Colorful Carondelet House Wedding

By now, it seems like we’ve professed our love for Carondelet House dozens of times. If you aren’t already as smitten as we are, then by the time you see these images from Lukas & Suzy VanDyke you’ll completely understand the hype. Thanks to Orange Blossom Special Events and Peony & Plum for helping bring together the couple’s vision for a cultural celebration of love!

From the bride, Jenny: I met Paul when he was three weeks away from moving to China for a year. I didn’t think he would call me since he was leaving so soon, but the next day he set up a unique date for us. He wanted to share some of his experiences with me, as he had traveled all over the world — to India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Israel, Jordan, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, to name a few. Paul found a Sri Lankan festival in Santa Monica and brought me to listen to the music, enjoy the dancing and the spicy food. We grew so close over those three weeks before he left for China and continued to fall in love while he was across the world.

A year later, Paul came home and we moved in together. We rescued the best dog ever, our fur baby, Ellie! One day I came home to find a note on the door. Paul had set up a scavenger hunt and used pictures from our relationship as the clues. He posted the pictures all over our neighborhood, and at the end of the hunt I found Paul and Ellie (and a ton of strangers who had gathered to watch) standing with roses. Paul got down on one knee, and of course I said yes. But he wasn’t done just yet. It just so happened to be Sri Lankan day in Santa Monica that evening, so to celebrate we relived our first date.

When designing our wedding, we wanted to incorporate lots of color and flowers inspired by the cultures that Paul and I love. We didn’t want it to be too girly. So I was especially thrilled when I stumbled upon Hmong runners and napkins from Thailand. We couldn’t be more thrilled with how everything came together and we cannot thank all our vendors enough for all their hard work to make our day just perfect!