Southern Weddings

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a genuine pink wedding on the blog, but Mimi + Harry’s Virginia celebration at the Brookside Gardens hits the spot for me.  It’s light, fresh + feminine without being too girly.  (Anyone else suddenly reminded how much they’re going to miss these warm months?)  Theresa Choi + Julie Lim photographed the happy couple on their big day.  The bride opted for an elegant J. Crew ball gown, and went super-sleek with her veil from Unveiled Bridal Designs.  Mimi + Harry toasted their newlywed status at the China Garden Restaurant, where they enjoyed a dessert bar from the New York-based Momofuku.  My Simple Details not only planned the event, but also designed the flowers.  Lovely!  P.S.  How much do you love short hair summer brides?  I sure do!

How did the two of you meet?  Tell us your story. We met in college at the University of Maryland through mutual friends.  We seemed like opposites in most ways, but something sparked and we’ve had an amazing journey discovering both our differences and similarities ever since!  We’ve been together for about 8 years now.
Describe the proposal. Harry proposed to me, surprising me by taking me up to the Santa Barbara courthouse clock tower where there is a beautiful view of the city, the ocean, and the mountains all at once.  At that time, we were preparing to move back to our hometown in suburban Maryland from Santa Barbara, CA, where we had been living for the past 3-4 years while I was in graduate school.  The move symbolized a new chapter of our life, and Harry thought it a fitting moment.
Three adjectives that describe the day are: meaningful, intimate, personal
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: While there were many very cute details, one detail definitely stood out above the rest for us: the cake toppers, custom created based on our Nintendo Wii “Mii’s”, or avatars.  Paul Pape Designs created these toppers based on images of our avatars and our actual wedding outfits, copying them to the tiniest detail. They looked just like us! 
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I knew I had to have a wedding dress with pockets (to hold his ring and my vows, of course)! I discovered that J. Crew had many dresses with pockets so I looked through their designs.  The Lucinda ball gown was perfect: super simple, flattering, and just a little princess-y. Once I picked the dress I wanted, I went looking for it used! As a budget bride, I couldn’t imagine paying full-price for a dress I was wearing for only a day.  Luckily, I found a once-worn Lucinda on OnceWed.com for a great price!
Describe your wedding flowers: We provided a mini calla lily for each of our guests at the ceremony, in lieu of the boutonnieres we traditionally provide to all family members.  We wanted our parents to stand out in particular, though, so we had simple boutonnieres from a single calla lily for each of them.  We decided to forgo the traditional bouquet and flower arrangements, opting instead to getting married outdoors in a garden full of flowers and creating DIY centerpieces with origami flowers.  I, along with my sisters and friends, folded over 1500 origami cherry blossoms (and then attached them to branches, one by one) for our 50 centerpieces!
Describe your wedding cake: We decided to forgo the traditional giant wedding cake, and instead went with a giant dessert buffet stocked with my favorite desserts.  The highlights of the dessert buffet were chocolate chip cornflake marshmallow cookies and a small banana cake. The small uncovered cake was perfect for the cake toppers and matched our nontraditional style.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? The biggest challenge was finding a balance between our individuality and our families’ desires and expectations.  We wanted to express ourselves as a couple – our life philosophies, our idea of marriage and partnership – but we also wanted to include our families and emphasize the importance of community.  This took a lot of (sometimes painful and frustrating) give and take throughout the planning process.  But we were especially able to bring all these concerns together in our wedding ceremony, which we carefully created along with our officiant over the course of weeks.  The result was an incredibly special and meaningful ceremony that was an expression of us as a couple and that also brought our communities together.
What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future?  We are looking forward to normalcy! After almost a year of planning this event, we just want life’s daily rhythms to return to what we vaguely remember as normal! I am especially looking forward to having time to return to culinary and musical pursuits.  Long term, we are looking forward to discovering together the depths of the commitment that we have made.