Valerie & Tristan :: 11-16-13 :: Wedding in Buena Park & Norwalk

Valerie and Tristan had such an elegant and personalized wedding day, it was so wonderful! They were married on what would have been the 56th anniversary of her grandparents wedding, November 16, 1957. SO sweet! We started out the day at Valerie's house documenting some of the DIY details that Valerie had put so much thought into----hand-made invitations, personalized dress hangers for her girls, and her elegant headband. She and her bridal party also assembled some of the bouquets   and boutonnieres the night before. Valerie decided to echo Tristan's Navy uniform by wearing army boots under her dress! It was super cute and caused her to feel like she had to march everywhere all day ;) After Valerie and Tristan finished getting ready, we went to Ralph B. Clark Regional Park in Buena Park to do their first look. These two were overjoyed to see each other and couldn't stop laughing as we were taking photos together. Because Tristan is stationed in Massachusetts, we had not had a chance to do an engagement session with them before their wedding, but they were still very comfortable in front of the camera. We had such a blast with them! Afterwards we drove to their ceremony site: the Knott's Berry Farm Church of Reflections, which was originally built in 1876 and located within the theme park until it was moved across the street in 2004. We spent some time with their fun bridal party and families taking pictures on the lawn next to the chapel right up until the start of the ceremony. The sun had started to set so we brought out our flashes for the ceremony. After a traditional and tender ceremony, the party moved to the Guesthouse International Hotel in Norwalk for the reception. Their reception was filled with more wonderful personalized details: S'more makings with cookies and cream chocolate to echo Valerie's freckles, table "numbers" named after romantic songs, and unique cake topper and champagne flutes. To explain the text on the flutes: Valerie's mom told her when she was very young that cows stay on hills because they they have different length legs. Since she grew up and realized that this is not true, it has become a joke that hillcow means BS. As for the cake topper, when Valerie went to Topeka, Kansas (where Tristan is from) she didn't know what a hay bale was and thought they were tires or wheels.  Tristan's family thought this was hilarious and loves to poke fun at her for it. So they had a personalized wedding topper made to look just like them in the wedding attire, sitting atop a hay bale! :) The reception started with dinner and then proceeded to the toasts. There is a family tradition in Valerie's family for the new groom to take a shot of tequila with the men from the family. Finally, we captured the tender first dances, hilarious bouquet and garter toss and the only-slightly-messy cake cutting. We also took polaroids throughout the day, and there were quite a few that turned out amazingly well. It was such a delight and a pleasure to capture all these great moments for these two!

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Enjoy!