It was a rainy day in a log cabin, the perfect venue for a cozy, intimate, lovely wedding. This venue sits in the middle of the Julian, a small tourist town known for it’s famous Apple Pie! This wedding was everything you want a good sweater to be: warm, inviting, soft, and delicate with tons of hand stitched details. From the hand made sign with their last name over the sweetheart table to the sewn programs to the lovely little cake topper, everything was the brides dreams come true!
XO, Couture Events
Kris and Carianne Hein, November 12, 2011 at the Pine Hills Lodge, Julian California
From the Bride:
Our little love story began in 2005 when Kris and I first met. I guess I can’t truly say our “love story” began right when we first met, but it was shortly after because when we met we were both in other relationships, so even though I thought he was extremely attractive and funny I figured Kris and I would never become more than just friends. We ran into each other the following weeks and each time I saw him I felt like a giddy little girl, becoming nervous when I talked to him. I like to think that it was fate that allowed us take the next step because we both ended up being single within days of each other. When Kris heard that I was newly single he called to ask if I was doing ok and also to see if I would go to the movies with him. Our first date is when you could say our love story began. The next five years of dating were filled with many ups and downs. We enjoyed our time together taking mini vacations, going out with friends, and adopting a little puppy we named Bella. It was also in those five years we experienced the worst heartaches imaginable. I lost my grandmother who I loved and adored on Mother’s Day in 2010 and Kris lost his father in a tragic car accident two months later in July. Both of our families were morning the loss of these two incredible people who were the pillars in each of our families. Experiencing such a tremendous loss in both of our lives really brought Kris and I closer because it showed us that we shouldn’t take life or each other for granted and we knew that we wanted to take the next step and get married.
When Kris proposed to me it was truly a surprise. Even though I had shown Kris the exact engagement ring I wanted (and even provided my ring size) I didn’t think he was planning anything since he was still getting over the shock of losing his dad. We knew we wanted to celebrate our 5 year anniversary that was coming up in August, so I planned a weekend trip to Palm Springs, CA. Kris and I arrived in Palm Springs on Friday afternoon to what seemed to be the hottest day on the planet. After driving 3 hours all I wanted to do was take a nap in the air conditioned room. Kris practically had to beg me to get out of the room and after offering to buy me ice cream in town I finally caved in. After driving around the town of Palm Springs Kris pulled over by a park and asks me to take a walk with him so he can give me my anniversary present. As Kris and I were walking around the park I kept hearing a buzzing noise coming from the trees, so when Kris and I stop underneath one of the trees I find myself too busy searching for what insect could be making such a noise that I didn’t realize Kris was holding a gray little box. I also failed to realize that he was on one knee, but after seeing that the gray box was not a ring box I didn’t think anything of it. I opened the box and to my surprise there was a silver cuff bracelet that had the words “Will you marry me?” engraved on it. After reading those four little words I looked to Kris and there he was kneeling on one knee with the engagement ring of my dreams! Kris said the most perfect, romantic words a girl could imagine and after asking those four little words I said YES!! I was in shock and just filled with extreme happiness and love that I couldn’t wait to tell the whole world.
Our wedding was something that I had secretly been envisioning for years. I knew that we wanted our wedding to be an intimate occasion with only the people that were the most important to us. Having our family and our closest friends there was honestly the first thing that we talked about; especially with the losses we had both endured we knew that we didn’t want our wedding to be just about us but about the union of our families coming together as well. We wanted to incorporate as many little things we could into our wedding day that reminded us of our family who we had lost and those who were still with us.
One of the major decisions was where our wedding was going to take place. We knew that with the intimate wedding we were striving for we needed a venue that was going to be cozy, inviting, and would be conducive to the theme of rustic elegance I was going for. My sister emailed me the website to The Pine Hills Lodge in Julian, CA. After looking at just a few of the pictures and finding out that it was originally built as a romantic hideaway in 1912 I knew that we had to check it out. Inside the lodge the walls are lined with pinewood that gave it the warm and cozy feeling I was going for and with a floor to ceiling stone fireplace we could get married in front of I was sold. Not only did this venue fit our criteria perfectly but it also had enough cabins on the property for our immediate family and bridal party to have a place to stay.
The inspiration for our wedding décor came about by mixing the themes that I loved the most, a nice little combination of rustic, vintage, with a little touch of elegance. I knew that I wanted most of our colors to be creamy and white with just a pop of plum for an accent color. I chose to have my flowers reflect the color scheme of light colors so I chose to have creams, whites, and soft pink flowers with a touch of greenery. I wanted my flowers to have a soft feel about them and also wanted to have a little bit of a wildflower look to them as well to tie into the rustic theme. The one thing I was adamant about incorporating into my flowers was the Dusty Miller (a plant with lacy, silvery-green foliage) because it reminded me of my grandmother, if I couldn’t have her there with me on my wedding day I wanted to be reminded of her when I looked at my flowers.
