Our Wedding Day

Hi there! I would like to take some time to finally share our wedding day with you! It’s taken me a long time to finally compose this post. There is so much I can say, and so much I learned. In my mind, it is still the most perfect, wonderful day. I loved every second of it, and I walked away with such a full heart. As a wedding photographer, I really wanted to share my thoughts and feelings about this day with my future brides and grooms who are looking at my website. I thought it would a great way to get to know me. Then, it seemed impossible to put into words, and break-down into a blog post. So after several months now, here is my best attempt:

On the day:
It was everything we wanted and more.
We mixed aspects of offbeat and traditional to create a wedding that felt truly us. We had a small ceremony with family on the steps of the Howell House at the Kern County Museum early in the day. Later in the evening, we had a big party in the Chamber of Commerce building at the museum. It was a beautiful explosion of color and fun in a Bakersfield themed reception. Yes, our wedding was Bakersfield themed! We love our hometown. Once we decided to get married here at the Kern County Museum, we knew we wanted to work in our love for vintage Bakersfield. We also chose the date because it was my grandparents’ 62nd wedding anniversary. It was an honor to share their anniversary with them, and celebrate their marriage by beginning ours on the same day.

On the vendors:
We didn’t really need to do a lot of research when selecting vendors. We have worked in the wedding industry for several years now. This actually made the task incredibly difficult for a whole other reason. I dreaded making decisions! There are several vendors I know and like for each thing. If I could have 3 DJ’s, 5 caterers, etc; it would have made my life so much easier. There were so many wonderful options available to us, and so many generous supporters. It was tough, but with major support, I made my way through it. In the end, we made all the right choices and I wouldn’t have changed one person/vendor we asked to be part of our day.

Even before I became a wedding photographer I loved the Kern County Museum. I don’t think a lot of people realize what a gem it truly is. Brad and I have worked weddings at nearly every venue in town, but the museum still felt special and fresh. We picked spots at the museum that were new to us. We had never photographed a ceremony on the Howell House steps or a reception in the Chamber building. It was local, fit our style and it was special to us!

Of course, the number one question we received about our wedding planning was “Who will be your photographer?” The second most popular question was “What are your colors?” Neither were very easy to answer, but lets talk about photography first. This was the vendor that gave me the most initial anxiety. I knew it would be difficult to chose between photographer friends, and it became apparent early on that this was the detail everyone wanted to know about our wedding. So… I opted out. I didn’t choose someone I knew personally. I did however, choose someone that came highly recommended by a close friend. She had worked with him before, and knowing our style, she knew it would be a perfect fit. Our photographers were artistic, amazing people, and we will treasure the photos forever. We also enjoyed seeing an outsider’s take on capturing a popular local wedding spot. All of the lovely photos you see in this post were captured by Rog and Lyndzee of EP Love Photography, you can see the full blog post from our photographer here.

On tradition (or lack of):
We had a lot of non-traditional aspects to our wedding day. For the ceremony, we had two of our closest friends, who are married to each other, marry us (I shot their wedding in 2010!). As I mentioned earlier, we also split our day into two distinctive events with varying guests. This decision derived out of the desire to have a small intimate ceremony and also a big party. The idea of walking down an aisle, and getting married in front of over a hundred people made me freak out ever so slightly. We both knew we would be nervous, and we didn’t want our ceremony to be about conquering stage fright. We wanted it to be about us getting married. After giving it a lot of thought, and lots of discussions about actually executing this, we decided to go for it. The ceremony was unplugged, meaning we asked guests not to take photos or use their devices. This was really important to us because we wanted to look out and see the faces of everyone there (not their phones!). It’s these types of offbeat choices that I would encourage every couple planning a wedding to stand firm on. People might think it’s weird, but if it means something to you go for it. If it seems meaningless or doesn’t represent who you are as a couple, skip it.

One of the things we kept traditional was, no first look. (gasp! – But photographers love first looks?!) Well, yes, first looks can be awesome, but with our split day of a morning ceremony and evening reception, there was plenty of photo time in between. It’s also kind of funny that being nontraditional with one thing, helped us be traditional with something else! So, Brad and I opted for the special down the aisle moment. I am so glad we did this. I will never forget all the genuine emotions expressed in those moments. Instead of a traditional wedding party, we had a gang of adorable children who were quite special to us. I also asked my very closest girls to be prepared for some bridesmaid style photos.

We also did the traditional dances with a first dance, mother/son, father/daughter and a special anniversary dance with my grandparents.

We didn’t do a bouquet and garter toss, traditional toasts or a cake cutting. Instead, Brad addressed the whole reception with a grand toast and thank you speech (that I heard for the first time that night!).

Brad isn’t a huge fan of cake, but I wasn’t about to skip dessert! We decided to make it a fun activity for our guests and had an ice cream truck arrive to serve ice cream sammies! Each person got to pick an ice cream flavor and a cookie flavor, then it was made for them on the spot! FYI: they sell these pre-made at Lassens and Sprouts!

On emotions:
Oh the feelings! This is something I wasn’t fully prepared for. I am around brides all the time, I expected my insider knowledge would provide me with some type of bride super powers. False. It’s an emotional roller coaster. I was overjoyed, super sentimental, nervous, and everything in between. Afterwards, other than total joy, the other key emotion I felt surrounding my wedding was guilt. I know it seems weird, but the outpouring of love and generosity we received makes me feel forever in debt. People were so kind and sweet. Then there are the gifts! It’s still so crazy to me that people get you gifts! Bottom line is, we know some awesome people, and having them all together like that, nearly made my heart explode.

On how it feels to be married:
Pretty darn special. Before he was my fiance, or husband, he was my boyfriend for 7 years. Before that he was a long time friend. So in all honesty, day to day life isn’t really that different. Then you start saying wife and husband, and to me it does feel different. It feels stronger and official… and all kinds of wonderful.

The Credit:
Photography by EP Love
Venue: The Kern County Museum
Flowers and Decor: My Sorted Affair
Personal Flowers: A House of Flowers
Photo booth: W-Photo Lounge
DJ: Bosko One
Rentals: Walker Lewis
Videography: David Karnowski
Catering: Willow Ranch
Ice Cream Truck: Cool Haus
Bride’s Dress: BHLDN
Bride’s Makeup: Sarah Cosper, The Lab Bunny
Bride’s Hair: Angie Brauer
Bridal Headpiece and Veil: Twigs and Honey
Flower girls dresses sewed by Mother of the bride