You know what I love? COLOR; loads of it. You know what this wedding has a plethora of? Pretty pastel hues; loads of them. And with styling by A Little Love and Lace and perfect picture capturing by We Heart Photography, it’s turned this pastel parade into one pretty perfect, pretty awesome, pretty holy-cow you need to see the full gallery kind of an affair. One that we are welcoming with open arms. See it all right here.
From the Bride… The main thing that I wanted was for the day to be meaningful to Mychal and I and for the décor, etc. to represent who we were. Therefore, even though neither of us still lived in San Diego, it was important for Mychal and I to have our wedding there, it was where we met, where we went to school and where we call home. I feel so blessed to have gone to PLNU, so it was important for me to have the ceremony on campus. For my inspiration I mixed our love for nature with our love for history and my love for vintage style. The colors of my wedding were inspired by wildflowers — I just wanted to incorporate all of the beautiful muted colors that you see in the countryside. My bouquets were all wildflowers, and we lined the aisle with dried larkspur. I had my bridesmaids pick out there own vintage-style dresses in those muted wildflower colors. The reception was held at the Darlington House, where the architecture, tiled patios and furniture reminded me of the European countries where I had spent a decade of my life. The centerpieces were vintage soda bottles filled with wildflowers and antique, cloth-bound books that I had collected. Mychal and I love to read and to learn — one of our goals is to have a floor-to-ceiling library in our house someday.
The wedding door was a huge DIY project that my parents, my close family friends and I all slaved over the week of the wedding. They built it and painted it, while my mom and I built the sign that went on top out of thick sailing rope. It read “God makes beautiful things out of us,” which is a line from my favorite worship song, “Beautiful Things” by Gungor. This idea is really important to me because it highlights how God is able to take us as we are, then mold us and transform us with his love into something beautiful. The idea of opening and closing doors and having a threshhold to walk through was also significant to me. We plan on keeping this as a memento and turning it into the centerpiece of our garden. Other than that we were working on an extreme budget, so we collected the bottles and the books, and I bought our flowers from a wholesale market and gave them to Colleen Demchak, who turned them into the gorgeous bouquets that they were. We chose to have rustic pies instead of a wedding cake because for my family every holiday and celebration isn’t complete with out a fresh, flaky blackberry or apple pie. I wanted the reception to have a comfortable, familial feel.
My favorite moment was hearing the speech that was written by my triplet brother, Ian, who is deployed overseas with the Navy. It made me feel like he was standing right there with us that day instead of being so far away. And dancing with my dad — he gave me some loving advice for the future. My advice for other brides is to hire a wedding day coordinator. It will take the stress off of your family, and most importantly, you will go into the wedding day with the attitude that YOU ARE GETTING MARRIED and nothing else is that important. Just go with the flow and enjoy your day. You are surrounded by the people you love, and you want it to be an amazing day for everyone!
Wedding Photography: We Heart Photography / Ceremony: The Alumni Lawn at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California / Reception: Darlington House in La Jolla, California / Wedding Coordination + Floral Design: Colleen Demchak of A Little Love and Lace / Catering: California Cuisine / Pies: Bonerts’s Pies / Wedding Dress: Rivini / Hair + Makeup: Aveda