Temecula, California.
Bailey Winery
Vaquero Resort.
Randhawa Ranch.
Espadin - Old Town Temecula.
These are just a few of the key places in southern California that will always have my heart and that play such a big part in my very own love story with Ed Kirby.
After Ed proposed at Bailey Winery in Temecula, we started looking at venues in California because we knew we wanted to plan a destination wedding and southern California was a special place to us AND made sense for most of our guests who were coming from Utah and Nevada.
After finding THE MOST AMAZING airbnb, we thought we had found THE SPOT. We almost didn't look anywhere else because we loved it so much and totally had our hearts set on it. Long story short, we had too many people to have the wedding at the airbnb and were back at "square one" in a sense. Luckily, we had toured Randhawa Ranch while we were in town and it ended up being the most perfect space with the most incredible view of a country valley with a brand new ceremony space!
Now onto the fun part...
June 9th, 2023
We left Las Vegas and headed to Temecula, California to pick up our marriage license. Because we were getting married on Monday, we made sure to schedule an appointment on Friday to pick up the license and it also gave us a full day to get things done before our guests started to arrive (costco run, errands, etc.)
June 11, 2023
On Sunday, our guests arrived for the rehearsal and it was cold and cloudy.... yikes! We had requested everyone in our bridal party (and their plus ones) to wear ALL WHITE from head to toe and they were only slightly mad at us when we showed up to the "white party" in blue!
Hey, what can we say?! I loved the theme and I know I'm the bride but I wanted to wear blue so how else do I stand out?! It looked SOO GOOD at our rehearsal and I'm seriously so proud of how well everyone pulled it off!
The only two things that I didn't think about with everyone in white....
Rain - which it did rain on our rehearsal
Salsa - our rehearsal lunch was mexican.
Red Wine - after lunch, everyone went to wineries around town!
Oops - didn't really take those into consideration but still wouldn't change a thing. Our rehearsal lunch was a buffet at Espadin in Old Town Temecula and it was honestly the perfect choice. The food was fantastic and they set us up on one side of the restaurant so that we could mingle and their staff did a fantastic job. We did A LOT of mexican candy shots and we even got my parents (who aren't big drinkers) to take a shot with us. As my brother would say "we crossed off one of his bucket list items... "take a shot with my parents." CHECK! '
After the rehearsal Ed and I headed to the airbnb to prepare for our family to arrive. We could not WAIT to see their faces when they showed up. In fact, we did not give anyone the address until a few hours before because we wanted it to be a total surprise.
The airbnb was EPIC. An 8 bedroom mansion with pickleball courts, bocce ball, an infinity pool with a slide, a pizza oven, bar area, and dialed in space.... it was BEAUTIFUL and the perfect space for our closest family to spend a few days with us to celebrate (the same airbnb that we had wanted to use for the actual wedding... yes, we splurged!)
June 12, 2023 - WEDDING DAY.
Our wedding in 3 words.... A party, colorful, and "us". Every detail was a unique representation of our love story and it was an absolute dream come true! A few of our favorite 'details':
- MY DRESS. I mean... COME ON!! If you knew me, you would know how perfect this dress was for me. I stumbled across this dress on instagram a year before I got married and never in a million years thought that I would actually get to wear it. In fact, I talked to Ed about it beforehand because it was way more money than I had anticipated spending but it was EVERYTHING
- Our floral preservation pieces - as a floral preservationist and a major flower lover, it only made sense to have a few handmade pieces at our wedding. I spelled out my new last name in resin letters and made a beautiful shelf piece that we used for our signature cocktails. Both turned out BEAUTIFULLY.
- Our wine bottle guest book - when Ed proposed at Bailey Winery, they gifted us a bottle of wine and we used those bottles as our guest book. Our incredible graphic designer even made our signage look exactly like the wine bottles.... I love some good attention to detail!
- Our songs. Every song we chose was chosen VERY intentionally. I actually swapped two songs and walked down to "Fall for you" by Leela James because Ed and I love that song and I knew it would make him cry. I also have to throw in the fact that I incorporated the theme song from Gilmore Girls as the song my parents walked down the aisle to because it's my all time favorite show and one that I have many memories watching with my mom.
- Ed's Attire + Groomsmen Attire: we did a beautiful custom suit for Ed and made sure to include a pin with photos of his parents and his sister who had both passed away prior to the wedding. He also gifted his groomsmen a NICE pair of sunglasses and they all wore them as part of the processional walk and it was epic.
- TONS OF COLOR! I love color and I wanted it to be a big part of our celebration so for our ceremony, we got a bunch of bright colored umbrellas that we thought would be great shade from the sun. We were worried about it being super hot but the weather was actually perfect. Turns out the umbrellas were super handy when the sprinklers came on right as our ceremony was supposed to start and totally soaked all our guests. It was hilarious (at least to me because I was tucked away and dry!)
- Our first dance: we did a semi-choreographed first dance and I got to do ALL the twirls which was significantly harder to do in my ballgown dress than it was in the leggings/t-shirt that we had practiced in.
- Our Flowers: I wanted ALLLLLL THE FLOWERS and I had the most amazing florist who helped bring my vision to life and traveled all the way from southern Utah to bring my vision to life. My florist was a fellow vendor that I had worked with a lot of the last few years and a true friend to do as much as she did for me and it was perfect. She had all my favorite flowers incorporated (peonies, ranunculus, dahlias, white chocolate cosmos... and all the colors!)
- Speaking of vendors: Can't talk about my wedding without a huge thank you to literally every single vendor who brought my vision to life, especially my friends based in southern Utah who gifted and supported me with so much and traveled to be part of our big day: Tambra Moultrie Weddings CBJ and Company, Jocelyns Floral, and Black Julep Studios.
- My outfit change: I found the cutest sparkly romper and it was the perfect dancing outfit! Huge fan and so much cooler!
- Our first shot (and customized shot glasses) -- Ed wanted the first time he saw me to be as I walked down the aisle so we did a first "shot" together at the airbnb before the guys left in a limo to the venue!
- Our last dance with a confetti cannon - I wanted this exact shot and it was perfect!
- PARTY BUS! This was honestly a highlight and I'm so glad that we opted for the party bus at the end of the night to get everyone back to the airbnb. We didn't want the party to die before we got back because we had a surprise waiting for our guests and it was a RIOT!
- Surprise Late Night Pizza --- it wouldn't be Eds wedding if there wasn't pizza and it was DAMN GOOD. We found a pizza company that came and set up a pizza oven in the driveway and we had pizza for all our drunk guests upon arrival. We even had two signature pizzas and the cutest signage (again from Black Julep Studios!)
- Our bridal session two days later- a really important part for Ed was getting to PARTY at our wedding and not spend a lot of time taking photos. He really wanted to dance, drink, and have fun on our wedding day so we planned a bridal session with our photographer two days later so that we could enjoy the rest of the time with our family before they all headed home. 100% the best decision we made and we got the MOST AMAZING PHOTOS in the hills of southern california and our photographer found a perfect random patch of purple flowers that lit my soul on fire!!!
Honestly it was SO PERFECT and there just isn't any other word to describe it. The day flew by SO DAMN FAST and I wish I could re-live it again and again. So thankful for talented photographers + videographers who captured our wedding day so that we can do just that.
Planning your own wedding in southern California? We've done it and can't wait to help bring your dreams to life next! LETS DO THIS!
Happy Planning, Lovers!!!