As an Editor at Style Me Pretty, my job is to talk about beautiful weddings. To tell you all about the gorgeous details, the heartwarming moments and the love-filled memories filling our galleries. But every once in awhile, I stumble upon a wedding that touches my soul in such a way, that I find myself unable to speak. This is one of those weddings. A speech-defying backyard affair that is literally overflowing with pretty. See every last amazing moment (and there are many) captured by Michelle Kristine right here in the full gallery.
From Michelle Kristine… I’m so thrilled to share Dave and Simona’s intimate backyard wedding. I cant even try to articulate how exciting it was to watch them join their lives together. I think their reception could possibly go down in my history books as one of the most quaint, intimate, and darling little parties. I won’t lie, the decor and the setting REALLY made it for me, and theirs was just so many shades of right! Rain usually scares people away from having outdoor receptions, but I was glad that Dave and Simona braved the risks involved and pulled of a stellar backyard reception complete with yard games, a photo booth, and some delicious food! To top it off, the parents toasts were so extraordinary. Simona’s mom, only knowing very broken English, gave a tear jerking toast in Latvian, leaving all of us in tears.
There’s not much else I can say about this wedding other than the fact that I was just overflowing with joy for these two the entire day. To watch them singing “Great is Thy Faithfulness” at the top of their lungs, was almost enough to make me bawl my eyes out. I’m convinced that I have the one of the coolest jobs in the world. To capture that excitement and anticipation for an exciting life ahead of them is such a special thing to be apart of.
From the Bride and Groom… Our main goal of our wedding day was to celebrate God’s goodness and faithfulness in our lives and share it with others. We wanted an atmosphere where everybody would feel welcomed as a family member. Since Dave and I both attend the same church, we had no doubt that we wanted to have our church family to take part in the joy of joining our lives together and have them witness how God has brought two people from two different continents together here in Florida.
All the help with wedding details, its preparation, and the outcome was done by our church family, which we are greatly thankful for. We both wanted a simple, yet classy wedding that would reflect the timeless traditions of a sacred occasion. All people who were involved no matter how big or small the task was, showed the love that we share for each other and most of all for Jesus Christ. Now looking back on our big day, we now see that everything was even better than what we had hoped for!
Before the wedding we both agreed that we would not see each other until the ceremony. Even though our wedding was in the afternoon and it seemed a long time to wait till we could actually see each other, it was so worth it! We took pictures separately, exchanged letters to each other and took time to reflect on what we have learned in our relationship and the privilege and joy of joining our lives together. It was definitely one of the most beautiful moments when we finally saw each other!
Even though all weddings are about the new couple we wanted to have Christ in the center of everything we did. We also wanted our guests to feel comfortable and loved. Our cupcake reception right after the ceremony was made with the thought in mind to have great fellowship while we were taking some pictures with our immediate family. Our guests were able to enjoy over 250 cupcakes (8 flavors) made by the ladies from our church and ice cream with different toppings. Many decorations such as jars, driftwood, moss, table runners, silk flowers came from church and others we borrowed from some of our friends’ personal collections. Both Dave and I love simple style, clean lines, uncluttered spaces so we wanted to keep it that way in our wedding as well. Our main two colors were coral and grey which let us use many spring flowers and other materials from nature.
Since Dave is a graphic designer it was no doubt that we wanted to design our own invitations, RSVP cards, ceremony programs and table cards. We wanted to create a clean and refreshing look with thoughtful intentionality to both graphical and physical elements in the wedding. We also wanted consistency in our design elements. Dave made a logo and a set style that was applied to all of our print and video materials. This helped create an engaging and robust experience.
All projects for our wedding were made by us or our friends. We wanted to have a very relaxing atmosphere during our dinner reception where people could walk around, take pictures in our photo booth or play yard games. One of the coolest DIY projects was a dozen wooden flower boxes that were made out of an old fence. Our dinner reception was in our church pastor’s back yard so it was great to help them to clean up their backyard by making these flower boxes. Since the reception was outside we wanted to incorporate as much as possible from what was already found in nature. All our decorations (flower arrangements, boxes, white table, cloths, grey seersucker table runner) were there only to enhance what was already there not to take away. All flowers came from Whole Foods Market and all arrangements (including bouquets for bridesmaids and bride, boutonnieres) were arranged by our friends. We had coral colored roses, pincushions, seeded eucalyptus, lime colored and coral hypernicum, baby’s breath for our flower arrangements.
Bags and boards for the corn hole game were made by Dave’s dad who is an incredible engineer and can make anything work. All photo booth props were hand-made, inspired by different ideas from other parties. All our Welcome signs, dinner menu board, game and photo booth signs were on black chalkboard that was cut out and hand painted by our friends.
In Latvia where I grew up (a country in North-Eastern part of Europe) there is a tradition to decorate a newlywed’s car with flowers and ribbons. My mom and her husband did an amazing job to decorate our car with flowers that were made out of silk ribbon. Our church aisle was decorated with flowers made by my mom as well.
Our wedding favor was a special chocolate from Latvia wrapped in brown paper and tied with white string almost looking like a little parcel that had traveled oversees.
Photography: Michelle Kristine | Flowers: Whole Foods Market Preston | Bride's Shoes: Banana Republic | Groomsmen Tie's: J.Crew | Grooms Suit: Macy's | Groomsmen Suits: Macy's | Bride's Dress: David's Bridal | Bride's Hair: Salon Joli | Bridesmaid's Bracelets: Francesca's | Bridesmaid's Dresses & Shoes: David's Bridal | DIY Materials & Crafts: Michaels | DIY Materials & Crafts: Crafts&Stuff | DIY Materials & Crafts: Joann Fabrics | Groomsmen Socks: Richer-Poorer