Southern Weddings

Another wedding from {Jonathan Canlas Photogrpahy}.  Yes, Jonathan sent us another great wedding.  But there is more here then a cute couple, a Frank Sinatra inspired reception and amazing photography.  Nicole and Amelia (from our wedding earlier today) are sisters.  The two chose to marry back to back, on Friday and Saturday.  Although each place unique and different touches on their wedding, family and friends had quite a weekend with back to back weddings.  Congratulations to Nicole and Amelia’s parents that made it through with smiling faces (bottom left photo). Nicole + Josh had their “Frank Sinatra” reception at the {Grand America Hotel}.  The flowers were created by {Flower Patch}. Wedding cake by {Ambrosia Exquisite Wedding Cakes}.  Check out all the shots on Jonathan’s {Blog}.

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story: Josh and I meet my senior year of high school. I just happened to be taking a college theatre class that he was in as well. We became really good friends and hung out for about 6 months until my cell phone broke down and I lost his number. I had no way of contacting him so we lost touch and he thought that I had ditched him. A year and a half went by and I found myself thinking about him more and more, which was weird because we were never even that serious. I knew that he was probably serving a mission for the Latter-Day Saint Church, but I had no idea where he had been called to. So after putting it off for a couple of months I wrote him a letter and just sent it to the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah. I put in a description about all the facts I knew about him. I never thought that he would ever get the letter I just sent it out there so I would feel better about it. Two months went by and all of a sudden I got a letter from him, which shocked me. He was very enthusiastic and sounded really glad that my cell phone had broke down and I had not just been avoiding him. He had about five more months of his mission left so we wrote back and forth to each other very casually. In the back of my mind I wondered if we this was going anywhere but I did not want to get ahead of myself. Well five months went by and I knew Josh was coming home. I just assumed I wouldn’t see him for about 4 months, seeing how he just got back from his mission and was still probably a little weird (they abide by pretty strict rules on the mission so many come back and are very awkward with girls). But the next week I was coming home from a date with my then boyfriend and low and behold Josh was standing on my doorstep about to knock on the door. Obviously I was extremely excited to see him, but I tried to play it casual, probably not my best acting job, but I was able to maintain my composure. To make a long story short it was pretty much off to the races from there on. I immediately got rid of the guy I was seeing and pretty much spent every spare second with Josh that I could. It was like we’d never stopped being friends. We clicked immediately and became best friends again. And all he had to do to woo me was mention the fact that he loved golf and sushi and it was pretty much a sealed deal from there. Any sentence that contains golf and sushi makes me weak in the knees. So that’s our story. We were engaged six weeks later and then set to marry on December 27th 2008. And so far it’s been the best decision of my life.
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? I have always loved the concept of white, black, and red. Ever since I was a little girl I always wanted my husband to wear a white tuxedo jacket at our wedding. To me it is suave and reminds me of Frank Sinatra. I feel that the “Frank Sinatra” era (as I look to put it) is timeless, and it worked out perfectly that we got married in the winter because my white dress and his white jacket looked incredible against the snow. And the red roses were what tied it all together.
Favorite design element of your big day: I have to say that I loved the room in which our reception was held. It was a beautiful room at the Grand America Hotel called “The Grand Venezia Salon” and it just had a great design to it, with yellow wallpaper and high white ceilings. The food was Italian themed, not to mention I was going for the Frank Sinatra style that I mentioned earlier, so the atmosphere reminded me of a warm Italian get together. Everything just tied together really well, and to top it off the music we made our entrance to was the “Godfather” theme song. So that really was just a fun moment for me and Josh.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I found out about this little boutique on Center Street in Provo, Utah and I pretty much walked with the mind frame that I was going to buy because I hate having to shop for hours on end, and to be honest I just wanted to get the dress part out of the way. I am not the typical bride in that I just don’t care about all the details; this is pretty much why I handed over the reins to other people to plan my wedding. All I really cared about was the food, the color scheme, and the honeymoon, other than that I left all the rest to Jean’s (my wedding planner/sister) judgment. I saw a dress I liked in one of their magazines at the store and asked if they had one in stock. They had only one in my size so I tried it on, looked at myself in the mirror, liked what I saw, and they had themselves a sale. They kept on asking me if I wanted to look at more dresses but I didn’t really see the need because I’m sure they had some other dresses there but I felt like the one I found was functional and actually complimented my figure, so I didn’t see the need.
Describe your wedding flowers: They were from The Flower Patch and they were all red roses.
Describe your wedding cake: It was made by Ambrosia Wedding Cakes. It had white frosting with a chocolate interior and had red ribbon around the three tiers.
What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding? If possible hire or find someone else to do it. It saved me the hassle of doing it myself, which was greatly appreciated, especially during my finals, which was only one week before my wedding day.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? I am a psychology major and planning on graduate school and Josh is a business major planning on law school. So right now we are finishing up our undergrad at Brigham Young University and hoping to move back to my hometown Washington D.C. and go to schools out there. I think Georgetown University is the place where we would both like to end up, but we are considering other possibilities on the west coast. As far as kids go we want to hold off until we have both finished school and at least have established somewhat of a career.

Congratulations to Nicole + Josh.  We wish you the best as you continue your education and your newlywed life.