{ mai + nick | strawberry farms wedding }
I first met Mai over the sweetest email.. she wrote that she had been following my blog for awhile and as it would soon be her turn to tie the knot, she was excited to chat about wedding photography. She also wrote how she had recently started a floral business, Bunch Studio, and upon first glance at her website I was speechless. She created some of the most lush & creative designs I had ever seen, especially for someone who was only months (MONTHS!) into ever picking up a flower to arrange.
As the year before her wedding unfolded, I hung out with Mai (and Nick!) at various events & through mutual friends, we worked together on shoots and weddings, and by the time their own wedding (at the beautiful Strawberry Farms) came around, I felt I was definitely shooting the wedding of not clients, but dear friends. Which makes writing this entry almost more difficult.. because how to even describe such a day? A wedding where the bride is one of the most talented floral designers I’ve ever met? A ceremony arch of air plants; homegrown, picked, and potted succulents as favors; bouquets {each one unique!} that Mai handcrafted herself; every rustic & organic detail infused with Mai & Nick and their story..
But even moreso, how to describe the beautiful intangible side of things? A ceremony, officiated by a friend {my favorite type!}, that brought everyone present to tears, music & dance performances by friends at the reception, all the fathers/daughters & mothers/sons being invited out to dance during those respective moments & seeing all the various generations.. And a love between Mai and Nick that is all the right things – warm, silly, confident, and filled with that undeniable feeling of “home”.
A million thank yous to Mai & Nick for giving me the opportunity to document all of this!
This wedding is featured on one of my most favorite wedding blogs today… Green Wedding Shoes! Thank you Jen for the feature! Be sure to head over to GWS to see the post and a lovely description of the details of the wedding by Mai herself!
My favorite kinds of bouquets – whimsical, eclectic, and filled with unique not-your-typical-floral finds…
Nick asked all his groomsmen to grow out their mustaches for the wedding… love it!!
A shave ice truck was on hand providing endless refreshment, such a genius (and delicious) idea!
The most perfect photobooth setup…
And the cake! Laurie of I Believe It’s Cake! is a true artist and quite possibly outdid herself on this one… so elegant and beautiful…
Venue, Catering, Coordination: Strawberry Farms
Florals: Bunch Studio & Floral Elements
Cake: I Believe Its Cake
Shave Ice Truck: Tropical Shave Ice
DJ & MC: Playtime Attractions, Andy & Daphne Felicitas
Tags: barn wedding, diy wedding, diy wedding los angeles, farm wedding, los angeles vintage wedding, los angeles vintage wedding photography, orange county vintage wedding, orange county wedding photographer, organic wedding, rustic wedding, strawberry farms wedding, strawberry farms wedding photography, vintage, vintage wedding, vintage wedding photography
November 1st, 2010 at
[…] talented Adrienne Gunde Photography also posted on her blog with lots of details to share with you […]
November 1st, 2010 at
Loving this wedding. Great pics.
November 1st, 2010 at
i love it! :) that’s hilarious they grew out the mustaches just for the wedding.
November 1st, 2010 at
yay! congrats on the feature!
November 1st, 2010 at
Adrienne! What an incredible wedding. Those portraits on the porch are just perfect! Congrats on the feature :)
November 2nd, 2010 at
Adrienne, can I just tell you that looking through these photos brought me to tears? The experience itself was breathtakingly, heartwarmingly beautiful, no question–being in Mai & Nick’s presence I just felt the unbridled love-happiness radiating from them. But your photography and the details / expressions / tone / moments / joy that you captured…is just truly spectacular. This album is stunning. And achingly beautiful. It makes me want to hug it. :o)
November 2nd, 2010 at
Beautiful couple, beautiful photographs Adrienne. Stunning, really. Loved the colour/shade of green for the bridesmaid’s dresses, and how fun to have the moustaches, and of course the little potted plants for the names. :~)
November 2nd, 2010 at
Well, those were definitely worth the wait Adrienne! Beautiful! You captured everything so perfectly – they will cherish these photos til they’re old and gray. And Mai’s flowers were spectacular! Love the red accents!
November 3rd, 2010 at
Adrienne, you have OUTDONE yourself with this wedding!!!! I don’t even know where to begin on what I love, but I feel like the stand-out details are the florals, those men’s ties and THOSE MUSTACHES – hahaha – so awesome. What an incredible event. Details everywhere, making this the perfect event for you to photograph!
Rock on hon..you’re such an inspiration!
November 3rd, 2010 at
This wedding is perfections!!! Beautiful work Adrienne :)
November 3rd, 2010 at
This is the most lovely wedding I have seen. The pictures capture it perfectly. The details of this day are just exquisite. glad I found this blog. so inspiring.
November 4th, 2010 at
very scrumptuous work Adrienne :)
November 4th, 2010 at
beautiful. just beautiful. i cant even pick a favorite. for reals.
November 8th, 2010 at
Oh my gosh. It’s my first visit to your blog. I started looking at this post and got completely lost in the images, and couldn’t BELIEVE the light, then couldn’t remember where you are. Then I looked, and of course, it’s California. I’ve visited (I live in Australia) a few times, and all my photographs from California are full of the most incredible light. And you’ve done an ABSOLUTELY insanely beautiful job of capturing the day. Love love LOVE. Thank you. x
November 21st, 2010 at
This wedding is absolutely beautiful & your photographs are breathtaking!! Thanks for sharing – made me smile :)
July 26th, 2011 at
Love all the details in this wedding. Great job!
May 17th, 2012 at
[…] non-Christmassy (which I love – you can see another geniusly executed red-and-green wedding here!). They incorporated cultural traditions (like a sake ceremony), but also threw in their own […]