Our love story
Jeff and I met through mutual friends, his sister in law Megan, who was my next door neighbor growing up, has been trying to set us up for years (5 years to be exact), but the timing was never right. She’d always say “I have a great brother in law to set you up with” but I always brushed it off. Fast forward to 2018, Jeff and I ended up matching on a dating app, and I realized after we had matched that he was Megan’s “great brother in law” that she had been trying to set me up with for years and years. So even with a dating app, you can’t deny that it was faet. We started dating in the summer of 2018 and he proposed during a Backpacking trip in Tahoe in September 2019. We posed for a “picture” right before we headed down the hill to head home Sunday morning, and instead it was recording the proposal. It was perfect.
The most important thing for me to find my wedding dress was that I felt like myself wearing it. I wanted it to be comfortable, and elegant. I was OBSESSED with the Wilderly Bridal Gowns, I loved the way they flowed and how unique each one was, and I had one Widerly gown in mind and was convinced it was going to be “the one” I scheduled an appointment at AE Bridal during their Wilderly event, my bridal consultant pulled the dress I was sure was the “one” as well as a few others after talking to me about what I want, turns out the dress I thought was the “one” wasn’t even close. And my wedding dress was a dress I honestly never imagined myself in, but it was perfect!! I put it on and instantly knew that it was my wedding gown!
My favorite personal moment from our wedding was honestly the entire day and just being able to have that day with our close friends and family because there were many times during the planning process we didn’t know if we would be able to have that day at all. Jeff and I had originally planned a 250+ person wedding when we originally got engaged, and due to COVID, all of our plans were up in the air, things were changing by the minute it seemed like some days. Finally we had to make the tough decision to drastically decrease the size of the wedding and moved it to La Porte, after our catering vendor cancelled on us due to COVID concerns/restrictions. We rented an entire Lodge for all of our guests and completely re-planned our wedding. And 17 days before our wedding, we went up to La Port to spend Labor day weekend and to bring up most of our wedding décor to store at the family cabin to make less work for us as the wedding date got closer, the same day we left La Porte to head back home, the North Complex Fire broke out and LaPorte and the surrounding areas were all evacuated. It was a very stressful time, and we didn’t know, yet again, if our wedding would be able to happen. Luckily our good friends opened their home to us last minute so we could still get married on 9/26/2020. So many of our friends and family rallied together to make sure that our wedding was going to happen. We didn’t know if any of our wedding décor could be salvaged and everyone was ready to DIY everything again in an assembly line, but Jeff was able to get back up to the cabin just a few days before the wedding to get all our wedding décor so we didn’t have to redo any of our DIY wedding décor. Jeff’s brother in law prepared the dinner for our wedding, we didn’t even have a DJ, it was all off of a Spotify playlist that Jeff and I created a few days before the wedding. Nothing was as planned, but it was the most perfect day. So there isn’t one personal moment that I can nail down, just to be able to have that day, and to know that we had so many people in our corner willing to drop everything and help us make that day happen means more than we could ever put into words.
The one thing that stood out the most on our wedding day was how smooth the day was. Everything about it went smoothly and according to “plan”. We all just kept looking around at each other and saying “how is this day so easy” the planning process was so insanely hectic, between COVID and the North Complex Fire, but it did not reflect for a single second the day off.
My inspiration for the wedding day and the dress was Fall. We wanted the wedding to feel like a Fall wedding with a lot of Boho vibes. We incorporated a lot of handmade macramé and copper and gold candlesticks and terracotta colors. I dyed cheesecloth for our table runners. For the bridesmaids, I wanted the girls to choose whatever color they wanted in a Fall themed palette in whatever texture and style they felt the most comfortable in. I wanted nothing to be matching, I wanted different styles and textures in their dresses and they turned out so perfect! I loved how everything turned out. It was exactly what we had hoped for.
My advice to future brides is to be prepared for the unexpected and to be willing to go with the flow. As much as the wedding day and all the details seem so important, the only thing that matters at the end of the day is you marrying your best friend and celebrating in whatever way you can with your friends and family.
VPhotographer – Gretchen Granka Photography | Venue – Friends’ home in Nicolaus, CA | Wedding Dress – Always Elegant Bridal and Tuxedo | Wedding Dress Designer- Wilderly Bride (available in our Yuba City location) | Cake/Dessert Table – Kim Reese (Groom’s mother) | Catering – Danny Bendure (Groom’s Brother in law) | Florist – Daddow Design | Rentals – Celebrations
