Remember this adorable engagement session?   Scrabble, tandem bikes… doesn’t get any cuter!  Lauren & Chad incorporated the scrabble & bike into their cute DIY wedding.  Most of their guests traveled from out of state for this quaint and intimate wedding.  The Victorian in Santa Monica was the perfect setting.

I love all all of Lauren’s antique jewelery.

Lauren is half Japanese, so she wrapped Chad’s gift with traditional Japanese wrapping fabric:

Lauren’s dress had pockets too!  Love JCrew dresses!

The highlight to me was hearing about how Lauren, with help from her bridesmaids, did ALL the flowers!  Lauren and her bridesmaid took a floral arrangement class together in preparation and did an amazing job.  Flowers are the last thing I would ever recommend anyone to DIY, but if you & your friends are up for it, I think this is a great way to go.  There are lots to think of just to keep the flowers alive, so don’t try it for the first time the night before your wedding.

Love these old photographs of their parents and grandparents…

And I love the tandem bikes!  They rode it in front of all their guests.  Now that’s an entrance!

Escort cards with scrabble tiles!

The patio is one of my favorite areas here:

The best man surprised us all with a back flip during his speech.  Look at the height of his jump!  I love this shot Jonathan got of just his feet off the ground.

Congrats to Lauren & Chad on a beautiful marriage & wedding.  Couldn’t have been any more perfect!

On a personal note, I just finished with my destination wedding for the year.  The rest are local.  Time to readjust to being home and catch up with my emails!  If you emailed me, I’ll be in touch soon.

This was just featured on Brooklyn Bride!  Check it out!  You may remember Jen & Kevin from their engagement photos.  In a nutshell, Jen lived in LA & Kevin in NY.  They spent most of their relationship apart, so a travel themed engagement session & wedding was fitting.  Since Kevin is a pilot and they spent most of their relationship traveling to see each other, they wanted to incorporate their travels & the different destinations into their wedding.

In keeping with the travel theme, she lined her shoes with NY subway maps – so simple to do and so personalized!  She hand folded hundreds of little paper airplanes and used them in her centerpieces.

Her friend DIY all their adorable flowers!  I love all the boutonnieres!

After their first look, we headed to Union Station for their portraits.  Her fabulous makeup was done by Echou makeup.

Their ceremony & reception took place at J Lounge and Restaurant in downtown LA.  I love all the exposed brick!  And wait until you see the view from the courtyard!

One of my favorite wedding party photo:

All her stationary had silhouettes of buildings from the different places they have lived.  And her escort cards were like plane tickets!  Each table was a different destination that they had went to as a couple.

One of my favorite detail is the trees above.  Kevin’s mom painted these amazing trees on canvas.  The trees had bare branches where guests would then leave their thumb print on as the leaves and signed their name.

Their reception took place in the outdoor courtyard, right in the middle of downtown LA.

I LOVE their s’mores bar!  There was a fire pit in the courtyard, so Jen had them set up a s’mores bar!  So simple to set up too!

I love all the stationary by Love~d designs!  Another favorite of mine is how they had a cute buffet menu, but also a cute sign that invited guest to come back for seconds & thirds, but to only get what they’ll eat because the rest will be donated to the LA regional food bank.

Congrats Jen & Kevin on an amazing wedding!  Everything was so personal and beautiful.  Your personalities totally shined throughout the event!  I wish you both all the best and look forward to hearing about your future adventures together!