Fun, Laid-Back BBQ Wedding in California

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I have a feeling today’s real wedding is going to make a lot of you smile.

Jade & Andy are a fun couple who beamed throughout their laid-back and intimate wedding.

Tying the knot in The Barlow in Sonoma, California, their day was candidly captured by Myke & Teri Photography.

Crammed with ideas, from their simple but so effective fern leave place-settings and the personalised photo centrepieces, to their outdoor dessert table and ice-cream bar, and their five course meat feast BBQ. There’s also some gorgeous style too – we’re loving Jade’s Hollywood waves and red lips!

But my favourite detail of this wedding has to be Jade’s description of falling in love with Andy – this pair are too freakin’ sweet.

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Our Love Story

Andrew and I met while attending Ministry school in Redding, California.

Our first time meeting was in San Francisco; a large group of students would go to the city once a month for a weekend. I vaguely remember talking to him that first trip… either way, I found my self excited each weekend away because I knew he would be there and we would be laughing a lot.

Our first moment together we really connected was sucking helium gas out of balloons and speaking to each other. The more I got to know him, the more I liked him.

I loved how completely opposite we were in almost every way and his sense of humour, and his blue eyes. Towards the end of the year, a couple of months before he moved back to New Zealand, he asked me on a date then eventually asked me to be his girlfriend.

We began our long distance relationship soon after we started dating. I first visited NZ to meet the family and he came and visited me twice throughout that year and half of dating.

I remember a moment where I thought to myself “I am so comfortable.” In that way that I was completely myself. I felt secure (which is a huge thing for me) and things just fit.

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Our Wedding in Three Words

Fun: We aimed to keep things light hearted and fun for our family and friends! Fun is a core value in our relationship.

Family: It was an incredible time to have all of our family together for this time. All of Andy’s family flew out and we had about four days where all of us were together.

Throughout our entire planning process, we were overwhelmed by our friends and families’ support. We had endless support.

Joyful: We started our new life together! I had been dreaming about this day for so long. My favourite part of the day was dancing together towards the end.

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Advice for Other Couples

Let go and don’t sweat the small stuff.

It’s nice to have dreams of big detailed weddings, however unless you’re a millionaire, the reality is that kind of wedding is just not real.

Choose one or two non-negotiable things you must have at your wedding like food, videography or a live band. Everything else, let go of it!

Don’t sweat the small stuff… on your wedding day, just embrace the things you cannot control and focus on your emotional well being and focus on your partner.

It’s about you two anyway, no one else.

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The Inspiration

When it came to choosing colours, flowers, etc, I envisioned a clean, refined style.

I loved the idea of using white with the contrast of charcoal and that pop of green in the flowers.

We wanted our day to be where our friends and family could eat a good meal and hang out. Andy loves good meat and so he took it upon himself to find the best BBQ he could!

Pampa’s food was amazing and no one was complaining about five courses of meat!

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The Photography

This was a tricky one. A lot of the photographers we found either over edited or were toooo expensive.

It was a miracle Andy found Myke & Teri Photography.

We loved how they captured candids and how they didn’t over-edit. We love our photos!

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Favourite Moments

I loved dancing with Andy at the end. I felt so full from all the support and love from our friends and family for us all the way up until this point.

I was so excited to start my new life. I felt light and so so loved.