I love when couples take unique inspiration and turn it into something gorgeous for their wedding day. This whimsical wedding from Jasmine Lee Photography is the perfect example. This couple took one of their favorite cartoons, Adventure Time, and created a beautiful event that was tons of fun for their guests. I love all the bright colors and the simple, but chic centerpieces!
Johnny and I are very family-oriented and we wanted to focus on that aspect for our wedding. Our siblings, parents, grandparents, extended family, and even friends have been there to take care of us over the years shaping us into who we are today. We have helped each other and supported one another over the years and we feel truly blessed! It was a day for two families to become one, as much as it was a day to celebrate all of the relationships from our past and present. One thing was certain: Johnny and I wanted to take our guests on an adventure, so naturally we had to spin off of one our favorite cartoons, Adventure Time. That’s where I got my inspiration for our wedding invitations and programs.
Being a person with lots of ideas and difficulty making decisions, planning our wedding wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. We were kind of lucky in selecting vendors/venues: the first dress I tried on, the first venue we looked at, the first caterer we sampled–we should have bought a lottery ticket! Our venue, Nestldown, provided our guests wide open spaces, surrounded by redwood forests, manicured gardens, koi ponds, a little fantasy area complete with cottage and dragons and, of course, a tooting train for train rides! Because we are big foodies, we also wanted to take our guests on a tasting adventure and Michi’s went above and beyond our expectations in that area with juicy peking duck, perfectly roasted pig, vietnamese spring rolls, sushi hand rolls, spare rib stew [wiping drool].
We had quite a few DIY projects–we had so many fun crafternoons to work on them over good food and good company! I finally had a really good excuse to spend a lot of time at Michael’s!! Thank goodness for those coupons! One of my favorite were the ribbon wish wands for people to wave as we walked down the aisle and during our entrances. To make these, I bought ~3′ long rods with 3/16″ diameter which I cut to foot long wands from Michael’s. I sanded the cut ends and painted the end gold mostly to cover up the tackiness from the price tag. When those dried, I tied and glued three ribbon lengths to the end. I bought the ribbon in bulk online. The bright colors were so cheerful!
My family helped me fold origami cranes to represent my Japanese background for good luck. I just loved the colors it added to the surroundings and backdrop for our dessert table which was amazing! My friends and family had pulled together and went all out to bake one of their specialties to create this delicious dream of a dessert table! Johnny and I also had a good time making our cake toppers out of polymer clay. Some other items we incorporated to represent our cultural background were chopstick rests that I made at a clay studio back home. Something about getting your hands dirty and making a lot of something was very therapeutic for me–keeping me from getting easily overwhelmed with planning a wedding. We used them with chopsticks for table assignments. For our wedding favors, Johnny’s mother found these adorable dessert fork and spoon set with a picture of a bride and groom in Chinese dress on the handles. She even got the boxes personalized with our names and wedding date as a sweet touch.
At family gatherings, I always enjoyed playing boardgames, and so it only made sense that we had a games area at our wedding as ice breakers between the various groups of friends and families. My friend lent me her croquet set which she customized with adorable Adventure Time characters; Nestldown had a bocce ball court; and my future brother-in-law made a giant jenga set for our wedding! He painstakingly cut and sanded each edge and side so that they would slide in and out of the stack easily. We used a few of those blocks as our guestbook for people to sign. In addition to that, we asked our guests to write a message or a wish for us to put into three time capsules that were not to be opened until our first, second, and fifth year anniversary–something to look forward to in the upcoming years!!
Photography | Jasmine Lee Photography | Venue | Nestldown, Los Gatos, Ca. | Day-of-Coordinator | Konnie Toy | Stylist/Flowers | Sam Nielsen, flowers from Oakland Flower Mart | Catering | Michi’s Catering | Invitations | DIY by bride, printed at Fast Imaging | Dress,Veil, and Shoes | David’s Bridal | Hair and Makeup | Elise Cole-Da Cruz of Deeda Salon in Sacramento | DJ | Alan Waltz | Suits | Men’s Warehouse
