Behind the scenes
I just got amazing news from our photographer yesterday morning - our wedding was featured on Offbeat Bride.
I know I’ve promised to post photos from the wedding so here they are!
Dan and I are both good with our hands, and most of my friends and family are creative. Given that my work is all about being crafty and I wasn’t crazy about the idea of manufactured weddings so with the exception of the dinner, we decided to go full on DIY.
My cousin and I hand-dyed and printed the linen invitations. I found this brilliant tutorial online and it was pretty doable when I tweaked it to what worked for me. The fabric scraps became part of the bunting. I painted the map out of watercolour, and my cousin and I hand-painted the envelopes. My cousin’s sister made our motorcycle thumbprint guest list.
My friends and I, and some of my cousins made the paper crane decorations, Dan built the trellis above the dining tables, and my two bestest friends -Celine and Sayaka - helped me make our cake from scratch. Celine also did all the floral arrangements, including my bouquet and Dan’s boutonnière. Even my favors -homemade jams- were given as a present by Delilah of Backyard in a Jar.
Dan’s folks and my dad were not able to make it to the wedding but his close friends and my Dad’s oldest brother represented them well. It was really nice for everyone to really go all out for us. Dan and I wanted it to be a close-knit event. Everyone helped to get things together in preparing and setting the food. One of Dan’s good friends took it upon himself to make Sarmale (Romanian cabbage roll) good for the entire party, putting up decorations, and even cleaning up afterwards. We worked so hard to get ready for the event and we really appreciated everyone who got in there and helped us out on the day. It really gave us the sense of family -friends and family that were there 100% for us and with us.
Not to be waxing poetic but the best moment for me, though, happened on the morning of our wedding, after having only 3 hours of sleep from all the prepping. I sat down with Dan to go over the food. Before he said anything else about the food, he told me that he was so proud that I made it all happen. It meant a lot that he appreciated that, especially since I was so exhausted at the time. I never asked for him to say hey you’re doing great since he and I were doing it together anyway, but for him to come out and say it was a big deal. And I loved that the two of us came together as a team, totally drama-free during the wedding weekend. It is, after all, the first of many projects we’ll have together as a married couple, and it’s great a great start!
In King’s Canyon National Park, we chose to get married at North Grove Loop. Dan and I had been there only a month before he chose the exact spot of dirt to be married on, and it was a little tricky because the entrance of the trail merged with another. Dan forgot which trail it was and led all the guests to the wrong spot! We didn’t have any radios and there was no reception up there, so if not for our officiant’s daughter who was waiting with me, they would have been sitting there for hours and I would have been left waiting at the “altar.”
Our reception was at Seven Circles Retreat, which was also where Dan and I and our guests were staying. The venue had massive acres of land that was so beautiful and we wanted to make the most of that view.
It was definitely a lot of driving and walking to be done and my relatives joked that it was certainly a memorable wedding because Dan and I made everyone trek all over the place in heels, dress shoes and pretty clothes, and made them walk here and there for their food. A few things I would do different if I were given a chance to do this the second time around but I have to say, this was one good wedding :)
Photos 4,9,10,12 by Mariela Campbell.
All the rest are by my sisters Joy and Karen, my cousin Aimee, my friends Sayaka, Nana and Clarizze.