08 Dec 2019 Everything Else 3 comments

Our Wedding

Caleb and I are celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary today! I can’t believe it’s already been a year since the big day. It really feels like this last year has flown by. As part of our celebration I thought it would be fun to share our wedding with all of you! We had such a wonderful time planning and the perfect wedding day so I wanted to share all the details.

The Venue

One of the first things we did (and honestly the easiest decision) was our venue. We only looked at one venue and we knew it was the one. We got married at The Wood Shed in Vista, California. For our venue we wanted something different than all the other wedding we had been to. We wanted a venue that was gorgeous on it’s own and really only required our little special touch. The Wood Shed is all that and more! With all the wood work, the living plant wall, and unique touches, there really wasn’t that much we had to do. All we had to do was accent it with the bits of glamour we wanted.

We rented handmade tables from Cedar and Pine and simply added a bit of eucalyptus (my aunts and wedding planner laid these out on the tables for us) and gold terrariums. We knew the tables without tablecloths would be the perfect accent to the venue and we were so happy with how they turned out. We hired Bloom Babes to create our half wreath for our ceremony/dance floor and that’s really all we had to do!

The venue also comes with a gorgeous chalk wall that you can make your own! We hired Loren from Four Things Paper to create our chalk art and all of our gorgeous signs. The best part – she reuses the wood for the signs so you’re not stuck with them at the end of the night. We’re so happy with her work!

Getting Ready

Our venue didn’t have a spot to get ready which was fine with me because I had my heart set on getting ready by the ocean. I’m originally from southern California and have such a soft spot for socal beaches. Our venue is on the border of Vista and Carlsbad so I knew I wanted to get ready in Carlsbad. So my bridal party and I got ready at the Beach Terrace Inn. Seriously one of the most stunning views and I can’t wait to go back there some day!

For hair and makeup, I went with Vanity Belle. Seriously go check out their yelp reviews – insane! I was super happy with how everything turned out and the super sweet artists we had. I went for more glamorous makeup – I mean it’s my wedding! When else do you get to go all out like that? I initially really struggled with how I wanted my hair to look. It’s so long so I assumed I should wear it down but I feel most myself when it’s in a pony so I went for a party pony and I could not be happier with my decision. Your wedding should be a reflection of who you are so don’t do things just because you think you should. Do what feels right to you and you’ll be so happy with your big day!

For getting ready photos I knew there was only one thing I wanted to wear – this Hayley Paige robe. All that sparkle! I knew it was for me. And I found matching sparkly slippers too! For my bridal party, I wanted something fun and easy. My best friend Evan was also a part of my party so I needed something that could be unisex too (even though he forgot to wear his – boys!). When I found these shirts on Etsy I knew I had to get them. They looked so cute in photos, easy to wear again, they were inexpensive, and spoiler alert – they did get pizza later!

The Dress & The Suit

The dress. The part everyone has been waiting for right?! I really had no vision when I went into my dress appointments other than I knew I wanted some sparkle and I knew I didn’t want a ballgown. My bridal dress specialist picked this one out and I immediately told her I didn’t want to try it on because it was so low cut. She assured me it could be altered and the rest is history. My dress is the Jessica dress from Calla Blanche but we all affectionately called it the Gatsby dress because that is the vibe it gave us. I loved the unique lace and it’s hard to see in photos but it is actually covered in sequins. It ended up be truly everything I wanted!

Caleb didn’t have a ton of definite opinions heading into wedding planning other than what he wanted to wear. He knew he wanted to be in a navy suit and he wanted to be the only one. So of course we were going to make that work! He got his suit custom made from Indochino and we were both so happy with how it turned out!

Bridal Party Outfits

For my bridesmaid and bromaid outfits I knew I didn’t want everyone to match but I also know it can be hard for everyone to pick out coordinating looks on their own. I also knew I wanted to keep them as inexpensive as I could. So I put my type A personality to work and picked out individual dresses for each one of my girls that I thought 1) looked most like them and 2) would still look good together in photos. I gave a few of the girls multiple options and of course worked with each of them to make sure they loved what they were wearing! Most of the dresses are from Lulus and my MOH’s were from BHLDN and Macys. For Evan I wanted to make sure he looked like he was part of my party and not Caleb’s so we opted for no jacket and a simple floral tie with pops of pink.

For Caleb’s groomsmen we wanted to prevent them from buying/renting suits if possible. We also didn’t want them to be too matchy since my side wouldn’t be in matching dresses. Luckily they all had black and charcoal suits so they were perfectly coordinated without matching. To make Caleb pop even more in his navy suit, he was the only one to wear a tie too.

The Ceremony and Food

For our ceremony we knew we wanted it to be short, sweet, and to the point. Caleb’s dad married us but I was able to write the whole ceremony with Caleb and I love that we were able to put our personal touch on everything. There were lots of laughs and a few tears! For food we wanted to keep it feeling like us and we are not fancy! For cocktail hour we did a huge charcuterie table – it was a big hit! Dinner was one of my favorite parts of the day. We had a woodfire oven brought in and gourmet pizza was made on the spot! Yum! For dessert, neither of us were cake people but since we love donuts we decided to do those instead! My dad made us a gorgeous donut wall and it was definitely a much needed snack after hitting the dance floor!

Special Touches

I saved the best for last! These are my favorite special touches that we put on our wedding – the things that made it feel the most us!

Jean Jackets

Since we got married in December I knew I wanted to have a jacket for myself and I wanted to gift them to my bridal party too! I thought jean jackets would fit our wedding well so I bought everyone jean jackets and then my aunt custom embroidered them with cacti and succulents! Mine was custom designed by Lot Stock and Barrel and I am obsessed with how it turned out!

Shoes

Caleb and I both knew we wanted to change into some more comfortable shoes for after the ceremony but weren’t quite sure what we wanted. I ended up going with these glittery Kate Spade sneakers with matching socks. They were perfect! Caleb ended up forgetting to buy sneakers which worked out perfectly. I made him custom ones with our wedding date on them and surprised him the night before the wedding!

Guest Book

For our guest book we wanted something that we could easily display in our house and it wouldn’t be too cheesy. When we came across Miss Design Berry I knew we had found the right thing! Our custom wall hanging is now over our couch with everyone’s well wishes and it’s just perfect! They also created a custom snapchat filter that people were able to use on the day of too!

And last but not least I have to give a HUGE shoutout to the best people who really made our day what it was. First to our wedding planners over at Poppy Shoppe Productions. Keviann and Andi took care of EVERYTHING. I was so relaxed the whole day because of them and I could not recommend them enough. And finally our photographer Michelle of Muse Moments Photo. She was the first thing we booked for our wedding and she really made all our photo dreams come true!