Floral print bridesmaid dresses, sentimental heirloom details, and a taco bar: what’s not to love about this boho wedding from The Nichols? There are just too many adorable details to count and so much love shining through!
Garrett and I were both raised in small towns in the Bay Area (CA). From a very young age, we both vacationed with extended family in the TINY mountain town of Arnold, CA. Shortly after dating, I decided to take the plunge and invite him to my annual family vacation. When we arrived to our cabin in Arnold, he pointed across the street from my family’s cabin and said “you see that house across the street, that was my grandmother’s vacation home!” A little quite voice inside me said that if we ever got married, we had to get married in this little special mountain town! 5 years later, that is how we chose our wedding location. Garrett and I are both creatures of hobbies, with insane passion for creativity. In addition to creatively honoring those that were watching down on us from heaven, we also were excited to incorporate some of our own personal and unique touches at the wedding.
Everyone loves a good floral print, right? I couldn’t resist doing floral bridesmaids dresses – the bright florals and dresses were a highlight of our wedding for me! Sewn onto the inside of my Amy Kuschel wedding gown is a small heart shaped piece of fabric from my Nana’s wedding gown.
I always dreamed of getting married in front of a fireplace, and wanted to build a DIY chandelier for our ceremony. I restored the vintage wagon wheel and turned it into a candle lit chandelier that hung above us as we said our vows.
Our bride and groom place settings were made up of our beloved grandparents china and flatware that they each received as their wedding gifts over 55 years ago (all were not with us at the wedding). Our seating assignments were hand written on Grandpa Lew’s vintage books. When Grandpa Lew passed, we were gifted some very special items from his home, several of which were some books from his age old collection – each that were escribed with our seating assignments and displayed on a vintage piano.
We both say goofy “I love you” things to each other, which we decided to make into signs for the back of our bride and groom chairs.
Our favorite food in the world is Mexican – so instead of some traditional steak/chicken wedding food, we did a taco bar. I wanted everyone to have chips and guacamole on the tables when they sat down, so I hunted stores like crazy and bought over 100 terra cotta pots as chip/salsa dishes on the tables.
Do you know of Steve Thomas? You have seen his artwork everywhere in California – he is a master. I took a LONG SHOT and reached out to him to see if he would be willing to create a one off piece of art featuring the tiny town of Arnold, so that we could use it as our guest book. He DID IT! He drove up from So Cal and traveled all around different sights and ultimately created this one-of-a-kind piece of art JUST FOR US that we then had our guests sign with pencil as our guest book
Garrett found peace in learning about automobiles and later learning to build them himself. For the year leading up to our wedding, he took it upon himself to build us our “wedding getaway” car. He bought a 1971 Toyota Land Cruiser that couldn’t even turn on, and restored it completely. The morning of our wedding, he drove it for the first time. He showed up looking like a boss to our first look, and later that night, friends decorated it with beer cans, toilet paper and lipstick – the coolest getaway car!
Photography | The Nichols | Venue | Black Bear Inn | Planning | Sasser Events | Florals | Shonna Lewis Floral Design | Cake | Knead to Make | Catering | Lunch Lady Catering | Paper Goods | Anna Malie Design | Calligraphy | Heart Paper Soul | Invitations | Minted | Dress | Amy Kuschel | Bridesmaid Dresses | Vici | Shoes | Imagine by Vince Camuto | Videography | Running Reel Films
