Once upon a time…

I met two fabulous people so very in love with each other. They had a gathering to celebrate their love with all of their dearest friends and family. Everyone smiled and laughed as they danced the night away.

Ok. that’s my mini tale, but in all honesty – this wedding was a ton of fun. Katrena and Ryan’s family and friends used the following quote throughout the day to describe them both and it could not be more perfect:

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.”― Robert Fulghum

Check out their beautiful day below!

Share your inspiration and the atmosphere you’re creating for your wedding:

We were inspired by our love for each other and our passions. We wanted the wedding to have a fun and comfortable atmosphere. We both love food and wanted to have some of our favorites served. That is why even though it’s not traditional we will be serving pizza, pasta and tacos for dinner. We plan on having lawn game for the guest to play during the cocktail hour as well as a photo booth available throughout the reception. Even though we want to have a sort of relaxed night I love all things vintage and both of us adore any excuse to be dapper so the dress code is anything from dapper to formal. We both love to travel so the main inspiration for the wedding theme was vintage travel after our world map hanging in our apartment. We put a red map pin into all of the places that we have been together and a yellow map pin into all of the places that we want to visit. As the planning continued we decided that we wanted to include some little details from some of our other favorite things like Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Disney and Comic books. I thought it would be a fun twist on the travel theme to have each of the tables be not only a city or country in the real world but they could also be fictional places like Hogwarts or Tatooine, or Neverland etc. Our wedding is going to be a little bit eclectic but that makes sense for us and it will definitely be a reflection of our nerdy personalities.

Why Orcutt Ranch?

I had seen photos of our wedding venue when I was helping a friend search for their venue. I thought it was beautiful then but it wasn’t right for her. When I began my initial search for myself I recognized the name (Orcutt Ranch stands out a bit) and I remembers the photos. After some more research it was clear that Orcutt was within our budget so we made an appointment to take a tour. I loved it even more in person and my fiancé fell in love with the venue too. I felt like Orcutt had a little bit of everything I was looking for in a venue; it was a DIY/bring it in venue, it had a beautiful outdoor ceremony site, a garden, a cute bridal suite to get ready in, a historic house and it even had a barn! Seriously this place had it all and looking back I don’t know why we didn’t just book it that first day. But at the time we thought that it was a bit of a drive and we were scared to commit because it was the first venue we have looked at so we decided that we should try and go check out some other options. A month later after looking a bunch of other venues we kept circling back to how much we loved Orcutt so we reserved our date and put down our deposit.

Are there any special songs to be played for the processional, recessional, or first dances that have special meaning?

Married Life from “Up”– this is one of our favorite movies, we cosplay as Carl and Ellie and share in their adventurous spirit.
For the dancing and the dreaming from “How to train your Dragon”– another favorite, Ryan almost sang this song to me as part of his proposal
No matter where you are by Us the Duo, our 1st dance
At last I see the lights from Tangled. This is another one of our favorites because we really relate to the characters and we joke that we are Flynn and Rapunzel all the time.

  

What is your most valuable piece of advice you can share with future couples?

Don’t procrastinate. Seriously don’t. Ask for and accept help, always. Also don’t stress out over all the little things. If I found myself stressed out over what type of chairs or what color flowers to use in the centerpieces I tried to remind myself that I never cared about that type of thing at other people’s weddings so the people at wedding probably wont care either. And one last thing try and take some breaks with your partner during the planning process where you don’t think about the wedding and you don’t do any planning! Even if it’s only for an hour or two, you will both feel so much better.

What was your favorite part of the planning process?

Ryan said every time something is marked “completed” on the checklist and I must say that I have to agree with him. Marking something as completed made us feel so accomplished. This is especially true of any and every DIY project that we had for the wedding! Of course anyone who doesn’t mention cake tasting as one of their favorite parts is crazy! I think one of the best parts of the planning process was showing up to all the other events along the way, like the engagement party, bridal shower and bachelorette party etc. It was so nice to just show up and be surrounded by loved ones with were so excited for us. But my absolute favorite part had to be practicing for our 1st dance. I couldn’t help but to smile and laugh as we practiced dancing, it was like all the stress would melt away! I only wish that we would have started practicing sooner <3

Thanks Katrena + Ryan  for having us at your wedding!!

Vendors: Flowers / Wedding Dress / Bridesmaid Dresses: Azazie and Lulus / Bridal Shoes / Jewelry and Rings / Men’s Attire / Favors and Gifts: Bride (Tumblers+Robes) Groom (Ammo Cans) / Rentals / Lighting / Cake Topper / Venue

XO,

V