How did you and Richard meet?

From the Bride, Natalie...Richard and I met in the summer of 2011 when we were both studying for our accounting designations. We had mutual friends so naturally our paths crossed and we got to know each other as we would chat during study sessions and stay late until the library would close.... We started officially dating shortly after our exams and the rest is history!

What is your proposal story?

Richard proposed after 6 years of dating at our house. He had been traveling for work recently and I wasn't expecting him to be home at that time so I was very surprised to see him and even more surprised when he got down on a knee! We celebrated the rest of the weekend with a trip out of the city!

What was your inspiration for your wedding theme?

My wedding planning process happened over 2 years so I felt like my original theme and aesthetic definitely evolved. I started off wanting something very romantic/organic inspired by the beautiful weddings that take place in the European countryside or a lush California vineyard. At the same time I also love the simplicity of a modern wedding so I tried to merge some aspects of that into the theme with my choices in stationery and some of the decor.

How did you find your venue and vendors?

Working in the wedding industry I had a good idea of which vendors I wanted to work with based on social media and/or first hand experience working with them before on other couple's weddings or styled shoots!

What was your favourite part of the wedding?

Overall, I loved that we didn't try to cram too much into the day so I felt like the pace was quite relaxed. Some of the big highlights for me was the slow morning getting ready with my bridesmaids that also included a boudoir session with my photographer and exchanging our written vows to each other during the ceremony. I also just loved seeing all the details that I had been planning come together on the day of so moments like walking into the reception hall or seeing the ceremony set up felt surreal to me!

What advice would you have for other brides planning their wedding day?

My advice to other brides would be firstly - do your research and find vendors who you really connect with and understand what your vision is for your big day. At the end it will be your vendors that help you execute everything so you really need to have complete trust in them and also give them space to work their magic! Secondly, try your best to stay organized. There are a lot of aspects to think about for the big day so definitely consider hiring a wedding planner or a day of coordinator. One thing that really helped me is to keep a running list of all random thoughts/questions that would pop into my mind organized by the vendor so I had a list of questions to refer back to when it came time to sorting things out. Lastly, as everyone always says - definitely remember to take moments to step back and really soak in and enjoy your big day!