This snowy mountain wedding features a must see pink and white gown

Snowy Mountain Wedding With A Pink & White Vintage Inspired Gown | Victoria Johansson 11

Snowy mountains, a lacy, pink and white Claire Pettibone dress, dusty colored wildflowers, and a cozy lodge make today’s real wedding straight out of a story book romance.

We feel so warm and cozy scrolling through this intimate Sierra Nevada wedding, filled with radiant smiles and plenty of happy tears.

Searching for “the dress” Chelsea recounts a relatable story of trying on a number of beautiful gowns that just weren’t “her”. At last she found her vintage inspired gown from Claire Pettibone, featuring pink lace pattern details and a victorian inspired cut, we think perfect for the bride looking for something romantic, but different.

Snowy Mountain Wedding With A Pink & White Vintage Inspired Gown | Victoria Johansson 12

The Love Story

You know that sort of love story where two souls come together, and they are just meant for each other? That’s Chelsea and Joel. It all started at college, where he would wear his best shirt to the class they had together each Wednesday, and Chelsea would walk the wrong way each week after class, just to extend their conversations together. The first thing he noticed about her are her dimples, and she fell head over heels with his red hair. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Proposal

Joel and I went to Huntington Gardens and spent the day there. As the afternoon wore on and the crowds left, we found ourselves in the rose garden almost completely alone on a shaded bench. That’s where he proposed. It wasn’t a surprise — we’d talked plenty about our future together — but I cried anyway.

The Dress

I love history (something I got from my mother, I think) and I connect with a lot of vintage designs. I tried on dozens of modern, all-white wedding dresses, but felt out of place in all of them. It felt like that style was expected, but it wasn’t me.

Finally, I found the “Genevieve” Claire Pettibone dress, which is very distinctive with pink patterns and Victorian-inspired lace accents. I loved it immediately. I kept the rest of my outfit natural to keep with the lakeside theme — just inexpensive nude heels that I could dance in and a few pieces of silver jewelry.

The Venue

The setting was definitely most important to us! We were willing to devote more of our budget to getting the right venue than anything else.

We wanted our wedding to be small, intimate (just a few close family members), and in a place of completely heart-stopping, wild beauty. I wanted the setting to move us and to move our guests. I wanted it to inspire and make everyone feel something, from a completely natural source that wasn’t just manufactured decoration. There’s nothing more beautiful to me than water in an alpine setting, so we chose Convict Lake near Mammoth Mountain, up in the Sierra Nevada. It’s breathtaking!

The Flowers

Since we wanted natural beauty to be front-and-center, the flowers felt like a very crucial aspect to us. Since we were up in the mountains, I wanted all of our bouquets and centerpieces to have a “wildflower” look, as though someone had just grabbed handful of gorgeous mountain flowers from the area.

I specifically told our florist I didn’t want too many of the classic, manicured-looking wedding flowers. I wanted plenty of dusky blues and purples and pops of pink, with plenty of texture/variety in the arrangement. The results were spectacular!

Special Moments

It may sound very typical, but I think I’ll always remember the few seconds when Joel’s face changed — noticeably — when I appeared at the end of the aisle. He looked surprised, and then he smiled and I could immediately tell he was on the verge of tears. The emotion was so real.

I remember the thick white mist that was around the mountain above the lake that day — positively ethereal! — and I remember all of our family members partying on the dance floor until the very end. Including relatives I don’t think I’ve ever seen dance in my life.

Snowy Mountain Wedding With A Pink & White Vintage Inspired Gown | Victoria Johansson 27

Advice to Other Couples

Even though we had a small wedding, I found that we saved such an enormous amount of stress by hiring a wedding planner! I would recommend that above everything else, even if only a part-time planner to help arrange the endless logistics with vendors. It turned out to be so much more work than I thought it would be, even though I was warned it would be a LOT of work. You never really know until you’re in the middle of it.

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The Wedding Songs

I walked down the aisle to “Your Song” by Ellie Goulding, a recommendation from our DJ that really resonated with me. Our first dance was “The Book of Love” by Airborne Toxic Event, and I put together a general playlist with the help of our stellar DJ that included Ingrid Michaelson, Ed Sheeran, and even the Beach Boys, among many others!

The Honeymoon

Continuing our pursuit of wild, ruggedly beautiful locales, we spent our honeymoon in the Highlands of Scotland learning some history and sampling whiskey! It was a wonderful trip. I even got to play the bagpipes (badly).