It is such a special treat to see a friend get married.  It’s another special treat to plan the very first wedding at a brand new (absolutely beautiful) venue — in this case, The Loft on Pine in Long Beach.  Put the two together and you’ve got the recipe for a truly SPECIAL day.  Words are failing me here in trying to express how blessed I felt to be a part of this sweet celebration.

I met Justine many years ago when she was a student in Erik’s college group (my husband used to be a college/young adult pastor).  I had her as a student in my small group Bible study as well and she was like a dear younger sister to me.  We shared many laughs and memories together and I have always known Justine to be such a sincere, kind and loving girl.  When I heard she was getting married, I was thrilled for her!  It was truly my pleasure planning with her.  What a treasure she is, and what a great man she has found (and married!).  Justine and Goodwin — I adore you two and am so honored to have been a part of the day bringing you together in marriage.  Praying for you both and God’s continued blessing on your relationship and ministry!  xo

J+G happen to have a circle of friends populated with some very talented people, so it was neat to see how everyone pulled together to make things happen.  Their community of family and friends is really strong and I can see that they have so much love and support around them.  The goal was a simple and lovely celebration that was centered on Christ, and they definitely achieved that.  The first step to achieving a streamlined day is to hire a full service caterer.  Jay’s Catering did a great job with both the food + beverage, as well as basic rentals like tables, chairs, linens, china, etc.  We had the ever-talented Jaclyne from Heavenly Blooms create the personal flowers, cocktail arrangements, and ceremony florals, and then my team did the centerpiece florals (definitely not a typical thing for us, but we still enjoyed making an exception here for Justine!).  We couldn’t have done this without the advice and guidance of Jaclyne (who helped us with the order) — thank you dear!!  Koko and I actually had such a fantastic time working with the stunning blooms like Juliet garden roses, peach amaryllis (one of my favorites), ranunculus and astilbe.  Many memories were made sitting on the floor of her place, snipping and arranging and chatting away.  😉  My favorite {found} rentals provided the perfect ceremony arch (which also framed their sweetheart table during the reception) and various trophy cups for special floral arrangements.  Sweet friends provided all the audio and sound (+ DJ) as well as the stationery and printed goods (Cassie of Red Arrow Lettering).  It was also neat to find out we had mutual friends in Daveed and Courtney Toney — they sang the first dance song as a duet and ended up sitting with us for dinner, so it was a treat to catch up with them!

As a little décor touch, I suggested we create hanging mobile installations using birch branches, my trusty CB2 glass bubbles and delicate paper flowers.  The creative bride got right on board and worked tirelessly on creating each petal of every beautiful flower.  We hung these up lining the ceremony and reception area, filling the glass bubbles with flickering LEDs, and I think they added just enough extra oomph in the space.

Being the first wedding at a venue means you learn as you go, you adapt to the construction schedule, you keep things flexible.  We got down to the wire with construction timing but on the day of, J+G were just thrilled to be getting married and the site looked stunning.  I know The Loft is going to blow up and I feel honored to have been the one to break it in.  😉  Thank you, sweet Mary (site coordinator) for all of your care and assistance along the way!!

Without further ado, here are some snippets of the day via Hom Photography, a brother & sister duo!  Bryant was actually one of the groomsmen so props to his sister Lauren for all her hard work that day.

dapper gents

these guys had some serious sock + shoe game

sweetest girls!  5 out of the 8 girls were in my small group and I love them so!

cutest flower girls!

first look!

seeded eucalyptus for days <3

the groom led worship during the ceremony (here singing “Amazing Grace (my chains are gone)” by Chris Tomlin) and it gave me goosebumps!

married!!

we “flipped” the ceremony area for dinner during cocktail hour.  Love this space!

And just for fun… I have to add in this photo of Olive giving the groom a smooch before the wedding (I’m sure Justine will understand, haha!).  Erik and Olive were guests at the wedding so it was fun having them, even if it means Olive was at my heels the entire night.  😉

Photography: Hom Photography | Planning & Design: Love and Splendor | Venue: The Loft on Pine | Caterering: Jay’s Catering | Hair and Makeup: Shauna Funk for makeup // Alexa Brodsky for hair | Groom and Groomsmen Outfitted by: General Quarters | Floral: Heavenly Blooms Designs + Love and Splendor | Vintage Rentals: Found Vintage Rentals

I hope you’re all having a wonderful week!  I’m having such a great one, filled with inspiring work, meeting new friends, sweet time with old friends and lots of time in the marvelous sunshine.  My heart breaks for anyone in tough weather across the country, but I won’t lie… we went to the beach yesterday.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by; see you again soon!