Real Wedding: Heather + James’ Fun Vintage Wedding

Heather + James have known each other ever since they were little kids! – isn’t that so sweet?  A few years after high school they fell in love, James left to serve a two year church mission in Chile Santiago, Heather waited for him, James came home, proposed, now they get to be married!:) Such a sweet story! And today I get to share their fun, vintage carnival wedding photographed by Amelia + Justin Lyon of Amelia Lyon Photography.

A bit about the wedding from Amelia, Heather + James were married at the LDS Temple in Santa Monica, the details of their day were nothing short of amazing..seriously! I’m going to take a moment to brag about my family and how well they can pull together to put on a amazing wedding. I basically grew up in the wedding industry with my grandparents who started a catering company and opened up a gown shop in the 1950’s. Now, fifty plus years later, I have uncles and cousins that cater, cousins that are amazing florists, make-up artists, dj’s, bakers, photographers, ALL family! You name it, we got it and we do it for the wedding industry!! Anyway, Heather + James’ wedding really showed the beauty of family pulling together to make their day a dream come true (plus, James’ dad and grandpa can make some killer meatballs)! Oh, in case you are wondering, Heather and Amelia are cousins :)

Love that top photo of Heather getting ready. Heather also wanted some photos in her mother’s wedding dress – bottom left (she wore a different dress for the wedding).

It also rained all day, but that didn’t ruin the fun – love these creative shots with the umbrella!

From Heather, Picking a theme was really difficult. I started with looking through magazines, blogs, websites, etc. Finally I narrowed it down to some of my favorite ones. We wanted more of a fun atmosphere for our friends and family so we decided to go with more of a 50s vintage feel. We wanted to create a fun environment with bright colors and a lot of fun activities for our guests to do.

Favorite memory of the day? One of my favorite memory of the day was walking into the reception (when they announced us) and seeing everything that i have planned for so long and dreamed of for so long come together. It was my dream wedding and more. To look around and see everyone that was there for us. Everyone who came from far to be there with us and celebrate an amazing event. I remember leaning over to James saying “This is exactly what i always wanted. My family and friends just dancing and having a blast!”

There was a candy bar, an old fashioned soda bar, a cotton candy station, a few old-mobiles, and a bunch of huge balloons.

I love their outfits they changed into for the exit!

Any advice for those planning right now? My biggest advice i can give to any bride now is “don’t stress about the small stuff on your day” i look back and think of how many things went wrong and how mad i could have gotten. (the rain, my dress ripping, bridemaids drama, etc ) But i honestly was so happy and those things didn’t matter. I think about my wedding day and if i had been bridezilla, I would have been really embarrassed, cause it really isn’t the point of that day! :) You spend so much time and money into planning. Its your wedding day… just enjoy it and think about how great everything is turning out! You get one day to enjoy it so LIVE IT UP!

Another piece of advice is go big on your photographer (Amelia Lyon Photography) and videographer (Shade Tree Films) because thats the only thing you can actually take with you. So those things should be top of your priority list. I look back and am so glad I chose my vendors well and trusted them.

Thanks Heather + James for sharing your story with us and thanks so much to Amelia for letting me share your beautiful photos! You can see lot more from the day including a slideshow on Amelia’s blog.