When a bride & groom are as effortlessly cool as Emily & Austin are, you just know their wedding is going to be something special. Even more so after Emily mentioned in her submission that much of her inspiration for their beautifully boho day came from these very pages 🙂 A relaxed backyard wedding described by bride Emily as “romantic, quirky, and bohemian”, and yes it is as lovely as that sounds…. in fact you had better have your pinning fingers at the ready ladies!…..

“First of all, I have to say when I was planning my wedding I religiously looked at CVB for inspiration and ideas. My wedding would not have looked half as good if it wasn’t for your site, so THANK YOU!

I’ve always been a cross between romantic and bohemian, so when I got engaged I knew I wanted my wedding to exude romanticism, beauty and lushness. I approached our wedding with my husband’s and my personalities as the main priority. We’ve got quirks, and hobbies, and jokes that we wanted to incorporate, while also making it really enjoyable for the guests.

I call our wedding “Backyard Bohemia” because we had our entire wedding in my parents backyard in Fullerton, CA. In the early stages of planning, Austin and I toyed with the idea of having the ceremony separate from the reception, however we ultimately decided what was most important to us was the intimacy and ‘realness’ of the wedding.”

“When I first got engaged I, of course, started dress hunting. Through searching for untraditional wedding dresses I got the idea of a doing a two-piece. Eventually, I found Stone Cold Fox, went to their studio in LA, and fell in love. My dress was pretty much the exact embodiment of myself; I wanted to feel comfortable, relaxed, but beautiful. The best part about my dress is that I can, and have, worn my top since the wedding!”

“Austin wore a jacket and bowtie from Klein, Epstein & Parker  and pants and shirt from jcrew. He looked so handsome!”

“Instead of having a separate ceremony and sit-down dinner we incorporated it into one. We were limited on space, due to the backyard, so we simply had everyone sit at their dinner tables during the ceremony, which I think worked out really well. The mini tambourines we placed on each chair allowed our guests to sing along with us during our vows – and doubled up as favours!”

“The flowers were probably the most important decor element to me, and I was absolutely overjoyed when I saw them on the day. I went with Primary Petals from LA! I met with the team a few times to talk about inspiration and what specific flowers to use – we settled on peonies, ferns, and blue thistle; they worked their magic to intertwine these to perfection. My venue was already lush with greenery and I wanted to make it feel like a bohemian forest, so we added eucalyptus and peony garland anywhere we could. Because I wanted the wedding a bit mis-matched, we didn’t go with a specific color palette, but more a feeling. The table centerpieces were large bell jars filled with soft peonies and ferns, and smaller bronze cup vases flowed down the tables interspersed with vintage bronze candlesticks.”

“I loved our first-look moment. We met in front of the house, handed each other hand written cards we wrote for eachother, and just had a really wonderful moment before the wedding started. We also exited with a sparkler exit, it was wonderful!”

“We had Austin’s best friend officiate us, which made it really personal and easy. We’re both musicians, so we sang our vows instead of a traditional vow ceremony. We sang the song “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and I was holding back tears the entire time 🙂 , it was a great moment.”

“My wonderful oldest sister is a very talented hairstylist at Toni & Guy in Irvine. We worked with 2 girls from her team to put together my look. I wanted my hair soft with a little throwback to the 60’s, and secure so I wouldn’t worry about it all night. The makeup we went for a strong eye, and pretty lips and cheeks. I love eyeliner so went with a subtle cat-eye look.”

“All of the furniture rentals came from Found Rentals and it was just stunning. Rustic wood tables with mis-matched chairs filled the lawn. An iron arbor created the space for Austin and I to get married under and transitioned into our sweetheart table during the reception. We also had the most amazing pink chaise lounge, side table, and woven rug for photos, and just because it was beautiful.”

“We came back into the backyard ringing a dinner bell triangle, a little throwback to his Texan roots. I’m a bit of a foodie so the food was really important to me. I used Whoa Nelly! catering for both the food and the wedding cake   The food was served family-style at each table and was absolutely delicious!”

“Whoa Nelly! caterers made our cake as well. It was simple 2-tiered, white frosting with a couple succulents, and our elephant cake topper. I love elephants so I added some details of elephants here and there. Flavors were vanilla on bottom and red-velvet on top.”

Pearls of Wedding Wisdom from the Bride…..

“Once you accept that there will be mistakes and tiny flaws (mispellings on the menus, my fault!) throughout the day, in the end it doesn’t matter, and it is all perfect and the way it should be. And personalize it as much as you want – it’s your day, so have fun!

Also, every relationship is different, but I wanted to include Austin in as much as he wanted, I wanted his personality to shine just as much as mine.”

Tell us a little about your photographer….

” I have known Leanna since we were babes, and I have always admired and loved her photography. To keep the wedding as personal as possible I wanted a photographer I knew, and who had a similar style and aesthetic to mine. I immediately thought of Leanna and contacted her. She was amazing from start to end. We met/emailed multiple times about the style of photos. We shared inspiration and we also got our engagement shots done by her too. I wanted the photos to be real, clean, slightly artistic, and just really highlight the day, she went above and beyond my expectation. I was so happy and honored to have her as my photographer, she’s an amazing artist and dear friend.”

Emily was clearly a natural at this planning malarkey – can you believe this was all pulled together in less than 7 months? “Because I pay a lot of attention to detail, and I enjoy doing that, the planning felt really natural to me. Having a clear vision of what you want it to be like on the day is the most helpful thing you can do. I knew what I wanted from the beginning, from the food, to the feeling, decor, music etc, so then it was just putting the puzzle pieces together. I highly recommend going with a wedding coordinator/stylist, especially if you feel you’re being pulled in multiple directions. But I loved it! I loved it so much that I am a wedding stylist now (you can find me at www.foundandkept.com). It’s definitely challenging, but once you find the right vendors that work for you, it makes it a lot easier. ”

Emily, thankyou so much for sharing yours and Austin’s beautiful day with us! And a big thankyou to their wonderful photographer Leanna Jean for capturing it all so stylishly and for allowing me to publish it here on Chic Vintage Brides. If you want to see more of her work pop across to her website www.leannajeanphoto.com, or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram or Pinterest.

Amy

x

Photography ~ Leanna Jean Photo

Wedding Dress ~ Stone Cold Fox

Headpiece ~ Vintage barrett, decorated with shell design by mother-of-the-bride

Bridal Shoes ~ Anthropologie

Engagement Ring ~ Vintage mother-of-the-brides engagement ring

Wedding Rings ~ Vintage gold bands found on Ebay

Groom’s Suit ~ Klein, Epstein & Parker

Venue ~ Brides parents backyard, Fullerton CA

Month of Coordinator ~ Lyndsea Tim Tim at Carly Rae Design

Hair & Makeup ~ Toni & Guy Irvine Spectrum Team

Floral Design ~ Primary Petals

Catering & Wedding Cake ~ Whoa Nelly!

Wedding Cake Topper ~ BHLDN

Furniture Rentals ~ Found Rentals

Dinnerware Rentals ~ Casa de Perrin

Menus ~ Remember November Inc

Linens ~ La Tavola Linens

Lighting ~ De-Lighted

Table Numbers ~ BHLDN

Officiant ~ Eric Sanabria, Groom’s best friend

Musicians ~ Southland Band, Father-of-the-bride’s band