Real Weddings Sunday: Presenting Krista Parker and Kyle Danielson

The Couple: Krista Parker and Kyle Danielson
Wedding Date: September 17, 2011
Photography by Justin Buettner Photography
Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Kyle and I are both natives of northern California. He is in law enforcement, and I’m in human resources. We spent about six months as just friends before we officially started dating. All of our friends and family say that we weren’t just friends and were dating, but we just say that there is nothing better than falling in love with your best friend.
Kyle is pretty quiet and reserved, while he says that I can’t keep my mouth from moving. I like to think that is what makes our relationship work, but once Kyle starts talking, he sometimes doesn’t stop!
His three words to describe me are: outgoing, talkative and organized. Being organized really helped with planning the wedding and having everything run smoothly. My words for him are: reserved, tinkerer (is that even a word?) and thoughtful. Kyle likes to tinker/take apart anything, and he always has something in his hands. In fact, in one of our wedding photos he’s wearing his ring, but spinning it around his finger while he is giving his speech. He always has to be working on something!
What was the most amazing part of your day? The whole day was amazing! Everything came together just like I imagined, and I love all the memories that day. I will say that my favorite part was walking down the aisle and seeing Kyle’s face. I loved how he was looking past everyone standing up and couldn’t wait to see me. I think a close second was cutting the cake and it getting all over! Kyle made sure to smash it in my face and up my nose. I tried to seek revenge, but his arms are longer!
What else would you like to share about your big day? We got in the wrong car after the ceremony… Our groomsmen had spent some time decorating our car, but whoever moved the car, moved our friend’s car instead of our car and we couldn’t figure out why they were so insistent to get in the car. Then they pulled up in our car (which was outfitted with every crazy thing you could imagine). It was one of those little things you will never forget!

Ceremony Site & Reception Venue: Saluti Cellars
Photographer & Videographer: Justin Buettner Photography
Wedding Planner:  I planned everything myself. You can ask the wedding party, they all had little binders and knew where they were supposed every minute of the wedding day. The groomsmen said I was crazy, but my friend who set everything up and my bridesmaids were very thankful for all of the info.
Caterer: Capital City Event Management. We wanted really good food, but were on a tight budget. Amy, the chef and Brigitte, the event manager, were AWESOME! Everyone at the wedding ranted and raved about the tri-tip and the chicken rouladen was delicious! I would recommend them to anyone asking for a caterer!
Cake:  D’Agostini’s Delights (the cake was delicious and gorgeous!)
Flowers:  Placerville Flower Market. April set up all of the flowers for the ceremony perfectly! I could not have imagined how perfect it could have come together!
Favors:  My grandmother and I painted wine glasses for each guest. We purchased plain wine glasses and painted them with different designs. Each table at the wedding had a theme that corresponded to something Kyle and I had done together or planned to do. For example: Bodega Bay was our first vacation and I made it a point to find sea shells in the sand, but could only find one sand dollar. That table’s wine glass had waves and sand with one sand dollar on the base.
Wedding Dress & Bridesmaid Dresses: Enchanted Bridal & Tuxedo Shoppe
Hair & Makeup: Jessica Wuthrich
Invitations:  DIY. I had IPS printing print the wording, and had my bridal party over to put everything together. It was super expensive to order the invitations I liked from one of the printing company books and I thought “I can do this for cheap!” I was a little off in my budgeting, but it did come out for less than a third of the price of ordering them!
DJ/Entertainment/Band: I would NOT recommend my DJ as he was probably the worst part of the wedding. He showed up in shorts and flip flops to the wedding and his sound system was not very good, and he didn’t announce anything.
Honeymoon location: We went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We visited Puerta Vallarta, Cabo, Ensanada and Manzanillo. It was 10 days of relaxation and was AWESOME!
First Dance Song: “Good Morning Beautiful” by Steve Holy
Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now? Be organized, take a moment to just sit back and take it all in, and research your vendors. Oh, and try to remember that this is the only time you are getting married and it is supposed to be fun! If you aren’t having fun, enlist help! You get overwhelmed and then things don’t get done or don’t get done as nicely as they could.
Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance? I didn’t call all of the references and when my DJ showed up in shorts and had horrible equipment and didn’t announce things as planned, I was pretty disappointed. Although we had that hiccup, it was the only thing that was really “bad” that day.

Photos courtesy of Justin Buettner Photography.