Last, but certainly not least, breaking down our wedding ceremony and reception!

PAPER

I absolutely loved designing all of our paper goods for the day. I printed everything with my favorite printer, Kristine at Presshaus LA. She is a dream to work with and helped bring my vision to life!

The Ceremony

It was so important to us that our ceremony feel personal and reflect our personalities and beliefs, and that our officiant be someone we had a personal connection with. We immediately thought of my older brother and felt so honored when he accepted the job as our officiant. We gave him some general guidelines and wrote a few portions of our ceremony, but he really blew us away with the personal reflections and stories he added. He did such a great job that people even asked if he did it for a living - ha!

We aren’t very religious, but Grant’s side of the family is Jewish so we decided to incorporate a few Jewish traditions - the breaking of the glass and the Horah at the reception. We had two readings during our ceremony. The first reading was actually a portion of a Bruce Springsteen song, “If I Should Fall Behind”, and the second reading was a poem titled “I Can’t Promise You”. Both were read by two of our closest friends and were so special.

Another thing that was important to us was to write our own vows. We knew it was going to be a daunting task, but in the end, so so worth it. To make sure we didn’t outdo one another’s, we set up a little formula that allowed us each some room to personalize, but still have some common parts. There were lots of tears and laughter when we read them to each other. Being from opposite coasts, it meant the world to us to have family and friends come from all over to celebrate with us.

DECOR

Our venue had such an incredible built-in Italian vibe, full of beautiful natural elements. I really wanted our decor to be minimal and build off of the existing beauty. We had a mix of wood tables and covered tables, all united by the same oatmeal linens.

For flowers, I wanted them to be informal, the way you would do for your own backyard dinner party. Lots of little vessels on each table held a few stems each of olive, black & white anemones, white dahlias and chocolate cosmos (my favorite element!).

We opted to make all of our own linen napkins, inspired by my friend Molly. We sourced linen from the LA fabric market and are so thankful to our family & friends who made all of the napkins. And now we have a lifetime supply of napkins ;)

food & drink

We originally set out to do a typical wedding dinner (salmon, chicken, filet), but kept debating it. After seeing a wedding that served In ‘n’ Out burgers, we realized food was something we could inject our personality into.

We decided to scrap our original plan and went with pizza and pasta, which are some of our favorite foods. We were a little worried how it would go over with our guests, but everyone LOVED it! Everyone said it was exactly what they wanted to be eating.

We got engaged at Wölffer Estate in the Hamptons and bought a few bottles of their rosé for Grant and I to drink. It was so special to have wine from the year and vineyard we got engaged in. For dessert, we had a small cake (mostly as a photo opp) and then served ice cream sandwiches, which were a HUGE hit as well.

the reception

We had our first dance to “Let’s Be Still” by The Head and The Heart, one of our favorite bands. It was the perfect song to savor the moment and really take everything in. The Horah was a non-negotiable for us - it’s always been one of our favorite parts of weddings. It was the absolute best way to start the party and get everyone dancing. Not pictured: Grant almost being dropped from his chair.

All four of our parents (both sets are divorced) gave incredible toasts, as well as Grant’s brother and two of my bridesmaids. I danced with my with my dad to "She's On Her Way" by Phil Vassar. We ended up dancing to the entire song and I don't think there was a dry eye in the place.