Woodsy Wedding in Lake Arrowhead

Summer and Tanner had a small and intimate wedding in Lake Arrowhead, Ca. Their original venue and date were affected by the pandemic, and they had to find a new date and venue ASAP, considering they had been planning their wedding for over a year. In comes Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa. It was the perfect venue for Summer and Tanner, with the deck for the ceremony to take place, and the dock for some gorgeous sunset couple’s photos.

How did you meet?

My husband and I first knew each other in middle school, but made our first interaction in high school when we made a random hand shake at one of our high school football games. We then started talking online right after we graduated high school.

What isyour proposal story?

We lived in Oregon at the time and he took me to our favorite winery. It overlooked a beautiful vineyard and farm full of cows. He told me to look out towards the horizon and Meuse over the beauty. (I kind of had a feeling what he was going to do something because he was wearing a very thick jacket on a warm day and was acting super jittery and nervous constantly taking his jacket on and off.) I then turned around when he wasn’t making a sound and he made a sweet little speech and asked me to marry him. I wish I could say I was taken completely off guard but I was completely overjoyed.

Tell us a little a bit about your wedding (your vision, color, style, and location choices).

We were sure we wanted to do our wedding somewhere with a lot of large trees. Tanner loves the woods. My parents found the first venue when we were living out in Oregon and after seeing it we were excited but Tanner wasn’t completely sold. Due to Covid, our wedding date changed 3 times and eventually we decided to go with a different venue which was Lake Arrowhead Resort and when I tell you this was the absolute perfect place for us to tie the knot, you have to believe me. This location was everything we wanted. I’m not sure how to explain the style of our wedding, but I would say it was rustic but not over the top. it had lots of nature-y things tied with it such as wood, eucalyptus, lots of greenery and high lights of greyish blue and white. For the most part, we let the views do the talking. We were surrounded by the lake and large oak trees, who could ask for more.

Tell us about your attire choices.

Once I got engaged, I had no idea what style to do for my wedding. I had honestly never thought about it before because I don’t have much fashion sense. After some looking around, I knew I wanted something elegant but not drastic. Something easy on the eyes for everyone to wear. I never thought I would have ended up in the dress I did, but the second I tried it on, I fell in love. I had never felt that beautiful in something before and I knew I had to have it. It was twice my budget but after weeks of searching, I was able to find it online for a decent price. It was a bit of a challenge to get my bridesmaids to agree on a dress style and at first I thought they would all wear different styles but once they tried on the same one, it was a shock. It looked perfect on each and every one of them. The girls helped the guys pick out tuxes and they simply all agreed to go with navy suites and they all looked incredible in them. The rest of the guests went with the “dressy but not too dressy” style. The weather was the perfect temperature, 70 degrees. There wasn’t really a dress code but considering how much effort and money was put into this wedding, they knew they had to dress appropriate for the occasion.

What was the most important to the two of you while planning? Was there anything that you chose to splurge on or skip?

The most important part was probably the location. We were pretty set on getting married in the woods but we also wanted to make sure that the venue was something that could accommodate everyone. People were coming from all over the place and due to Covid, a lot of venues weren’t working with people. This one made sure that everyone had an amazing time. We wanted everyone to create memories that would last a lifetime.

What were your favorite parts of the day?

I remember being so darn scared and nervous. I have no idea why I was so nervous. I had been with my fiancé for 5 years at that point. But my flower girl said something that I will always take with me. She was 6 at the time and I said to her “I’m so nervous, what do you do when your nervous?” And she shrugged her shoulders and simply said, “just don’t be nervous.” I could literally feel the confidence pooling out of her sweet little pink cheeks as she smiled at me with those big brown eyes. Not sure why, but I think that’s one of my favorite memories that day. I hope to have half the confidence she does one day.

Tell us about your wedding flowers.

Quite honestly I’m not good with flower names at all. But it was a beautiful assortment of whites, greens and unique blue flowers I had never seen before.

Why a mountain wedding? What’s your biggest piece of advice for other couples planning a mountain wedding?

Tanner and I had gone camping and hiking many times in our early relationship and could not imagine getting married anywhere else. It was perfect for us. If I didn’t have that beautiful view of the lake to look at the morning of the wedding, I don’t know how much more nervous I would be. My biggest piece of advice is to go and check out the space as often as you can and just envision how the day will go. Once you have that vision in your mind everything else will fall into place and it won’t feel so overwhelming.

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