What was your favorite moment? Your favorite crafted detail?

My favorite moment was being walked down the aisle by my dad. I'm pretty sure that's the equivalent of the dad Super Bowl.

A close second to this was spending the entire day with Brendan. We took an extremely untraditional approach to our wedding day starting with breakfast burritos with the wedding party, getting glammed with my bridesmaids while the guys popped in and out of our suite, and shuttling to the venue together. I wouldn't have it any other way. He's my best friend.

My favorite crafted detail was the personalized dinner menus that Julie created for our reception. When Tamara suggested we work with Julie on our suite, I knew I had to have her create our menu and all the day-of goods. Her food illustrations are so beautiful and fun, and we had them personalized for each guest to also double as name cards.

Cake: by Monique Chan (@therealchezmomo)
For our cake, we asked my childhood friend Monique to create something chic and delicious. Monique was Chef de Partie at The French Laundry and other Michelin-starred restaurants so we knew to give her full control over what she wanted to create and she did not disappoint. I'm not sure we'll ever taste such a delicious confection ever again. Fun fact: Monique's siblings were my parent's ringbearers and flower girl!

What is one piece of advice that you could give brides-to-be?

1. Make a to-do and packing list!

As I was unpacking in Santa Ynez, I realized I forgot my second look (the most beautiful mini Carolina Herrera number) in San Francisco and had to quickly readjust my limited wardrobe. I ended up wearing my cheongsam (tea ceremony dress) to our rehearsal dinner/welcome party and shifted to wear my Marchesa welcome party dress as my second look at the wedding. Somewhere in between this chaos, I also realized I forgot to get that dress altered. Let's just say I'm more of a big-picture person and a chronic under-packer. Thankfully, it was nothing my mom couldn't quickly fix. Looking back, these moments bring the biggest smile to my face and I love that I have such a funny story to tell. Now I'm just waiting for someone to invite me to an extremely chic white party. Anyone!?

2. Hire a Tamara

Brendan and I joke that Tamara is the reason we got married. We met/began our wedding planning process in 2019 and while we knew we wanted a longer engagement because of Brendan's business school schedule, we didn't expect to have our wedding date pushed out further from Covid. Between the stress of planning a wedding in California while living in Massachusetts and Covid-related changes, we truly wouldn't have been able to manage and throw an event without her expertise and guidance. As a couple, we made the conscious decision to focus on wrapping up business school, moving across the country, and hitting career milestones. It was such an obvious decision for us to hire a planner that just got it. I knew from the beginning I needed someone to help narrow down my choices while somehow reading my mind. I'll never forget when Tamara asked me what flowers I wanted and I replied "white with leaves on it". To this day, I couldn't name half of the flowers we used but I know it's exactly what I wanted. When you find the right planner (and friend), it just clicks!