A Down-Home BBQ Wedding

I love the casual feel of this sweet down-home BBQ wedding captured by Wildflowers Photography. The couple, Kathy and Eric, wanted their wedding to be cozy and filled with personal touches. Even without knowing them, I can tell that every last detail of the wedding radiates their personalities. Fun, down to earth and clearly, very stylish 🙂

More from the bride, Kathy:

We were sitting at a BBQ restaurant one day (early on in our relationship) — the kind of restaurant that serves ribs and iced tea in mason jars… and I said to Eric: “This is what I want my wedding to feel like.” Little did I know, we would get married a few years later… and the vision for our wedding spawned from that little comment.

Our wedding planner found our wedding venue online. We knew this was the place we wanted to get married after seeing the gorgeous rolling hills surrounding the ranch house. It was quiet and tucked away — perfect for the intimate wedding we envisioned.

Another big deciding factor was the fact that it was in Southern California. All of our family came in from out of town (or out of state) and we wanted them to see Southern California — where we lived.

Our wedding decor was rustic/vintage. Baby’s breath in galvanized french floral buckets lined the wedding aisle. Guests drank from mason jars and barber shop striped straws. Lots of pieces came from the Long Beach antique flea market and numerous thrift stores and garage sales. Mason jars hung from trees. Vintage lace hung from clotheslines. An old drawer with a vintage drawer pull held our guestbook notes. I found an old book published in 1899 entitled “To Have and To Hold” and we pasted our ceremony script in it for our officiant to read.

Speaking of our officiant– we asked our dear mutual friend (the one responsible for introducing us) to be the one to marry us. My mom walked me down the aisle. We read poems to each other and wrote our own vows.

My dad died from cancer a few months after Eric and I started dating, so unfortunately he never got to meet Eric. We wanted so much for him to be there with us, so Eric wore my dad’s vintage Christian Dior tie. I carried his picture in a locket tied to my bouquet (so he would be with me as I walked down the aisle). My two uncles (my dad’s brothers who are also jewelers) made our wedding bands. My dad was definitely with us that day.

I bought 30 pinwheels at the 99 cents store– the glittery kind with Disney characters all over them– and Eric spray painted them ivory. They fluttered in the light breeze, lining the perimeter of the olive tree under which we got married.

Eric is from the south and we always joke that I was a southern girl in a past life, so we knew we wanted good southern food. Our wedding represented who we are as people: down-to-earth, romantic, food-lovers.

Dear friends, family members, co-workers, restaurants and strangers collected clear glass jars and bottles for us to use as vases. In 5 months we collected over 250 jars and bottles. My co-workers bought flowers from the downtown LA flower mart. We wanted it to look like freshly picked wildflowers in jars.

See Also

A Bold Berry-Colored Vallejo Wedding

I found some vintage number stamps at an antique flea market and stamped our wedding date on shipping tags. We tied the tags around some of the jars and bottles used in the table arrangements.

Some advice from Kathy:

It’s true what everyone says– your wedding day goes by in the blink of an eye. Don’t forget to take a moment when you’re standing in front of all your friends and family and let it all soak in.

Take pictures of your wedding planning process! Eric and I have fun pictures of us stamping our invitations, cutting out burlap for our table runners, putting our chalkboard menu together. I took one picture a day during the month leading up to our wedding (posted on my Facebook). It’s so great to have pictures to remember even the process leading up to the big day.

Wedding Vendors (Los Angeles, CA):

Photographer: Wildflowers Photography / Venue: Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve / Wedding Planner: Miki Nguyen of Miki Events / Florist: DIY by Friends + Family / Photobooth: Photobox LA / Caterer: Spring Street Smokehouse / Cake: Costco / Invitations: Target / Hair & Makeup: Gina Nguyen / Bride’s Dress: Cleo by Monique Lhuillier / Bride’s Shoes: Electra by Nina / Bride’s Earrings: Banana Republic / Bride’s Rings: Art of Gold / Groom’s Ring: Minh Van Le / Groom’s Attire: Joseph Abboud tuxedo, vintage Christian Dior tie and John Varvatos cufflinks