For the pop of color we chose plum. This was the perfect color that complimented our main color scheme of creams and whites. We chose to carry the accent color to the bridesmaid dresses and to the groomsmen’s ties because it is a beautiful deep and rich fall color. The only other hint of plum that we had on the actual day was the plum string we used to tie the escort cards onto our chicken wire frames and the plum ribbon we used on our wedding wands. The plum color was used throughout all of the stationary from the save the dates to the invitations to the wedding programs.
The thing that I loved most about our wedding was the décor that was handmade by either one of my family members or by myself. I can’t thank my brother enough for the beautiful ‘Save the Date’ cards and invitations that he designed from scratch. The burlap and lace table runners were a labor of love that my sister-in-law helped me with, along with showing me how to sew lace pieces together so they would perfectly fit over the glass vases we were using for our flowers. One of my favorite items was the pair of love birds that I hand sewn together to make for our cake topper. I laugh when I look at the birds because not knowingly I made them to resemble myself and Kris, one with short little legs and the other with tall legs. The other handmade item that I love and now have hanging in my house is the “Hein” sign that my brother-in-law made. He used old reclaimed wood to make the sign and then used rope to spell our last name. We hung it above our sweetheart table and it was the perfect addition to the décor.
One of my favorite traditions I carried through on our wedding day was having something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. My something old was a long strip of tatting that my great-grandmother handmade. I had my florist incorporate it into my bouquet by tucking a piece into the flowers and also by wrapping the stems with it as well. Since I decided not to wear a veil my sister surprised me with a beautiful headband that she made which had a lace flower and long strands of ribbon and lace that were actually incorporated into my updo and then tied into a sweet little bow that sat at the nape of my neck. The something borrowed was from my mother who let me wear a pair of diamond earrings that had belong to my grandmother. And last but not least was the tiny little blue bow that was tied onto my undergarments.
There are a lot of little moments that I still vividly remember that make me smile. One of them being the little adventure Kris and I took along with our photographer’s right before the wedding. It had been raining the whole day and most of our pictures had been either inside or under the awnings outside. Our photographer had the brilliant idea to jump in his car and drive to the spots he had been thinking about. So that is exactly what we did. Prepared with an umbrella for Kris and myself the four of us hopped in his car then hopped out when we found a perfect spot and took many pictures outside in the pouring rain. I still remember laughing at how drenched our poor photographers got because of this adventure. That was such a fun and surreal moment for us because there we were standing in the middle of the road in the pouring rain taking our wedding pictures. You would think that I would have been nervous about getting my make-up or hair ruined but I didn’t care because I knew that these pictures were going to turn out amazing.
Another special moment that I can vividly remember is getting this overwhelming feeling of love and joy as Kris and I stood there holding hands just listening to our officiant and then getting that giddy little feeling again just before he pronounced us as husband and wife. I just remember looking at Kris and thinking “this is the moment I have been waiting for my entire life.” I couldn’t imagine saying those special vows with anyone but Kris and in front of our loved ones was just an amazing moment I will never forget.
To incorporate what the town of Julian is known for, apples, we decided that our wedding favors were going to be a mixture of chocolate, caramel, and candy covered apples. They were wrapped up and tied with cute little ribbons, displayed on the sideboard; sitting on white cake stands and lace doilies, which my great -grandmother made, for our guests to take and enjoy.
Vendors:
Coordination & Styling: Couture Events, http://www.CoutureEventsSD.com
Photographer: Sean Walker Photography, http://www.seanwalkerphotography.com/
DJ: Sound Prodigy, http://www.soundprodigy.com/
Flowers: Allen’s Flowers, http://www.allensflowers.com/
Hair: Hair by Kendra, http://hairstylesbykendra.com/about_us
Makeup: Katie Joyner, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1404513685
Venue: Pine Hills Lodge, Julian, CA , http://www.pinehillslodge.com/
Invitation Designer: Jordan Cordova
Cake/Desserts: Flour Power, http://flourpower.com/
Wedding Gown Designer: Demetrios, http://www.demetriosbride.com/
Bridesmaid’s Dress Designer: Bill Levkoff, http://www.billlevkoff.com/
Officiant: Craig Knudsen, http://www.craigdoesweddings.com/
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