I remember meeting with Mio & Dave for coffee on a cozy winter evening in Brentwood. It wasn’t our first time meeting – her sister-in-law (hi Joyce!) is one of my closest friends and Mio and I were bridesmaids together in Joyce’s wedding. Knowing how awesome Mio & Dave are, I walked into the meeting with all my mental fingers crossed – as they described their dreamy venue {Ponte Winery in Temecula} and vision for the day {an elegant “French country” theme}, I crossed my fingers a little tighter, when she expressed that her mom would be doing the flowers and that the wedding would be a labor of love, I was practically bouncing off the cafe walls in hopes they would book me.

At the end of the meeting, Mio and Dave smiled widely and finally exclaimed, “okay the meeting was just a formality, we knew we wanted to book you from the beginning!” Insert lots of laughter and cheering and happy coffee toasting :)

Their wedding truly was as lovely as they described to me. Mio & her mother worked closely to pull together the rustic theme with bird cages, mossy letters, and opulent florals. They utilized a red and green color scheme that was impressively non-Christmas-y (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 traditions, like having a pie bar (PIE! BAR! THAT’S A BAR OF PIES!) in lieu of traditional wedding cake.

It was a beautiful day and I felt so honored to be there to document it!

{ Thank you to Elizabeth Anne Designs for featuring this wedding! }

For the day before the wedding, when all their guests had arrived in town, Liv & Greg organized a relaxed dinner gathering at the LA Arboretum. The day was warm like summer, there was a fun scavenger hunt for everyone to get to know each other, delicious Mediterranean cuisine, and lots of mingling & laughter. I snuck Liv & Greg away in the midst of it for a few quick portraits around the gorgeous arboretum – filled with all sorts of trees, pretty blossoms, and peacocks everywhere! (Lovely to look at, not so lovely to hear.)

Up next, their beautiful wedding {think a quiet garden, pale pink dresses, and s’mores!}

I remember waking up that Saturday morning in my Monterey hotel room and immediately hearing the sound of pouring rain. It continued coming down as I got up and started getting ready, as Hannah {my lovely second shooter for the day!} picked me up to head to the Intercontinental, as we valeted the car and walked up to the hotel room where Jackie and the girls were getting ready. But then something funny happened. I went outside onto the balcony to take (one thousand fifty two) photos of her fabulous shoes, and I noticed that the ocean looked blue instead of grey. And that I was squinting a little because it was so bright. And just when it clicked in my head, I heard Jackie excitedly exclaim that the “sun is coming out!!” And so it happened – those umbrellas you see in the below photos? They weren’t necessary in the least. Because the sun stayed for the portraits, for the ceremony, for the cocktail hour, even blessing us with a rainbow at one point.

Jackie and Cliff are awesome chill people, and I know would be all smiles either way, but the lucky weather we had was the perfect addition to the day. You know what else was the perfect addition? THE DONUTS. There were donuts all up in this wedding, and if you know me at all {if you don’t, hi, I’m Adrienne, I eat bacon like it’s an Olympic sport} that helped make this totally my kind of wedding :)