©2015 Sun & Sparrow Photography // Glamorous wedding at Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica

FROM THE BRIDE //  When I began planning my wedding, I knew the colors I wanted and I knew that I wanted to add a romantic touch. We didn’t necessarily have a theme, but I wanted our wedding to have a hollywood glam feel.  I feel like we were able to achieve the look and create the most amazing memories from our day. When I look back on my wedding day, there are so many moments that I want to remember forever! One of my most memorable moments is getting married in our local parish St. Monica. St. Monica is such a special place for Raphael and I, since we have been attending mass there for many years. We actually knew we wanted to get married there the first time we attended mass at the church. We had family and friends travel from all over the world to witness our vows and that was very meaningful to us. It was just the most magical day, being able to say our vows in front of all our family and friends was special too.

One of my most memorable moments was seeing all of our business fraternity brothers from USC back together again for our wedding. We have a running inside joke with our friend Sean that has lasted for 5 years now…he surprised us with real doves to release at our wedding (don’t worry they are trained to come back to the dove keeper 😛 ) . It was so special for us to know that our friends still value our friendship after all these years.

If I could give advice to any brides who are planning their wedding, I would recommend to make time for all the wonderful things that you want from your wedding. I fortunately had time to plan our wedding for a year. I definitely made a checklist of all of my “must-haves” and attacked one item at a time. One of the biggest items on my list was to find a wedding planner who was AWESOME and who could help tremendously with our planning. I would highly recommend finding a wedding planner who understands your vision and can help you execute your wedding. Photography was the second most important item on my list. It was extremely important to me because I knew our day would be filled with so many emotions. I wanted to make sure we were able to capture everything. I chose Sun & Sparrow because I instantly fell in love with their work and how they tell beautiful stories through their photography. All of their pictures are gorgeous!

Also, don’t be afraid to lean on your maid/matron of honor, or bridesmaids for some help. I am lucky enough to have wonderful women in my life and whenever I felt like I wasn’t sure, or needed an opinion I would reach out to these ladies. Your wedding will be close to being perfect, and things will happen on the day of that maybe aren’t intentionally planned…don’t fret or let it cloud over your amazing day.

Last, I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be married! I absolutely love when Raphael & I get to call each other husband and wife 🙂 We were together for 5 years prior to getting married, but now we truly feel like we are one family now. Also, our families coming together is great. We are both close to our families and having them together is an amazing experience. The thought of expanding our own family in the future is also another wonderful feeling.