Today’s wedding feature of WWW readers Chris and Emily is equal parts enchanting, romantic and entertaining. After a surprise fairytale proposal at Disneyland, the pair created their dream day and kept the magic alive in the details. They were married on September 23rd 2016 at Canyon View in San Ramon, California – a total winner of a location.
My favourite aspect of Chris and Emily’s day was their “first touch” moment. The bride and groom stood either side of a door, held hands and read letters to each other. Awww! Their seating plan was pure genius too – each table was named after a Disneyland ride and guests collected their “fast pass” ticket to their spot from a DIY piece of art.
It’s hard to say whether the bridal party’s attire or their dancing was more impressive. I’m a huge dancefloor fan myself, so seeing the photo of the groom and groomsmen grooving in sync was pretty spectacular. There was also a flash mob – how cool is that? The bride wore a gorgeous lace gown with a sweetheart neckline and her hairstyle, with its braid and baby’s breath florals, was darling. The groom brought such style to his outfit too, wearing a navy jacket, leather suspenders, light green tie and beige pants. Needless to say, their attendants also looked fabulous.
Thank you so much, Julia Rose Photography, for letting us share your delightful images today.
THE PROPOSAL | The proposal took place at Disneyland (our most favourite place) on September 11th, 2015. Chris set up a surprise in which a friend of his (who I wasn’t acquainted with) came out from the castle to where myself and his family and my brother were at, holding a glass slipper on a pillow and “trying it on” a few other people before coming directly to me and telling me he believed it would fit me. After I tried it on and it fit, Chris appeared from behind me, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!
THE VISION | We knew that we wanted to have our wedding about a year after the proposal to allow for adequate planning and after looking at about four venues, we decided on Canyon View Banquet Hall as it was exactly what we were looking for and was surprisingly affordable!
THE PLANNING PROCESS | First and foremost, we knew it was important to book our venue and date, so that was our first order of business. With the help of our wonderful coordinator, we stayed on track after that by booking the photographer, videographer and DJ/MC next. After that, we focussed more on the smaller details such as décor and florals. Since Canyon View provided our catering for the wedding, all we had to do was decide on which entrees, sides and hors d’oeuvres we wanted, which was a difficult decision because all of their food is delicious! In the few months leading up to the wedding, we really focussed on centrepiece ideas and general décor.
BUDGET | Roughly $20,000 total.
THE VENUE | Canyon View in San Ramon, California.
THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was a strapless lace ball gown with a layered train and small pearl details. I wore lace Toms shoes, pearl cluster stud earrings, and 2 thin bracelets; one gold band and one band also lined with pearls.
FINDING THE DRESS | I picked out my dress two months after the proposal at David’s Bridal. It was the first gown that I put on, on the first and only day I dress-shopped! I was stuck between my gown and one other for a while, but finally realised that the ball gown matched up more with our princess proposal and subtle Disney theme. All the ladies I brought with me that day helped to affirm my choice, it was their favourite dress from the beginning.
GROOM’S ATTIRE | Chris wore beige slacks with a white button up shirt, light brown Oxford shoes, leather suspenders, and a navy blue jacket with a light green tie.
THE READINGS & MUSIC | Our bridal party walked down the aisle to ‘Promise’ by Ben Howard. I walked down the aisle to an instrumental song that Chris wrote for me when he was 17 (for our one year anniversary), which was very sentimental for me. After the ceremony, we all came back down the aisle to ‘The Sound’ by The 1975, since it is such a celebratory song!
BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | Jessica Doss, Lindsay Ford, Alex Kerzich, Danica Lopez, Olivia Porter.
THE FLOWERS | WildBud Creative.
THE CAKE | The cake was made by my best friend and bridesmaid Jessica Doss, and was a four tier cake with chocolate, white velvet, and red velvet flavours, and a raspberry filling. We chose to simply have extra flowers placed around and on top of the cake instead of having a cake topper.
YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Julia Rose Photography.
THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We chose a soft color palette with light blush pink and light green as the main colours, but used a lot of rustic pieces such as wine barrels and wood blocks, and wooden photo holders. The centrepieces contained wood blocks with mason jars holding varieties of flowers including roses, peonies, babies breath and succulents. We also gave each table a name from a Disneyland ride, and all of our guests’ name cards were “fast passes” to their table.
THE HONEYMOON | Maui, Hawaii.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Our “first touch” where we had a door blocking us from seeing one another, but we could hold hands and read each other letters we had written to one another. Every single one of our bridesmaid/groomsmen/father speeches were wonderful (and there were a lot of them). Our bridal party flash mob to ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ by Queen.
ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Hang in there, all of the planning and payments and decision making will come to an end and it will all be worth it because nothing will ever replace your wedding day.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |
Photographer | Julia Rose Photography
Videographer | Vow and Covenant Wedding Films
Wedding Planner | Kirsten Rosendall
Florist | WildBud Creative
Hair and Makeup | Jasmine Quinones
Chris and Emily, your celebration looked like perfection and I think the black and white shot of you on the dancefloor together basking in cosy, happy love pretty much sums it up. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Abby xx
