Madeline and Simon dreamt of a day that combined both of their families, friends, and cultures in a sentimental way. They booked condos for all of their guests to stay in the week before their wedding, and it just so happened that a Casino San Clemente wedding would put the special event in perfect proximity to their guests lodging! Playing off the vibe of the venue and guidance from Fawn Events, the couple decided on a tropical bohemian theme — and we’re in love! Fun fact: Both Madeline and Simon’s mothers helped to design and assemble all of the vibrant florals on the day-of the wedding. We love when family helps to make the day extra special! Get ready for every moment Sydney Noelle Photography captured of laugher, tears, and expressions of American and German culture coming together under the beautiful California sun.

The Couple:

Madeline & Simon

The Wedding:

Casino San Clemente, San Clemente, CA

A few weeks before the wedding, I discovered that my dress had been altered too short leaving me scrambling for a new dress. At the last minute, I found an amazing gown at BHLDN that fit without any additional alterations needed.
I trusted some dear friends to do my makeup and hair, and splurged on some dainty gold accessories to complete the look.

The rest of my wedding party wore different styles of dresses from Azazie. To say thanks for standing by me on my big day, I gave each of my bridesmaids tropical rompers from a Bali-based clothing company called Piyama. It made for great photos beforehand.

Working with Sydney was a dream! Honestly, a good photographer is worth every penny. Sydney took the time to really get to know us. By the time our wedding came along, it felt natural to be in front of the camera.

Simon and I come from two very different parts of the world. He was born and raised in Germany while my family and friends are scattered around the United States. We decided early on that if our family and friends were going to come from all over the world (we literally had 9 countries represented), that the most important priority for us was spending time with our community and merging our families and friends together. We knew this couldn’t happen in a single day so we carved out a week before our wedding to bring everyone together in five different condos. This took up a big part of our wedding budget but ended up being the best decision of our whole wedding!

We were so blessed to have my mom do all of our flowers and calligraphy. On the day of, both of our moms tag teamed to adorn our entire venue with ravishing tropical florals.

With Simon ‘s whole family coming from Germany, we knew that we wanted to integrate German and American culture together. We ended up printing out lyrics to a Bavarian drinking song called “Ein Prosit”. After every toast, all the wedding guests sang it together. The guests loved it and it was a special way to bring our cultures together.

A year before we had our wedding, we actually eloped to Vegas. I believe this was one of the reasons that our actual wedding planning was pretty stress-free. Since we had already had our special moments together, we were more focused on creating sacred space for our communities to come together to celebrate with us.
Whether you elope or not, I recommend setting aside time before the wedding planning process starts to celebrate and honor your relationship just the two of you. Establish the values and intentions you have for the day and make sure that the areas you allocate the most money and time to feed into those values and intentions.

We did a romantic golden-hour session on the beach during cocktail hour. We were apprehensive to leave our friends and family but we’re so glad we did because the photos turned out amazing. Our photographer and videographer made our wedding so incredibly special. The videographer was one of my childhood friends and Sydney quickly became like a friend through it all. There were hidden cameras everywhere that captured angles we didn’t get to see. Reliving it through our wedding video and photos were so special.

We accidentally stumbled upon our venue when we were looking for accommodation that could fit our friends and family who were coming in from around the world. The condos we booked were in walking distance from two wedding venues. We fell in love with idea of a Casino San Clemente wedding right away!

Our toasts were beyond our wildest dreams. We had not one but two songs written about us. Two of Simon‘s friends even “borrowed” a flat screen tv from one of the condos we were staying and prepared a full powerpoint slideshow. There were tears and laughs all around. We’ll never forget it.

Congratulations, Madeline and Simon! A huge shout out to Sydney Noelle Photography for sharing their fabulous Casino San Clemente wedding with Junebug! Into these tropical vibes? You’re in luck! Check out these posts to get you well on your way to planning a tropical event of your own:

Tropical Opulence is One of Our Favorite 2020 Trends and This Ak’iin Beach Club Wedding Has All the Inspiration You Need

8 Tropical Wedding Ideas to Transform Any Venue Into Paradise

The Best Places to Buy Bridesmaids Dresses Online