Real Wedding: Chrissie + Brian’s Wedding Among Olive Trees

I need to thank Caroline at Tinywater for allowing me to feature this stunning wedding. I really love the style Caroline and Dan capture in their photos – the portraits of the couple after the wedding are simply amazing!

Chrissie and Brian live in Socal (you need to check out their awesome engagement session at UCLA – there is a large purple balloon!), but decided to have their wedding in Northern Cali at the beautiful Purple Orchid Inn. Chrissie is also a wedding videographer – you can see her beautiful work on her site – so after already filming many weddings, she knew she wanted to keep the important things in perspective by keeping it as simple as possible.

olive tree wedding

olive tree wedding

bride

white bouquet

Chrissie wanted a simple sheath style dress under $900 which she found in the beautiful Nicole Miller dress she choose. I also love how each bridesmaid wore a different dress! Chrissie let her sister (and Maid of Honor) pick a dress she liked and it happened to compliment the venue perfectly. Then the rest of the girls got their own dresses that complimented that and they varied from taupe, aqua to purple, but it looked fantastic. How perfect!

olive tree wedding

olive tree wedding

olive tree wedding

The Purple Orchid Inn is gorgeous! A resort and spa nestled in the green hills of olive trees. Their reception was set up beautifully amongst the olive trees – a wonderful field of green. Unfortunately it started to rain right after the ceremony and everyone ran in for cover as the staff rushed everything inside. And through all this, Chrissie and Brian rolled along with it, poised and smiling all the way. Not one complain even when some of the guys watched a game in the other room! Despite the rain and setbacks of the wedding day, everything was gorgeous as you can see.

olive tree wedding

wine bottle table numbers

Chrissie + Brian decided on doing some portraits AFTER the wedding was over – right at sunset- and the results are amazing. I LOVE this. Chrissie + Brian got to spend some time enjoying each other and reflecting on the day. The weather led to some amazing skies – and that last set – Caroline describes as “some post apocalyptic magic love!” and I think I have to agree. Congrats again Chrissie + Brian and thanks for sharing your amazing day.

olive tree wedding

olive tree wedding

night graffiti bride and groom

Chrissie was also kind enough to provide some additional details…

Your favorite memory of the day: We battled bad weather, and several things did not go as planned, but in the end, all that mattered were the vows my husband and I shared before God, and then we had our family and wedding party gather around us as my Dad prayed a blessing over our marriage. As soon as we were pronounced, the clouds rolled in and the rain came! It made our ceremony stick out as the most important thing because we had to scurry around and improvise for the rest of the reception as we went to plan B – but every guest complimented us on the beautiful vows and assured us the rain made the day fun and added a casual vibe.

Any advice for those planning their wedding now? Pick 3 things that you will not bend on, and let the rest fall where they may. For me, it was the photography, my dress & a “destination wedding”- I didn’t want my pictures to look like everyone else’s, and I wanted a simple sheath style dress under $900. Nicole Miller took care of the dress, and then I stumbled upon Caroline & Dan’s blog through a wedding coordinator’s site. I gave up things like the album and cut the hours they worked day-of to be able to afford them (but still budgeted generously for photography). Your photogrpaher/videographer works HARD that day and then in editing, and they are on their feet for up to 12 hours, so I didn’t want to overwork them nor underpay them, and so it was something we budgeted for in the beginning, and kept our reception short so we could do a fun shoot after!

Anything else you’d like to share about the day? Knowing everything would pass away except the photographs, the video and our vows, the location setting was key with the rolling hills in the background and we let the rest be understated and simple. With so much visually going on at the location, it made sense to develop a color scheme that complimented the background, and never competed with it. So white flowers it was! Then we cut corners like crazy. My invitations were made by a friend, My sister made my veil, my shoes were half off at a warehouse sale, I borrowed the headpiece from a recent bride and spruced it up by adding feathers, my faux fur wrap was also borrowed but I added a brooch I found at a thrift store… we made all the centerpieces 2 days before and kept the aisle decor simple with carnation garlands that we strung ourselves. Sometimes I got nervous on how everything would come together, but it photographed beautifully and almost looked high-end, which is a huge compliment to my photographers!

Coordinator: Jessica Lack at Purple Orchid Inn, DJ: Jeffrey Gunawan, Flowers:
Chelsea Moon, Photography: Tinywater

You can see lots more photos from this wedding on the Tinywater Blog. Thanks so much Caroline and Chrissie!

Explore: