Colorful Cali Jewish Wedding

It’s officially summer, so that means bring on the color! This vibrant California wedding from Kindred Weddings and Events captured by Julie Shuford Photography is just what we need to start the season off right. With the brightest of blooms and the most beautiful outdoor setting, this wedding checks off all the boxes!

I think our biggest source of inspiration was our relationship. It was really important to us to have personal touches at the wedding. We chose the Lodge at Malibou Lake because it was the perfect blend of So Cal – where we met and spent so much of our relationship– and the mountains that we’ve come to love living in Colorado. We chose colorful flowers because that reflects our style and home décor. We are huge music fans and go to a lot of concerts, so having special songs picked out that were meaningful to our relationship was really important to us. We met at UCLA, so instead of having a cake, we had Diddy Riese ice cream sandwiches, which are a Westwood staple. We love to cook and try new restaurants so having good food was very important to us, we knew we made a great decision when every prospective vendor we talked to told us how excited they were to work at the Lodge at Malibou Lake because Chef Cordelia has the best food. We really drew from our favorite things to inspire our wedding.

Kristen wore a BHLDN gown. We went shopping in peak pandemic so I wasn’t able to have all my girls there with me but we did create a Zoom call so they could all be there with me virtually. As I tried dresses on, I found myself gravitating to styles I hadn’t initially considered but when I tried this one on, I knew it was the one and it ended up being the type of gown I had always pictured myself wearing. I borrowed earrings that my aunt wore on her wedding day and a bracelet my Matron of Honor received for her first Mother’s Day. I loved including these meaningful pieces as my something borrowed. My engagement ring has two diamonds from one of Peter’s grandmother’s rings and I also wore a necklace that Peter bought me for my 21st birthday – and upgraded for my 30th – to serve as my something old. My shoes were Badgley Mischka and had a slight blue tint to them, which served as my something blue. I also wore a flower crown and not a veil, which is what my mom wore at her wedding.

We have always approached our relationship as a team and a true partnership and so we decided to write our vows together. It was really important to us to have conversations about what marriage meant to us and what the next phase of our lives would look like. We wanted to commit to that vision together.

I loved the ceremony. My aunt married us and she did an incredible job. She was really able to speak to who we are as a couple and as individuals, she balanced the serious and the lighthearted, and it felt very meaningful.

We absolutely loved our flowers. I started following Whit Hazen on Instagram when we first got engaged and loved everything she posted so knew I wanted her to be our florist. It was great because I could just say I like these colors and knew whatever she came up with would be amazing and it did not disappoint. The Lodge is already so lush so I think the pops of color and texture really helped the flowers stand out.

The key to all the details coming together was having the absolute best wedding coordinator! We actually both have events backgrounds so in theory could have done a lot of the work ourselves, but being able to pass all the coordination off to Sarah to execute made the planning and the day so much less stressful and allowed us to be present and enjoy. She and her team truly went above and beyond to execute our vision and allow us to focus on each other and our guests.

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