Starting off this week with the sweetest handmade wedding captured by Anna Marks Photography. The couple really focused on making their day special with meaningful and heirloom details. I love that the bride wrapped her bouquet in one of her grandpa’s ties to have him close.
Lake Arrowhead is a really significant place for both of us outside of our relationship and it’s also the place that brought us together. Both of our families vacation up there and so it was the perfect place to merge both sides together. Bruin Woods is not only where Dylan works, but is a place where we both have personal relationships with all of the staff. We knew that trusting them with our big day would be something they took seriously and the end result was everything we could have hoped for. It made it so much more special to know every single person working our wedding because it felt more like they were there at our wedding and was much more intimate.
The first look by far surpasses any memory of the night. We both feel like all of the raw emotion was able to come out and be processed without an audience and feeling like everyone was watching. It was an intimate moment we have repeated to each other over and over again and we will keep in our memories forever. The vows we made were also funny – it was the last thing we did and one of the most frustrating parts of wedding planning. We were both so tired from planning and our crazy work schedules that we didn’t really have time to put a lot thought into it. The week before the wedding we looked at each other amid googling how to write vows and decided to “pause and live in the moment”, which was an important part of our wedding vows. When we actually said them out loud on the day of, they sounded twice as good as anything we had read. They were natural and our own, which is also something to be cherished about our ceremony.
We stuck with a laid back, rustic, woodsy feel since the wedding was at an Alumni Camp. Stephanie really loves the feel and look of the store Anthropologie, so we pulled a lot of inspiration from there – crystals, succulents, and different types of wood to give it a natural look. Since Bruin Woods is naturally beautiful and very green, we wanted muted colors to really put the emphasis on all of that pure spring green color. The windows we used for our ceremony vignette were purchased at antique shops up in Lake Arrowhead. It was sort of a play on a “green house” by incorporating the elements of a home- we also had a dresser to bring in some symbolism of us starting our life together. Accents like the vintage dessert stands, bouquet ribbon (from my grandpa’s tie), a suitcase holding the cards, and old glass bottles on the table are all antiques from Stephanie’s family that acted as the main inspiration for a lot of the rest of the decor. We really believes that in incorporating those special pieces made it feel like the family history was tied into the wedding and those who couldn’t be there were represented.
Almost all of the decor were items that have been collected by Stephanie’s family or passed down as heirlooms. The dessert plates are all cake stands that were lent to us by my aunts and mom. The glass bottles on our dinner tables were bottles Stephanie and her sister collected out of Lake Arrowhead years ago during a drought and the lake levels were really low. We have had them in our garage in Arrowhead not knowing what to do with them all these years, and we are all very happy we found a use for them. Dylan and the groomsmen’s boutonnieres were handmade by Stephanie’s aunts, which was was a really special touch to design with her. The tie around Stephanie’s bouquet was her late Grandpa’s tie, was her something blue and something old, and was originally purchased in when her grandparents were in Scotland – a place that connects Dylan and Stephanie’s families. It was hard not having him at the wedding, so being able to hold the tie tightly all night was very special.
Photography | Anna Marks Photography | Venue | UCLA Bruin Woods | Florist | Wildflowers of the Lake | Entertainment | Ben Goldsmith | Dress | BHLDN | Shoes | Badgley Mischka | Suit | Men’s Warehouse
