Today’s vintage barn wedding from Lukas & Suzy VanDyke is a stunner! Not only does this couple have an amazing love story (they fell in love while the bride was on a mission trip to South Africa), but they incorporated some sweet and meaningful details into their day too. I love the heirloom bible the bride tied to her bouquet that has been carried by the women in her family for generations. And, of course her gown and bouquet are gorgeous!
My husband and I had a long distance relationship. I met him while volunteering in South Africa at a baby home. We met fell in love and were engaged 5 months after we met. For the next 6 months we would be planning our wedding from two separate continents. The most important thing to me while planning our wedding was to make sure his culture was represented as well. I wanted our wedding to show two different people becoming one person, two families joining. I was moving with him to South Africa right after the wedding so it was important to me that we united everything together. That is why my main flower was the Protea, its the national flower of South Africa.
Camarillo Ranch was the perfect venue for our Rustic sheek wedding. The wedding day was perfect . We were on time for everything and all of our ideas flowed together perfectly. We had family come from Canada (my dads side of the family) and from South Africa which was my husbands family. To see the support of our family and friends was amazing.
Some of my favorite parts of that day were walking down that aisle to see my husband to be. I will never forget that moment that those doors opened. I can still remember how nervous I was before hand and how that just all melted away the minute I saw him. our ceremony was short and sweet. We did both the traditional vows and our own personal vows and his were beautiful.
Most things in our wedding were homemade or had some family significance to us. The doors I walked through were made by my father, and I had my two brothers open it for me to help show that it really was my whole family giving me away not just my Dad. Our favors were all made by my mother, it was a mixture of home made caramels (a secret Doerbecker family recipe) and Pecans from Michaels farm in South Africa. Even that to me was the perfect touch to pull everything together. My next favorite moment was my father daughter dance. I am close to me Dad and a little girl looks forward to that day her entire life. It was like time stopped for us and I was 12 again just dancing with my Daddy not thinking of the goodbyes that were to come. I almost didn’t want the music to stop.
My last favorite moment was my wonderful groom. Its traditional in South African culture for the Groom to make a speech, and Michael had the best speech. It was sweet and caring and made me look forward to our lives together. I still carry it around with me to this day. Over all I enjoyed every moment of that day. It was a special day that will be burned in my mind for years to come. Not just because I was in a wonderful dress or the flowers turned out beautiful but because thats the day I got to marry my best friend and the love of my life and I get to spend the rest of my life with him.
Photography | Lukas & Suzy VanDyke | Venue | Camarillo Ranch | Planner and Florist | Soiree to Remember | Gown | Monique Lhuillier | Makeup | Lindsay Stratton | Hair | Samara Ortiz | DJ | Apollo DJ and Lighting
