When Vic Bonvinci Photography met videographer Turner at a wedding they both shot, Vic knew she had to capture Turner and his girlfriend Kirsten in a couple’s pillow fight photo shoot! Kirsten and Turner decided to go barefoot and match in casual olive tees and rolled-up distressed jeans for a super cool casual look. Some fresh popcorn, a record player spinning T. Swift’s 1989, and one ultra feathery pillow fight later, we think Vic captured Turner and Kristen’s sweet love for each other perfectly!
From the Photographer: I had the pleasure of meeting Turner shooting a wedding. After we chatted for a bit over text, I invited him and his sweet (sweet 100x) girlfriend, Kirsten for a You & Me session inside my studio. I flipped the place to look like a modern loft, I put the bed on the floor, brought my record player and and bought two feather pillows. These two were NATURALS. Seriously!
This sparkly farm wedding in Kansas City is the definition of charming! After a unanimous decision to host their wedding reception on their own Boys Grow Farm, Lacy and Johnny knew that their special day should be filled with personal details like a bridal ukulele solo, a Spanish flamenco dance by the groom’s sister, and a ceremony interwoven with Native American traditions. Lacy wore a billowing organza skirt over her wedding dress for the ceremony, then let her stunning beaded Theia gown speak for itself during the reception. We love how Bek & Addison Photography captured the personality of Lacy and Johnny’s day perfectly!
We knew right away we wanted to incorporate our own farm home into our wedding. We moved here two years ago, got engaged in the same spot, and have planted roots here. We moved to the farm because it’s the site of the non-profit youth farming program my husband started in 2010 called Boys Grow. It’s a huge part of our lives so we were excited to celebrate here in a place that is very special to both of us.
In the months leading up to the wedding, we purchased a ’72 Airstream and renovated it- turning it into an Event Suite and Photobooth. It was a true labor of love and the ultimate DIY project, but it turned out beautifully and we were so proud to launch it for the fist time at our wedding. It was a fun and personal touch that everyone loved! We are excited to now offer the PhotoStreamKC to other brides and grooms in the Kansas City area.
Our first dance was pretty special. It felt surreal to be dancing together at our farm home as husband and wife, under the stars and twinkle lights with all of our loved ones surrounding us. One of the best parts of the first dance was that our dog, Tupelo, came to greet us at the end of the dance. We couldn’t have planned it better if we tried because the first dance was to Van Morrison’s ‘Tupelo Honey.’ It felt like a magical moment when we were just focused on the love between us and surrounding us.
We really wanted the wedding to feel unique and a true reflection of our personalities. We tied in multi-cultural details that are special to both of us from different chapters of our lives. From the Native American blessing during the ceremony, to the Mexican grooms’ cake, Spanish Flamenco dance by the groom’s sister, brides’ ukulele performance, and food grown right on our farm home- every detail was a significant part of our life story.
I would advise those planning their wedding to focus on the things that are the most important and let some of the details go. It’s such a special time that goes by so fast and the way you feel the day of the wedding is more important than the decorations, food or other details. I wish I could relive it over and over again and just soak in how special it is.
Grab your bags, because this romantic destination elopement will have you wanting to board the next flight to Portugal! When San Francisco natives Andrea and Zach decided to say “I do,” they settled on a private elopement. The couple chose a gorgeous eco-focused boutique hotel on Portugal’s Lisbon Coast, Areias do Seixo, for their venue and honeymoon destination. Though their families stayed home during the wedding, Andrea and Zach included them in their festivities by reading messages and letters from their loved ones during dinner. Pedro Vilela Photography and Happy Together Films captured the couple’s day with vibrance and tons of romance!
While it was difficult to tell friends and family that they would not be part of our actual wedding day, we both believed that sharing our wedding vows was an intensely personal moment, and we wanted to celebrate what we viewed as a uniquely personal occasion privately.
After deciding that we wanted a wedding that consisted of just the two of us, the first and most important step was deciding where that moment would occur. We started thinking about locations all over the world, but quickly honed in on Europe based on previous trips and experiences we had shared there. We had never been to Portugal before, but when we stumbled across the website for AreiasdoSeixo we knew we had found the perfect location. It was stunningly beautiful, and emphasized a natural simplicity that matched our own personal tastes. It was the perfect location for us, and once we discovered it we built the rest of our wedding around that destination.
The entire day was perfect, so it’s difficult to single out a specific part of the wedding. We will both remember every moment of that day, and each of those vignettes was special in its own way. Our sharing of vows was the most emotional part of the day, though, so we’ll call that the most memorable. Our officiant, João, had interviewed each of us separately, and the script he used was incredibly personal and captured the essence of our personalities. We had written our own vows that he walked us through, and we had music from the talented guitarists of Royal Bermuda and the stunning coast of Portugal as our backdrop. It was a perfect day.
We designed our own wedding rings, and used rose gold for the bride’s band and gray gold for the groom’s band. We decided to bring those same colors into our wedding, so the bride’s dress was a muted rose color and the groom’s suit was a warm gray. We each wore small accessories of the other’s main color, so the bride had a gray gold bracelet and the groom’s tie mixed hues of rose gold with darker grays.
Lots of people will tell you what your wedding should look like – coworkers, friends, family, even strangers – so there is social pressure that can change your wedding from being for you to being for others. Choosing to elope may not be for everyone, but for us it focused the wedding on the two of us. It’s easier said than done, but do what’s right for you and try to block out the noise. This is the day to celebrate your union, and it should be joyous, not stressful.
Since it was an elopement, our loved ones were not with us in person for our wedding day. We still wanted to include them in our celebration, so in lieu of a reception toast we asked each of them to email our wedding coordinator with their well-wishes or stories they wanted to share. Those comments were printed out onto small scrolls and presented in a box during our reception, so we had the chance to read our families’ love letters aloud to each other.
We had an absolutely fantastic photographer (Pedro Vilela) and videographer team (Raquel & Zacarias from Happy Together). The three of them captured the magic of that day beautifully, and we could not have been more thrilled with their demeanor and support. We worked closely with them leading up to the wedding, and met them personally in Lisbon to talk through our plans. All three are wonderful people and we felt a strong kinship to them immediately. The extra time they spent with us before the wedding made it feel like our friends were there to help capture each moment. They brought creativity and joy to the day, and we feel truly blessed that they were part of our wedding.
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