Wedding

David + Stephanie | San Diego, California Destination Wedding

Japense Friendship Garden Oregon film wedding photography jumpsuit bride

November 4, 2016

I’m Marla
Sprinkled throughout this journey are the little joys, moments of inspiration, and snippets of life that add color to our human experience. Join me as we embrace the beauty of imperfect perfection, the magic of a beautiful moment, and the endless possibilities of creativity.

Destination Wedding Film Photographer San Diego Socal Fine Art Balboa Park

Even though I’m a wedding photographer based in Portland, Oregon, I photograph around the world and it’s really common to make a great connection with a couple who are planning their wedding in a different state or country.  When Stephanie reached out she said “I would love for you to photograph my wedding and I want you to shoot as much of it on film as possible.” YESSSS, I always adore when couples are finding me for film specifically!!! I was delighted to celebrate their Balboa Park wedding together, loved our alternate locations like picking up their license at the San Diego County Courthouse and later photographing at the historic Santa Fe Train Station.  Stephanie had two simple, but elegant outfits with her first choice as a 60’s inspired JUMPSUIT. A smoking hot wedding jumpsuit for a smoking hot bride. What I love most about all the things Stephanie and David planned for their wedding, it was truly a celebration of them. They did what they wanted, their personalities were all over their wedding day, they made it their own!

I hadn’t spent very much time with David prior to their wedding day, but wow–what a catch he is (smart, hard working, kind-hearted, handsome, oozing with integrity… you know, all the best things). They are wonderful together, so respectful of one another and so in love. It’s always a treat to see that level of affection between any of my wedding couples, but really so endearing and heart warming to see it between my friend and the love of her life.

I asked Stephanie to answer four questions regarding the style of their wedding and some of the choices they made. Keep reading at the bottom to hear more from her perspective. =)

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Portland Oregon film wedding photography fine art bride getting ready portrait

Destination wedding photography Oregon film bride details

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Japanese Friendship Garden Bride Groom portrait

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Japanese Friendship Garden Elizabeth Dye Dunaway wedding gown

Japanese Friendship Garden Elizabeth Dye Dunaway gown bride

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Q+A Time!!

1) How did you come up with your personal wedding look?  Many brides choose 2 dresses and do a reception change, but you went completely outside the box and chose a jumpsuit first and then a dress.  I’d love to know more about your process of creating these looks for big day!

Bride: I like a little bit of everything, from vintage to modern to tomboy to high fashion. If it has clean lines, yet still playful no questions asked, I’m into it. I chose my looks based off the vibe I wanted to create during each time point of the night. I also wanted to bring as much of Portland to San Diego which is why I went with Portland based designers Elizabeth Dye for my dress and Sahlia Jewelry for most of my accessories.

2) What were your favorite details of your wedding day?
Bride: So hard to choose..
1) Doing our first look at where we originally wanted to get married (City Hall, but both our families really wanted a real wedding), so we made sure to still file our marriage certificate there after our first look and pay tribute to our idea.
2) Not having a bridal party. It was great to avoid any headache or heartache by not having one. Most importantly, it didn’t create a barrier for our close friends and siblings. It set a tone of “all of us are family” and let’s celebrate the love we share.
3) Taking two hours around downtown San Diego to take photos at a few memorable spots before arriving to our venue. We were able to decompress and have fun before arriving to our wedding.
4) Our music choice for the important stuff. David and I initially bonded over our tastes in music. Both songs we walked down the aisle too gave us goosebumps, even though we couldn’t see one another we knew what the songs were for and the backstory to them. Honored guests and groom walked down to the cover “Heartbeats” by Jose Gonzalez while my parents and I walked down to “Genesis” by Grimes.
3) What do you remember most about your wedding day?
Bride: Our nightfall, candle-lit ceremony in the garden with our favorite people. So dreamy. Enough said.
4)  Another outside the box part of your wedding was a reverse ceremony, how did you come by that idea? Now that you’ve done it, would you do it again?  Do you have any advice to other brides who might consider a similar timeline/set up?
Bride: I came by this idea by reading this article: http://www.brit.co/reverse-wedding-trend/. We are both from the Pacific Northwest and knew we had to have our wedding in San Diego so his (now late) grandfather could attend. We’ve both been to a lot of weddings in Southern California and didn’t want ours to be another pretentious traditional one. Once I read the above article I was sold, we added our own spins to the timeline and voila! It came together so nicely and I would absolutely do it again!!!
Thank you so much to David + Stephanie for having me document such a special time in your lives! I’m thrilled to show off your beautiful wedding day!!

Credits

Wedding Venue: Japanese Friendship Garden at Balboa Park

Getting Ready Location: Inn At The Park

Planning and Coordination: Weddings by Thomas Lewis

Cellists: The Andantino Duo

***

Images created using Kodak Portra 400 film and a Contax 645 medium format camera. Film processed and scanned by The FIND Lab.

Marla Cyree of Simply Splendid is based is Portland, Oregon and specializes in film photography as a wedding and portrait photographer and is always happy to go wherever her clients invite her.

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