Colorful + Romantic Fairytale Inspired Wedding in Novato
Give a girl and handful of Huckleberry Karen Designs and she's bound to rock a smile so big it's contagious. Take this beautiful Bride sitting in THE VAULT as example! With Glowingly Events on hand, those colorful blooms aren't the end of this fairytale pretty from Jasmine Lee Photography. Sharing every moment of matrimonial bliss (like that donut bar!) was IQ Videography and it's all waiting below!
From The Bride...Tommy and I met working in video games together in 2009, and we quickly developed a relationship that was built upon video games (naturally), 90s hip-hop and R&B and pop music, humor, and all things Disney. After 5 years of dating, Tommy planned the most elaborate surprise engagement for me last August, where he orchestrated a live lip-sync of "Love is an Open Door" from Frozen with 70 of my friends and family. Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMw08iqCJhM. Our engagement was filled with so much fun, thoughtfulness, and love from our closest friends and family. And naturally, that became the springboard for what we wanted for our wedding to be.
Our wedding day on August 1st was a dream come true. Not only did I get to marry my best friend, but all of our closest family and friends were in the same place at the same time; and our wedding was filled with so many elements and details that truly and uniquely represented us and our relationship. My event designer and planner, Gloria from Glowingly Events, said it best. She mentioned that people often feel like they have to follow certain rules when wedding planning, which sometimes leads to sacrifices in special and unique elements. In our case, we worked with Glowingly and all our loved ones to find a way to incorporate everything that mattered to us. Everything from our bridal party to the ceremony, reception, music, and more all had an incredible amount of personalization. We sourced decor from multiple places, held DIY days with friends to hand-write signs and craft table decor, and much more. Our wedding details reflected the importance of family and friends; our love of sci-fi, fantasy, and Disney; food; entertainment; and humor. The best part was that even though we mixed so many different interests (for example - we combined our love of Star Wars with our our love of Lord of the Rings), everything tastefully came together in a cohesive and elegant way, which you can see in the stunning photos and video that Jasmine Lee Photography and IQ Videography captured.
Starting with our bridal party, Tommy and I both have really important people of the opposing gender in our lives. So rather than just solely bridesmaids and groomsmen, we had mix-gender bridal parties. Tommy had his 2 sisters and 4 guy friends on his side; I had my 4 girlfriends, brother, and best guy friend on mine. Rather than having the same dresses for all the ladies, I wanted a mix-and-match look. So the groomsmaids and bridesmaids wore different colors from each other; each girl had a different dress; but they all had a similar look and feel that complemented each other.
Our ceremony was incredibly magical. Because we're huge Disney fans and the fact that we had a Frozen-themed engagement, Gloria helped us come up with the idea of getting married in front of beautiful, open french doors as a subtle nod to the song, "Love is an Open Door". To make our ceremony even more intimate, we had one of our great friends officiate our wedding, and he was able to infuse many personal anecdotes into the ceremonial flow. We also hired a guitar and bass duo to play acoustic versions of our favorite songs. Because we're devout fantasy fans, our processional song was "Concerning Hobbits" (The Shire music) from Lord of the Rings. Then bringing it back in true Disney fashion, my bridal entrance music was a romantic version of "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid. To end it all and tie everything together, our recessional was "Love is an Open Door" from Frozen. As we walked down the aisle, in lieu of flower petals, guests showered us in paper confetti hearts from Harry Potter (one of my favorite books), and we truly felt like we were in a fairytale. One last unique ceremony element was that rather than having a unity candle during the ceremony, we came up with the idea of a taking our first silly "unity selfie" as husband and wife to solidify the continuation of laughter and joy in our years to come.
After the ceremony and cocktail hour, guests picked up hand-rolled scrolls that contained a personalized, hand-drawn map of "Jenn & Tommy's Kingdom", which helped them find their seat. Each guest table was named after something in four of our favorite movies and books: Lord of the Rings, Disney, Star Wars, and Harry Potter. Prior to the wedding, we had prepped a fun lip-sync video to Carly Rae Jepsen's "I Really Like You" with all of our bridal party to be used for our grand entrance. That video (link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwz9YPUHIGk) played on TV screens as we all were introduced into the reception, and we ended it with a live choreographed dance with the bridal party. As we hit the dance floor, we were under the most gorgeous centerpiece in the room. Gloria helped us design a huge lantern display with Impact Lighting that was inspired by another Disney movie, Tangled. We continued on with our first dance to an acoustic version of Sam Smith's "Latch", which was performed live by 3 of our close friends: a singer, pianist, and cellist.
Throughout the night, we enjoyed delicious food, many laughs, and great company. Because we put selfie sticks on every table, everyone had a blast taking photos with each other. In addition to our cake, we also had a dessert table for our guests to enjoy that featured desserts from our favorite places in the Bay Area as well as delicious homemade desserts, which included my mother-in-law's renown strawberry pizza and our family friend's addictive rice krispy treats. As a perfect end to a night full of things we love, about 50 of us gathered in a circle on the dance floor, held hands, and sang in unison to the last song, "All My Life" by K-Ci and Jojo, one of our favorite slow songs growing up.
