Good morning, Pretty Little Wedding readers! Just a quick note to let you know that Pretty Little Weddings will be post-less from today until Oct. 10, when I return from a trip home to visit family and friends.
Please be sure to come back on Oct. 10 and in the meantime, if you missed any of our recent features–from this seriously stunning golf course engagement session to this French garden party wedding–I hope you get a chance to check them out this week. Enjoy!–Jillian
Aileen and Alex came from different parts of the world—she from California and he from Great Britain—and so, their wedding would be a destination affair no matter where it was. “The world was our oyster,” she said. The couple considered a dozen locations, but settled on Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. .
“I never thought I would get married in Mexico,” Aileen said. “I didn’t want to have a beach wedding or be on the sand or be outdoors in the blazing sun—I got everything I didn’t expect, but it was perfect.”
She said, “We kept true to ourselves and our style—we didn’t do anything over-the-top or over board. We didn’t try to change our setting—we wanted to accent it and bring out the best of it. We didn’t want our wedding to feel like a wedding necessarily—we didn’t want Chivari chairs, table numbers, escort cards, etc. We didn’t want to do the expected, it just wasn’t us.”
The couple instead used soft décor, including pillows from IKEA, and a mixture of succulents, mums and orchids for centerpieces. “We wanted the natural beauty of the space to shine through and we didn’t want to disrupt the horizon or the gorgeous color lines,” Aileen said.
Ask Heidi what she and James made for their wedding and she’ll exclaim, “Oh my!” and proceed to list so many items you quickly lose count. From bow ties to bouquets to table runners and a photo booth, the pair handcrafted nearly every detail for their country carnival-themed wedding.
“In retrospect, I did learn how to choose, cut, sew, sear and iron fabric and I have 522 flags, 16 runners, five bow ties and about 200 flowers to prove it,” Heidi said. “Meanwhile, James learned how to transfer images using acetone and a spoon and delved briefly into decoupage.”
James also “built an entire full-scale operable photo booth out of lightweight timber—complete with curtains and hemp rope to hang pictures onto!,” Heidi said.
The couple chose their theme because their goal, Heidi said, was that “everyone from toddlers to grandparents would have fun at our wedding. This was especially important to us because weekends in the DC-metro area are precious family time, and we wanted kids to enjoy and remember the event as much as their parents. We also had relatives coming from as far as Australia and Taiwan, and friends coming from Switzerland, Honduras, and all over the country. What better way, we thought, to unite our international and trans-generational guests than cotton candy, sugared-up children running around, and a game of ring toss?”
Daniel spotted Vita at an airport and said to himself, Whoever she’s here to pick up is one lucky guy. Turns out, Vita said, Daniel was in luck.
Vita—a bridesmaid in a cousin’s wedding assigned to chauffeur duty—was there to pick up the groomsmen, including Daniel. “From there, we just hit it off,” she said.
Nearly a year later, the couple wed in Sanders Mansion in Auburn, Washington. “I just wanted a light, happy wedding,” Vita said. “Life, light and joy. I wanted people to feel like they were at a fancy bar-b-cue, and not like they had to keep their kids at bay.”
She said, “I wanted to take advantage of the fact that we were outside, so we had a dove release, bounce houses for the kids and shish kabobs freshly grilled on the grounds.”
