DJ's Catering | Makeup: Melissa Abad Makeup | DJ: DJCarpeDM | Officiant: Officiant Eric | Ceremony & Reception Venue: Rancho Providencia | Dessert: Yogurtland | Personalized Silverware: Made By Mills | Rentals: DJ's Catering | Rentals: Sparkles And Vintage
Join The Conversation
favorite (0) share share (0) pin (0)
