I cannot stop grinning at the site of these adorable sweeties. It’s clear that they are madly in love, and their wedding? It’s as cute as they come. Both being artists with a love for color, they DIYed their day with an old Hollywood vibe in mind. Mix in blooms of berry pink and pops of orange from The Little Branch and coordination by Orange Blossom Special Events, it’s no surprise this gallery from Lukas & Suzy VanDyke is bursting with happiness.
From the beautiful Bride… The inspiration for our wedding was a celebration of all things we love. Like most couples, we wanted the wedding to feel really us – which is vintage-y, colorful, and artistic. We are both artists (Ryan works as an animator at Cosmic Toast Studios and I work as a designer at Mattel) and lovers of color, so we wanted to infuse our wedding with DIY projects to reflect that. We also wanted to have an old Hollywood vibe so we could share with our guests what we loved about LA.
Our invitations, which I designed, set the tone for our wedding with confetti, gold foil, and glitter! We found ways to incorporate our artwork throughout the celebration, from the illustrated bride and groom buttons for our guests to wear to the cake topper Ryan made that included our beloved pets. I love heart-shaped everything, so our fan programs and confetti were all hearts. Our family and friends literally tossed their love over us during our recessional – it was magical! And as a huge fan of flea markets, I found a vintage pink wicker room divider to use as our altar and over a dozen vintage cake stands for the mini pie dessert station (that went along with a strawberry whipped cream cake from a Chinese bakery as a nod to my heritage).
We’re always in photobooths, so that was a must-have for our wedding – we hired our favorite one that fit our vintage Hollywood vibe perfectly and they did double prints so our guests could leave one in our guestbook. That was our favorite thing at the end of the night, curling up together and reading through all the special notes our family and friends wrote for us.
And of course there was a lot of color! Our favorite colors, pink and orange and gold, were displayed throughout the tassels that we strung up around the venue, and we set up a rainbow vintage soda bar. The Carondelet House is a beautiful space on its own, but we really wanted it to feel like we brought our party into it! Our dinnertime escort cards were gold animals that we DIY’d – we chose safari animals because our first date was to the San Diego Zoo. For my bouquet and our tabletop floral arrangements, I wanted to ombre everything because I love colors organized neatly. Our florist did an amazing job ombre-ing the long dining room from whites and blushes to deep red velvets. Then those arrangements were wrapped up in paper cone bouquets at the end of the night as wedding favors for our guests.
My wedding dress was amazing kismet – I found it before I was even looking for a dress, after a really rough few months of wedding planning. It was hanging at a booth at the flea market, and the kind vendor let me try it on in the public bathroom – and it fit me perfectly! It was the gorgeous 1950s lace and tulle dress of my dreams.
For the ceremony, we wanted to incorporate our artwork in a small way, so we illustrated ourselves on 1.25″ buttons for the bride and grooms’ guests – that way, it’s a fun conversational piece for the guests to start the “are you from the bride or groom’s side?” talk. We also designed and hand-cut our heart-shaped fans (Ann loves everything heart-shaped), and cut and designed our bags of heart- shaped confetti to be tossed during the recessional. There were also frill garlands hanging from the rafters in our favorite colors, pink and orange and gold, two giant balloons with frill that Ryan set up, and a vintage pink wicker room divider we found at a flea market last year.
We wrote our own vows, and since we are both non-religious, we had a reading of our favorite love poem by e.e. cummings, “I carry your heart with me”.
For the bar, we provided a rainbow vintage soda bar instead of usual soda cans. We love vintage sodas, and things arranged by color. Regarding dinner service, our escort cards were on gold animals that we DIY’d (spray painted and primered and spray painted again…). Like most couples, we wanted to have a wedding that felt the most us. We are both artists, lovers of food, color and animals. So with that in mind, we DIY’d a lot of our wedding.
We had our fathers each give toasts before dinner, and then during dinner, Ryan’s sister (who introduced us) and Ann’s college friend each gave toasts. After dinner, our cake was a traditional Chinese strawberry sponge cake, which is one of the few Chinese traditions we included in the wedding. Ann had cakes like this for every birthday growing up. Ryan made the cake toppers, which include our three beloved pets in our day, Oliver, Bettie, and Penny. Then we included a mini pie buffet, since Ryan loves pie, from local baker I Heart Pies.
Photography: Suzy Vandyke | Coordination: Orange Blossom Special Events | Floral Design: THE LITTLE BRANCH | Cake: Phoenix Bakery | Catering: Tres L.A. Catering | Makeup: Kelly Shew | Hair: Chloe Hallenbeck | DJ: DJ Sota Entertainment | Groom's Attire: Ralph Lauren | Wedding Venue: Carondelet House | Photo Booth: Lucky Photo Booth | Pies: I Heart Pies | Veil: ban.do