Secret Garden Wedding Inspiration At Balboa Park

As we come to terms with a new normal for weddings beginning with social distancing to no group dancing and reduced intimate guest counts, we must continue to honor heirlooms and make new memories as love carries onward.

For the venue, we knew right away leaning into the COVID wedding trend a public park was selected, making it less difficult to find in their own neighborhood. With an affinity of love for a soft color palette, paint strokes of French Blue, White and Gray paired with an array of mix and match styles harmonized beautifully from the vision of Southern House Events.

Drawing inspiration from the idea of an overgrown garden courtesy of The Little Fleur Co. drew on what animals and life must have inhabited such an overgrown and forgotten space practically mimicking the way nature can take over items left behind by mankind. We then chose to modernize the design by adding in subtle French countryside touches to give the design a more feminine and delicate look.

Our couple chose to use this shoot as a chance to renew their vows and have a redo of their original wedding day, which was celebrated in a courthouse a decade ago.

We were elated to include a real couple and desired to give them a sense of what a real wedding day feels like, so we partnered with The White Flower to pull a minimal modern wedding gown that lightly fell of the shoulder and paired our bride’s look with a more color forward blue tuxedo from The Black Tux on our dashing groom. Our bride’s hair and makeup was inspired by the natural French-girl style and was executed by the talented Beauty Bespoken.

During the ceremony, we had the couple create their 10-year wedding anniversary time capsule provided by Cades and Birch which included their favorite bottle of wine and handwritten love notes to each other and in lieu of a traditional unity ceremony they sealed their time capsule and released live butterflies to mark the start of their new beginning as husband and wife.

We also had the honor of including a live artist, Laura Jane Fine Art Studio to help capture the couple’s
ceremony in a treasured oil painting that proudly hangs in their home long after their wedding day. With fewer guests to celebrate with, this opens the door to including more thoughtful details that couples can cherish for years to come!

Immediately following the intimate ceremony, we invited guests to join the newlyweds in a pond-side reception picnic. Each guest pairing had an escort picnic basket waiting for them to their assigned area—both thoughtful and honoring the required social distancing guidelines. The baskets themselves included attractively designed menus from Paper Ocelot, stating all that was inside the baskets and stocked with everything guests would need throughout the reception like; a custom charcuterie display provided by The Charcuterie Girls, a bucket of champagne with delicate floral ice, striking plates, napkins and goldware from Hostess Haven.

To top it off we even included mini individualized macarons and sugar cookies delicately garnished with butterfly details and mini wedding cakes provided by Jenny Weeny Cakes, which complimented the couples cutting cake, so each guest could safely enjoy their own slice of cake.

Successfully highlighting the beauty and customizations possible for couples with their upcoming COVID elopements and weddings. Overall an environment conveying such timeless romance with historical relevance is guaranteed to leave you feeling inspired and guaranteeing how something strange and new can be done.