Romantic Santa Monica Wedding with Pops of Pink
Have you ever been in a long distance relationship? Speaking from experience, it's certainly not for the faint of heart, but this duo? They endured a 7 year span together proving that distance only makes the heart grow fonder. Their forever began in Santa Monica with Ryon: Lockhart Photography behind the lens. From the hanging lanterns, to walls filled with succulents, it's a day dressed up in dreams and you can see it all in The Vault!
From the beautiful Bride... Ryan and I met during our sophomore year at UCLA (go Bruins!) when we lived on the same floor. My version of the story is that when we first started dating, I was studying abroad that summer so it wasn't my intention to be in a very serious relationship. I loved spending time with him and getting to know him but I thought, “OK, when I leave for Rome in 2 months, we’ll break things off.” To my surprise, it is now 9 years later and we’re still very much together, in fact, married! That summer laid the foundation for the future because for majority of our relationship, we have been apart more than we have been together. Ryan moved to Seattle for work shortly after we graduated and we’ve been doing long distance for the last 7 years. Even though long distance can be difficult at times, it hasn’t stopped us from being together. We continued to create memories and make plans for the future. If anything, I think it has made us stronger together and as individuals.
Within days after we got engaged, I was ready to start planning our wedding because I had been pinning ideas on Pinterest for years before Ryan proposed. He knew how much the wedding meant to me and since he wasn't in LA, he let me plan most of it. All he wanted to know was what color his suit should be and when to show up. And so the wedding planning began! Ryan and I consider ourselves very casual easy-going people and we love being outdoors so one of the things I knew early on was that I wanted an outdoor wedding with bistro lighting. Maybe we could get married at a beautiful vineyard, a gorgeous rustic barn, or in a luscious forest. There were so many options so I spent countless hours researching venues. I think we visited 10 venues before we came across Tiato. Prior to visiting it, I had never heard of it but within minutes, I realized it was a hidden gem in Santa Monica and fell in love with the place. They had a beautiful outdoor space with a big tree that had hanging lanterns, walls filled with succulents, hedges with twinkling lights, and a small garden where they grew herbs that they used in their food. The inside of the restaurant had a modern open space mixed with beautiful light fixtures and wooden wine barrels. I knew this was the ideal place for us! Ryan could hear the excitement in my voice and trusted my decision so I secured the venue before he even had a chance to visit the site himself. Once we found our venue, everything else came together effortlessly because it laid the blue print for the rest of our wedding. Ryan and I found amazing vendors to be a part of our special day. One of my closest friends, Helen Tao was our florist/wedding coordinator, and we were fortunate enough to find Ryon: Lockhart Photography to document our big day, and through them, we found the awesome DJ Dos-A who kept the fun going all night long! Until this day, one of my favorite memories from that night was when my dad decided to slide across the dance floor on his knees and everyone cheered him on.
Whenever we reminisce about that special day, we always get a warm tingly feeling in our hearts because we felt so loved that night. We are forever thankful to our friends, family, and amazing wedding vendors for all of their love and support. Our wedding day was truly one of the best days of our lives.
Within days after we got engaged, I was ready to start planning our wedding because I had been pinning ideas on Pinterest for years before Ryan proposed. He knew how much the wedding meant to me and since he wasn't in LA, he let me plan most of it. All he wanted to know was what color his suit should be and when to show up. And so the wedding planning began! Ryan and I consider ourselves very casual easy-going people and we love being outdoors so one of the things I knew early on was that I wanted an outdoor wedding with bistro lighting. Maybe we could get married at a beautiful vineyard, a gorgeous rustic barn, or in a luscious forest. There were so many options so I spent countless hours researching venues. I think we visited 10 venues before we came across Tiato. Prior to visiting it, I had never heard of it but within minutes, I realized it was a hidden gem in Santa Monica and fell in love with the place. They had a beautiful outdoor space with a big tree that had hanging lanterns, walls filled with succulents, hedges with twinkling lights, and a small garden where they grew herbs that they used in their food. The inside of the restaurant had a modern open space mixed with beautiful light fixtures and wooden wine barrels. I knew this was the ideal place for us! Ryan could hear the excitement in my voice and trusted my decision so I secured the venue before he even had a chance to visit the site himself. Once we found our venue, everything else came together effortlessly because it laid the blue print for the rest of our wedding. Ryan and I found amazing vendors to be a part of our special day. One of my closest friends, Helen Tao was our florist/wedding coordinator, and we were fortunate enough to find Ryon: Lockhart Photography to document our big day, and through them, we found the awesome DJ Dos-A who kept the fun going all night long! Until this day, one of my favorite memories from that night was when my dad decided to slide across the dance floor on his knees and everyone cheered him on.
Whenever we reminisce about that special day, we always get a warm tingly feeling in our hearts because we felt so loved that night. We are forever thankful to our friends, family, and amazing wedding vendors for all of their love and support. Our wedding day was truly one of the best days of our lives.
