I thought we could start off the day with a wedding that is purely joyful. It’s really the only word that totally represents what this wedding is…with a bride and groom that are literally bursting at the seams with utter happiness. Designed by the always fabulous Amy Nichols and photographed by the incredible Matt and Suzanne of Matthew May Photography, every image makes me smile.
{click here to see the full wedding}
My husband, Laurent, and I met in the 8th grade and were friends for a long time before we started dating in high school. We stayed together in college thanks to frequent flyer miles and daily skype conversations – he was in England and I was in New York. So, even though we’re only 23 and 22, our wedding felt like a long time coming and was all the more joyous for it.
The look we tried to achieve was fresh, romantic, and fun. Our color scheme was butter yellow, white, and pops of hot pink. Preparing for the big day was so much fun and I loved spending way too much time in beautiful stores like Paper Source and talking with my floral designer (Nancy Liu Chin) for inspiration. I had a lot of time on my hands that summer and was able to get really involved and ended up putting together a few fun things myself. I made guest books that doubled as table numbers for every table by wrapping various pretty papers around plain notebooks and numbering them. Guests were able to write letters, poems, half-hourly updates, and draw pictures at the comfort of their table. My brother in-law flew in from Germany with our favorite German gummy bears (made with fruit juice) and we packaged them up in small monogrammed sticker-ed envelopes as guest favors. I made the flag garlands for the altar out of thick wrapping paper (the same as the guest book covers), made and hand wrote all the seating cards with appropriate meal choice stamp-stickers, and put together a large map and asked all the guests to place a pin with their name on it from where they traveled from. I kept a large moleskin notebook with all of my wedding projects and ideas in it which was very useful for keeping myself organized.
The reception was wonderful with delicious food, sweet toast speeches, and some good dancing at the end. But by far the best part of my wedding day was the ceremony itself. Laurent and the officiant (who was also my uncle) and my bridesmaids walked to the ceremony site with “Green Eyes” by Coldplay playing and I walked in with my father to “Do you remember?” by Jack Johnson. Both songs have been important to us as a couple and when the first chords of “Do you remember?” started playing, Laurent told me he got choked up before he even saw me! I was so excited and smiling so hard that my face started shaking (no one else noticed but I was sure my smile was about to jump off my face!) Our parents did readings and Laurent and I said traditional vows in addition to writing our own vows. I told myself I wouldn’t cry but when he read his vows to me and started getting teary-eyed and then I heard both our moms crying…I lost it. I never thought I was a corny person, but now I know I am because the only way to describe it is absolute joy. After we were pronounced man and wife we danced down the aisle to “Are you gonna be my girl?” by Jet and our wedding party, parents, grandparents, and great grandparents followed.
Venue: Cavallo Point (ceremony & reception) / Planner: Amy Nichols / Floral Designer: Nancy Liu Chin / Photographer: Matthew May Photography / Cake: Studio Cake / Makeup: Wow Pretty