Happy Wednesday! Oh my this wedding I have for you all today is gorgeous! In my 2.5 years of blogging, I don’t think I’ve featured a wedding that’s red and aqua, have I? Hmmm, well no matter what the answer to that question is, I LOVE this wedding from Robyn Van Dyke Photography! It’s modern, bright, and even has a beach and coral theme! It’s a nice departure from the normal “beach” weddings that I see here in Florida. Oh and the bride Lori will be joining us to reminisce about her wedding planning experience too, so keep an eye out for some great advice! :)

What (or who) helped you most in your planning process and/or on your wedding day?

My Mom was the biggest help during the planning process. As a year round teacher, she was able to tackle a lot of wedding related items during school breaks while I was at work. My photographer was also a great help in finding ideas with our color scheme. We bounced tons of ideas back and forth and even styled the engagement shoot together.

What was the most important thing to you when deciding who to work with for your wedding?

 I think the most important thing for us when we decided to work with a vendor was compatibility. We wanted people who we felt like could have been our friends for years.  We actually worked with two vendors who were our friends and/or acquaintances. We also looked for vendors who were compatible with our style as a couple. As an artist myself, there were certain aspects of the wedding that I was very particular about, like photography and our Floral/Event Designer. In choosing our Photographer, I was looking for the Fine-Art Photojournalistic style and Robyn’s style was just what we were looking for.  When choosing the Floral and Event Designer, we went with someone who was very creative and understood our vision. Words can’t describe how happy we were with Robyn Van Dyke Photography and Bells & Whistles!

Did any of your vendors do anything special for you before, on, or after your wedding day that you would like to share?

We were very happy with almost all of our vendors. I think that many of them did do special things for us that were above and beyond.
-Our wedding planner was amazing. We couldn’t have done it without her special care and attention to detail. She also gave us an Outer Banks beach bag with really cute towels for us to use the next time we go to the beach!

-My Photographer is also a personal friend of mine who greatly helped me through a really tough time in my life that happened around the time of my bridal portraits. I honestly don’t think those pictures would have turned out as fabulous as they did without her support!

-Our Floral/Event designer, created the chandelier I had been dreaming of having and did it all within our budget!

-Our ceremony guitarist, John Baldwin, called me a few weeks before the wedding, just to see how I was doing and to talk. He even learned a new song for our wedding ceremony! It’s personal touches like that, that makes someone stand out in your mind after the wedding!

-Our rehearsal dinner/reception site, The Currituck Club, made most all of the food gluten free for my sister and I who cannot have any gluten. They even surprised us with gluten free crab cakes at the rehearsal dinner. My sister hasn’t had gluten free crab cakes since she had to go gluten free 9 years ago!

What was your favorite thing about your wedding?

Marrying the love of my life of course! J It is so hard to choose just one thing about our wedding that was my absolute favorite, but I loved our reception décor- it was AMAZING!! Especially the chandelier!

What is your best piece of advice for other brides?

Looking back on the past year, I think the best piece of advice I could give is don’t stress so much! It will all come together in the end. You will have bumps along the way, but just sit back and remember why you are planning this wedding. You are marrying the love of your life and that’s all that matters!

Aw, I just think these two are so adorable, don’t you? Plus their decor is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your wedding with us Lori! And thank you to Robyn Van Dyke Photography for sharing her gorgeous images with us!

So what do you all think about the red and aqua for a beach wedding? Do you love it, or do you prefer a more subdued color palette? I really love the fact that the decor was beachy, yet still incredibly tasteful and gorgeously done! Oh and did you catch that custom chandelier that Lori was raving about in her interview? It’s pretty awesome, right?!

Vendors who made it all happen…