A Colorful Woodland Wedding: Ashley + Andrew

I just love Ashley + Andrew’s heartfelt wedding. The gorgeous nature surroundings and the pops of bright colors made for such a beautiful day. Since Ashley is an artist, she wanted to create most of the details herself and did a gorgeous job with the invites, flowers and other decor elements. Thanks so much to Shannen Norman for the gorgeous photos and congrats to Ashley + Andrew!

Ashley and a few of her friends did all the flowers. Just love how each bridesmaid had a bouquet in a different color!

Tell us a bit about your music…
Processional: “Bowsprit” by Balmorhea
Recessional: “Indiana Jones Theme” by John Williams
First Dance: “Wink and a Smile” by Harry Connick Jr

For a more detailed music list, you can find additional tunes that they played on Ashley’s website

For us the central, foundational point of the day was our ceremony. I think for a lot of couples, the reception is the highlight and, seriously, who doesn’t love a good party? But that being wrapped in love, community, and spirituality that I mentioned above? Totally what the ceremony was all about. It was a place of deep introspection and hopeful contemplation.

Plenty of memories from this stand out: Andrew and I served communion to our entire host of wedding guests, to mark the importance of this new beginning. We gave thanks to each other’s parents, for raising and loving this person we were committing our lives to. And speaking our deeply heartfelt vows to one another was surreal, indescribable. But probably one of my favorite moments was after the recessional, when we had a few seconds to just hold each other and breathe and stand in awe of the moment of: “Wow, we did it. We are married.”

How cute is their cake topper!!? :)

My girlfriends, mom, and I ombre-dyed cloth napkins that we will use for years and years of meals, so that we can remember the first meal they began life at. Andrew and I wrote verbose and deeply meaningful vows to one another that would hold us tightly in their grip. I spent painstaking hours sorting and arranging music, to set and bolster the feel of the day. We went to some seriously valuable premarital counseling with an incredibly loving pastor and his wife, and hashed out our theology surrounding our wedding. Lather, rinse, repeat, on nearly every aspect. In truth, I threw myself, mind, body, and soul into this wedding, as I seldom have in any other time in life.

And after nine months of laboring (funny, but true), I gave away complete control of the wedding — to God, to the weather, to our coordinator, to all of our guests. Because honestly you can have Plan A’s and Plan B’s all lined up, and pray as much as you want, and even freak the eff out as much as you want, but there comes a point when a wedding is completely out of your hands. It was beautiful to let go, and let the day simply be what it was going to be: it allowed me to be calm and fully present for this momentous day. And in the midst of this releasing control, something completely unexpected happened: this wedding that I had worked SO hard on and poured so much love and sweat into…this wedding became a gift back to us.

vendors

photography: Shannen Norman Photography // venue name: Pine Rose Cabins, in Lake Arrowhead, California // wedding dress: Modern Trousseau // hairpiece: Mignonne Handmade // bride's shoes: Aerosoles + handmade clips // groom attire: Alfani // paper goods: bride // catering: our friends and families busted out their best crackpot recipes, and we had an incredible soup and stew buffet, and an also amazing dessert spread. what more could you want than the best warming foods your family can offer, on a crisp mountain day? // cake: Sugar Sugar Cakery // day-of-coordinator: Mary Barnett // cinematography: our guests! we passed out half a dozen Flip video cameras, and asked them to film anything they found notable during the day. the result is an extensive and deeply personal set of wedding videos that we love to pieces // invitations: bride // music: Joel Cathey and Faith Hefty