Needless to say, no other day has come close to the amount happiness and love we felt on this day. Our wedding was exactly what we envisioned - nerdtastic, fun, personal, intimate, rustic, and so beautiful. Things didn't all go according to planned. But in our eyes, none of that mattered and everything was more than perfect since we got to be ourselves, combine everything that we loved, and throw an amazing party for the people that are most important in our lives.
Our wedding day on August 1st was a dream come true. Not only did I get to marry my best friend, but all of our closest family and friends were in the same place at the same time; and our wedding was filled with so many elements and details that truly and uniquely represented us and our relationship. My event designer and planner, Gloria from Glowingly Events, said it best. She mentioned that people often feel like they have to follow certain rules when wedding planning, which sometimes leads to sacrifices in special and unique elements. In our case, we worked with Glowingly and all our loved ones to find a way to incorporate everything that mattered to us. Everything from our bridal party to the ceremony, reception, music, and more all had an incredible amount of personalization. We sourced decor from multiple places, held DIY days with friends to hand-write signs and craft table decor, and much more. Our wedding details reflected the importance of family and friends; our love of sci-fi, fantasy, and Disney; food; entertainment; and humor. The best part was that even though we mixed so many different interests (for example - we combined our love of Star Wars with our our love of Lord of the Rings), everything tastefully came together in a cohesive and elegant way, which you can see in the stunning photos and video that Jasmine Lee Photography and IQ Videography captured.
Starting with our bridal party, Tommy and I both have really important people of the opposing gender in our lives. So rather than just solely bridesmaids and groomsmen, we had mix-gender bridal parties. Tommy had his 2 sisters and 4 guy friends on his side; I had my 4 girlfriends, brother, and best guy friend on mine. Rather than having the same dresses for all the ladies, I wanted a mix-and-match look. So the groomsmaids and bridesmaids wore different colors from each other; each girl had a different dress; but they all had a similar look and feel that complemented each other.
Our ceremony was incredibly magical. Because we're huge Disney fans and the fact that we had a Frozen-themed engagement, Gloria helped us come up with the idea of getting married in front of beautiful, open french doors as a subtle nod to the song, "Love is an Open Door". To make our ceremony even more intimate, we had one of our great friends officiate our wedding, and he was able to infuse many personal anecdotes into the ceremonial flow. We also hired a guitar and bass duo to play acoustic versions of our favorite songs. Because we're devout fantasy fans, our processional song was "Concerning Hobbits" (The Shire music) from Lord of the Rings. Then bringing it back in true Disney fashion, my bridal entrance music was a romantic version of "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid. To end it all and tie everything together, our recessional was "Love is an Open Door" from Frozen. As we walked down the aisle, in lieu of flower petals, guests showered us in paper confetti hearts from Harry Potter (one of my favorite books), and we truly felt like we were in a fairytale. One last unique ceremony element was that rather than having a unity candle during the ceremony, we came up with the idea of a taking our first silly "unity selfie" as husband and wife to solidify the continuation of laughter and joy in our years to come.
After the ceremony and cocktail hour, guests picked up hand-rolled scrolls that contained a personalized, hand-drawn map of "Jenn & Tommy's Kingdom", which helped them find their seat. Each guest table was named after something in four of our favorite movies and books: Lord of the Rings, Disney, Star Wars, and Harry Potter. Prior to the wedding, we had prepped a fun lip-sync video to Carly Rae Jepsen's "I Really Like You" with all of our bridal party to be used for our grand entrance. That video (link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwz9YPUHIGk) played on TV screens as we all were introduced into the reception, and we ended it with a live choreographed dance with the bridal party. As we hit the dance floor, we were under the most gorgeous centerpiece in the room. Gloria helped us design a huge lantern display with Impact Lighting that was inspired by another Disney movie, Tangled. We continued on with our first dance to an acoustic version of Sam Smith's "Latch", which was performed live by 3 of our close friends: a singer, pianist, and cellist.
Throughout the night, we enjoyed delicious food, many laughs, and great company. Because we put selfie sticks on every table, everyone had a blast taking photos with each other. In addition to our cake, we also had a dessert table for our guests to enjoy that featured desserts from our favorite places in the Bay Area as well as delicious homemade desserts, which included my mother-in-law's renown strawberry pizza and our family friend's addictive rice krispy treats. As a perfect end to a night full of things we love, about 50 of us gathered in a circle on the dance floor, held hands, and sang in unison to the last song, "All My Life" by K-Ci and Jojo, one of our favorite slow songs growing up.
Needless to say, no other day has come close to the amount happiness and love we felt on this day. Our wedding was exactly what we envisioned - nerdtastic, fun, personal, intimate, rustic, and so beautiful. Things didn't all go according to planned. But in our eyes, none of that mattered and everything was more than perfect since we got to be ourselves, combine everything that we loved, and throw an amazing party for the people that are most important in our lives.
