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The Couple: Laura & Kyle

Photography by Bethany Petrik Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved: Kyle and I were so lucky to meet each other on Ok Cupid in 2012. We met for sushi on our first date and I could have sworn he hated me! At the end of the night I was ready to say goodbye forever when he kissed me! I had to rethink the whole date! Since then we’ve had a wonderful time building a life together. We knew when we got engaged that we wanted our wedding day to be a giant amazing party that wouldn’t break the bank. It was important to us that we incorporate a lot of creativity and DIY into our wedding! It was the largest research project and creative endeavor of my life and I enjoyed every minute of it!

What was the most amazing part of your day? Kyle and I chose to walk down the aisle together. It was so wonderful holding his hand and walking out to see all of our friends and family gathered there to celebrate with us.

What else would you like to share about your big day? We loved all the personal touches at our wedding. I painted the table numbers on small canvases – each with a mini painting of something we enjoy. We also made 100+ mini jars of jam as favors. The day before our wedding we went into San Francisco and purchased a ton of flowers from the flower mart. I had saved small jars for over a year and a friend came over to help me make all the mini arrangements. The morning of the wedding my bridesmaids helped me make our bouquets, boutonnieres, and the garland that was the backdrop during our ceremony.
Kyle and I have regular burrito dates and we loved that our catering company made an amazing spread of fish tacos for us. They also suggested that we hire a churro cart for our dessert! It was a super fun and delicious touch.

My brother was able to officiate our wedding since we had already been legally married. And our first dance was to the song “Friendship is Rare” by Tenacious D. We love laughing and singing to this song on road trips and we got a good laugh out of our hilarious first dance. At the end of the night, another Tenacious D song came on and our guests formed a huge ring on the dance floor and sang along. It was another one of those magical and memorable moments!
All of these things made our wedding just perfect for us.

Ceremony and Reception Site: Ardenwood Farm

Ceremony Musicians: A friend of Kyle’s was in a Klezmer band and they performed for us. They did an amazing job!

Officiant: Brother of the Bride

Photographer: Bethany Petrik Photography

Caterer: Royal Raspberry

Cake/Desserts: Churros Guerrero Cart

Flowers: DIY with flowers purchased from the flower mart in San Francisco.

Favors: Homemade Jam

Bridal Attire: David’s Bridal

Hair & Make-up: A friend

Invitations: DIY. We made and mailed post cards! Saved us a ton of money and they were adorable.

Signage: DIY

Honeymoon Location: Kauai

First Dance Song: “Friendship is Rare” by Tenacious D

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now? Make your wedding what you want it to be! We left out some of the traditional things and never regretted it. We made a lot of things ourselves and had a ton of fun doing it. Use your resources and ask friends for help! It also doesn’t hurt to keep track of everything in a binder or google drive folder.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance? Be clear with your DJ about what songs you want and when. I gave our DJ a list of possible songs as a jumping off point and they misunderstood! They ended up playing the songs IN ORDER. This meant that we had like 10 minutes of The Beatles followed by 10 minutes of Katy Perry. It was not ideal.

Photography by Bethany Petrik Photography.

Blog post by Real Weddings Magazine’s Social Media Maven, Aimee Carroll.