Gown - I instantly connected with Galia Lahav’s gowns. Her gowns were frequently favorited during my wedding research, and her GALA collection, in particular, had the modern/fashionable look with intricate details that I was looking for.

I brought the three most important women in my life - my mom, my 93 year-old grandmother, and my cousin to a Galia Lahav trunk show hosted by Kinsley James Couture Bridal in Walnut Creek, CA. Kinsley James provided such a wonderful experience for me and my family. It made selecting the gown into such a memorable day.

The gown I chose was GALA 1004 from Galia Lahav GALA Collection No. 5. It surprisingly fit me like a glove (minus the length), and I knew it was the one when I felt and heard the last snap of the button hook. When I walked out of the fitting room, the whole boutique felt my emotions - even the other brides and their guests felt like crying!
Once I said “yes to the dress,” my family (yes, including my grandma) shared a celebratory champagne toast to relish in the moment.

Signage and Favors - We used our love story to design the unique details to share with our guests. Lorin Baeta from Letterly customized everything from our escort wall, signage, and favors. Her signs consisted of cute and quirky sayings such as “Oh snap, there’s an app!” to instruct guests on how to use our file sharing app, a dessert table sign with “Suga, Suga how you get so fly” inspired from my husband's favorite song in high school (over 12 years ago, wow), and a love journey timeline consisting of 6 pivotal milestones and dates in our relationship.
Outside of our reception tent, guests were drawn to a beautiful 12 foot, hand painted escort wall. It incorporated soft blue hues and our unique monogram in gold. Our guests’ names were handwritten on the acrylic signs and displayed against the towering backdrop. Nicole Ha placed a gorgeous array of flowers to tie in the romantic feeling.

Each of our guests were greeted with their names personalized in calligraphy on agate stone at their seats. The name plates also doubled as a party favor for them to take home. Lorin also wrote the lyrics of “At Last” by Etta James in calligraphy on tracing paper to use in the details shot for our wedding rings. My husband and I surprised our guests and serenaded them with the same song during our thank you speech.

Cake and Dessert Table - Our cake and dessert tables were designed by our friend Cindy Ngar @cindyslittlecakery. We gave her the creative freedom to design a cake based off of our color palette and theme. Our cake had soft blues, greys, and whites to create a luxurious marble finish in burnt almond flavor. Nicole Ha complimented our cake with flowers on top and around our cake table. We kept the cake small for ceremonial cutting and felt that our guests would enjoy the selection of an open dessert table.

Desserts were an array of favorites that my husband and I loved from Cindy: lavender, green tea cream puffs, and mango and strawberry mousse cups. Cookies were made by my friend Cathy @chloescookiebar, which we strongly believe are the best cookies on earth.

We also have an addiction to boba and knew that we wanted to share that with our guests. We chose Happy Lemon for our boba station and provided a selection of boba milk teas. The dessert and boba tables were devoured instantly. To this very day, I regret not saving a cookie for myself at the end of the night. Haha.