MADISON+NICK LOS ANGELES

What was the inspiration for your wedding day: Between Pinterest and Instagram the amount of inspiration for a bride is overwhelming and at times a little daunting. Being one of those rare girls who had really never put a lot of thought into her wedding, I found myself thinking, “do I got with something modern and chic, hip and trendy, colorful and wild?” My inspiration ended up changing and evolving pretty frequently throughout the planning process. I myself am an artist so it’s pretty easy for me to get visually side tracked and swept up in an idea, but ultimately I found myself inspired by elegant simplicity. I wanted to be able to always look back at our photos and feel like everything about our day was timeless. So when picking things out and designing each aspect of the day, I found myself evaluating “trendy” and “timeless” a lot and how I could make a trendy thing something I could look back at in 20 years at and still love.

How did you choose your venue: I initially chose Newhall Mansion as the location for our wedding because out of the 16 venues we toured, Nick didn’t get as excited about any of them as he did about the mansion. Watching him light up imagining our big day there made it such an easy decision.  But ultimately the biggest deciding factor for both of us was that we were able to rent out the venue for the whole weekend and house our immediate families and the entire bridal party in this insanely beautiful house! We got ready the morning of and instead of worrying about getting in a car and transporting from a hotel to the ceremony and reception site, all we had to do was walk down stairs. The convenience took so much extra stress off the day of and standing in my bridal suit and watching our guest arrive from my window was so special.

What was your favorite part of the planning process: I DIY’ed a lot of my details which ultimately ended up being my favorite part of wedding prep. Planning your wedding is stressful, but you only get to do it once and I wanted to make sure I could looked back and remembered having fun doing it and for me the most fun I had was making things. I hand wrote all of the signs, my mom, dad, and I handmade all of the eucalyptus garlands for the reception, I embossed all of my bridesmaids champagne flutes and hangers, and hand addressed every save the date and invite in calligraphy. It’s true what they say, you really don’t get to admire all the details on your wedding day because there is so much going on, but I took great comfort knowing they would all be beautifully photographed so I could see them later. The special thing about making a lot of the details myself is that I will be able to look at them in pictures and not just see them as wedding details but I’ll remember the time spent making them and how much fun it was to create things myself.

How did you make the day special and about the two of you: A lot of the ways we made our day special and about the two of us was incorporating details that really spoke to us as individuals and us as a couple. There really weren’t a lot of details or aspects to the day that didn’t have some sort of meaning or special reason behind us picking them. Perhaps the most special thing we did though was deciding to write our own vows to each other and to have my cousin Christopher officiate the ceremony for us. Nick and I have been together for 9 years and we really wanted the ceremony to speak to our growth as individuals and as a couple so it was important to us that the officiant be someone who was close to us both and had witnessed our relationship grow and develop first hand. Chris was naturally the first person we thought of. Having family that we were so close to and love so much write our ceremony and officiate for us made it so much more personal and about us.

What was the most memorable moment from your wedding day: The most memorable moment for me was every moment of the ceremony. From walking down the aisle to saying my vows and hearing Nick’s. It was the part of the wedding I was most excited about and it ended up being my favorite memory from that day. There was so much energy and love surrounding us and I could go back and relive that moment again and again. Nick’s most memorable moment was on the dance floor at the end of the night we were in the middle and everyone was surrounding us and Shout  by the Isley Brothers was playing and everyone was dancing around us. It was another moment in the day where we were completely surrounded by this insane energy.

What was your favorite part of the planning process:  My favorite part of the wedding planning process was that I never felt like I had to do it alone. Nick and I planned our entire wedding together and he was just as much involved and invested in the planning and decision making as I was. We were engaged for about 2 years and started planning about 7 months into it so we had ample time and were very diligent with sticking to our timelines but even still it was a very daunting task. Our photographer Kendal said something to me that stuck throughout the entire process and that was “wedding planning is like having another part time job you don’t always have time for” and it really was. There are so many people you are simultaneously communicating with, keeping track of and locking things down with and all while trying to manage your personal life and real job. It can become very overwhelming but having a partner that is not only helping you but spearheading a lot of the tasks made it so much easier to navigate and it made it more meaningful that on our day we could enjoy everything that we created together.

Advice to those planning now: don’t be afraid to communicate the important details to your vendors because no-one knows your vision until you explain and show it to them. Things will never go perfectly but your best chance is by KNOWING and communicating every little detail that is important to you to those responsible for executing them. But most importantly, never forget the real meaning and importance of why you are doing all of this. It’s natural to get caught up in the planning and the small things because you are taking so much time to carefully plan and orchestrate them but in the grad scheme of things they pale in comparison to the amazing thing you and your fiancé are about to do, which is commit your lives to one another. Being an extremely detail oriented person, I caught a lot of the “mistakes” on our wedding day, either things that weren’t put out but should have been, things that got put out that shouldn’t have, music ques the DJ missed, timelines that got totally backed up, but even now, weeks later, I haven’t heard one person mention any off those things simply because they never would have known! All we are still hearing people say is how beautiful the wedding was and how much fun they had and how it was the most amazing display of love they have ever seen and to me, that’s the biggest take away from our day because that’s what it was really all about.

– Music

– Processional: Sleeping at last- Turning Page

– Recessional: The Features- From Now On

– First Dance: John Mayer- Gravity

How was your experience working with The DeLauras: Working with you guys was amazing! We took a lot of time researching and interviewing a lot of photographers but ultimately decided on you guys because we loved your vision and your ability to capture peoples weddings. I never felt like I had to ask for extra shots I wanted because you were both there capturing every moment as it was happening but at the same time everything felt very organic and natural, not posed and staged and not like we had as many cameras on us as we did. I love that you made me and Nick’s photo session fun so that it could be another moment to cherish from the day and not a task we had to complete. The day was such a blur and I can’t wait to relive it through your photos and see the pictures I probably didn’t even realize you were capturing.