Mandy and Adrian
September 22, 2012
Tahoe City, CA
I have another two-parter for you today. The pictures and details are just THAT good, captured by Eric Asistin Photography. What I love in particular about this wedding is it will completely challenge your idea of a DIY wedding. This wedding is elegant and romantic. It has just enough DIY details to make it special and personalized for the couple, but they trusted the pros where it mattered the most. Even still, Mandy had a hard time sleeping the night before her wedding, worrying about getting it all done. Read more of her Hindsight Advice below.
Oh, and check out that amazingly lone white aisle runner into the trees, where the ceremony site is! Wowee!
Why a mountain wedding?
We have a cabin in Tahoe Donner and love getting away from SF for weekends in Tahoe with our 2 dogs. We also got engaged last Christmas eve in Truckee during a late morning hike with our dogs!
Where did you find your inspiration?
- We both wanted a smaller Lake Tahoe wedding (around 50 guests) and knew we wanted to incorporate our dogs into our celebration. With those 2 things in mind, the search was on for wedding venues that allowed dogs. When we found a private estate (Lake Forest Retreat) that was within blocks of Lake Tahoe AND dog friendly, we were thrilled!
- Our decor and theme was inspired mostly by the beauty of Lake Tahoe and the lush green backdrop of Lake Forest Retreat. We incorporated a lot of natural colors such as blush, ivory, soft green and plum.
- Since our wedding was a DIY rustic wedding, I spent a lot of time researching on the internet and came across many blogs that documented beautiful DIY weddings! Also, Pinterest wedding boards, theknot.com, and Etsy vintage/wedding shops provided tons of great ideas.
What are three things you’re glad you did?
- Cupcakes and macarons for dessert instead of traditional wedding cake. It was a huge hit with our guests!
- BYOB (alcohol) with hired bartender with full bar supplied allowed us to save tremendous amount of money!
- Family style seated dinner without seating charts. This saved a ton of time and was also less costly than individual plated dinner.
Three things you wish you hadn’t done?
- Spent so much time putting together the DJ song list! A lot of guests had requests and it made the evening more fun to let the guests pick the dance tunes.
- Taken on so much of the wedding day prep on our own…it turned out that our catering vendor (As You Wish Catering) was very willing and capable of helping us transform Lake Forest Retreat into a beautiful rustic wedding reception.
- Stressed so much throughout the planning process! Think of it as a great party with all of your favorite people in the world vs. an intimidating wedding…
Three things you wish you hadn’t worried about?
- Wedding favors, we spent quite a bit of time re-packaging and personalizing them…in the end our guests were having a great time partying with us that was a small detail to put so much time into
- Stationary such as programs, we ended up with more than half of the programs un-used!
- Getting everything done the day of the wedding! I slept very little the night before the wedding stressing about all the to-do’s…the morning of the wedding our family and friends were so wonderfully helpful we were done with all prep by 11:00 am!
What is your very best hindsight advice?
Live in the moment! Enjoy every minute of your big day, try not to be too controlling and avoid being a perfectionist! Your wedding day goes by very very fast, and just know that you’ve put in many hours of planning ahead of time…it’s kind of like training for a marathon :)
Team Wedding
- Photographer: Eric Asistin
- Wedding Venue: Skylandia Beach Park
- Reception Venue: Lake Forest Retreat
- Hair and Makeup: Urban Angels
- Florist: Suzu’s Petals
- Catering: As You Wish
- DJ: Party Tunes
- Party Rental: Event Masters
Team DIY
- Bunting flags
- Wedding stationary including: programs, menu cards, favor tags
- Reception flowers: provided by Suzu Petals, however we cut and arranged them in vases on our own
- BYOB alcohol
- Wedding favors (coasters) DIY packaged and personalized.
Mountainside Guide
Eric Asistin is a distinguished member of the Mountainside Guide, an exclusive vendor directory featuring the best and most reliable mountain wedding vendors in North America. Mountainside Guide members are screened and vetted for quality of work, reliability, and professionalism, both among their peers and on review web sites.
See Eric Asistin Photography’s portfolio HERE.