How did you meet?
Almost fifteen years ago, when I moved into my very first apartment on my own in Los Angeles, Andrew was my upstairs neighbor. At the time I was in my early twenties and wanted to focus on my career, so when he kept asking to hangout, I actually ended up setting him up with my best friend at the time. Whoops!
What is your proposal story?
After we had been dating for several years, Andrew started dropping hints that he was going to propose. One weekend, he planned a super romantic trip up to Malibu with his son (my now stepson), our dogs, and a delicious lunch. Even though I was almost certain he was going to propose, he didn’t! The very next weekend he planned an impromptu weekend getaway to a nice hotel in San Diego, and after getting a free upgrade to a super nice suite, he asked me out onto the balcony. I started laughing and teasing him about how I thought he was going to propose to me last weekend at the beach and when I turned around to look at him, he was on his knee about to propose!
Tell us a little bit about your wedding.
The reason I chose Positano is because we had taken a trip there together in our early years of dating, after attending a friend’s wedding in the south of France. When we were in Positano, we had the most amazing time and couldn’t stop talking about how we wished our families were there to see its beauty and just be with us in such a gorgeous place. Later on, when planning the wedding, I knew that:
1) Planning a destination wedding would actually be cheaper for us, and;
2) It would be the perfect excuse to bring our families together in Positano like we had dreamed of doing all those years before!
The color palette was an easy choice – I love bright pops of color and the florist brought my vision to life even better than I had imagined.
Tell us about your attire choices.
We were originally supposed to get married in Positano in June of 2020 and after finding the wedding dress of my dreams in February of 2020, the world shut down a few weeks after that. As everyone knows, that wedding date didn’t happen. Our wedding got postponed to May of 2021, thinking Covid would be better by then but that was a no-go, too!
Finally, we postponed a second time to June of 2022 – but in January of 2022, we found out we were pregnant. The timing wasn’t the greatest but we figured life had thrown us so many curve balls, we might as well go with the flow. Unfortunately, my dream wedding dress wasn’t my dream wedding dress anymore when I was six months pregnant – I tried on so many different options until finally settling on a dress from Amazon, surprisingly enough. My husband got his outfit from Bonobos at the recommendation of a family member.
What was the most important to the two of you while planning? Was there anything that you chose to splurge on or skip?
Because we had postponed so many times and knew we were going to have a baby a few months after returning from the wedding, it was kind of our wedding, honeymoon and baby moon all in one! We tried to splurge wherever and whenever we could. The only thing I decided to skip was a makeup artist because I can be pretty particular about the way I do my makeup and didn’t want to spend money and then be disappointed.
What were your favorite parts of the day?
The entire day was my favorite! Just waking up, having my best friend do my hair, my other best friend help with day-of coordination, everyone piling into the shuttle and seeing the venue for the first time – it was just a dream come true. One of our wedding guests is a professional choreographer and at one point during the wedding, he was teaching everyone a little dance on the dance floor. Even though my feet were too swollen to participate, I have amazing footage of everyone laughing and dancing together that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
Tell us about your wedding flowers.
Oh, the flowers were everything! Our table was the loveliest and the florist took the photos I sent him for inspiration and truly made it a wonderland of various in-season flowers of all shapes and sizes. My idea was to have colorful vases with a range of different types of flowers in bright colors and the florist recreated my vision absolutely perfectly.
Tell us about your wedding cake.
I’m not much of a cake person and since our wedding was in the Amalfi Coast and we wouldn’t get to try it ahead of time, the venue said they could make the cake for us. I decided to go with the venue instead of having a bakery in Rome do it and have to transport it several hours to the destination.
Did you do any DIY Projects or create any handmade items for your wedding?
For name cards at the table, I brought tiny clothespins and had a calligraphy artist write the guests’ names on handmade cotton wedding paper. I clipped the names to the edge of wine glasses that were at each seat.
Did you include any family heirlooms or special traditions?
We did include gifts from my mother and mother-in-law to follow the tradition of having something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.
Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?
You know yourself best! Don’t let anyone talk you out of something that’s important to you and try to have fun. It is over so quickly and looking back, I really wish I took the time to enjoy the process rather than be anxious about how things would turn out.
