Wedding at Venue by Three Petals, Huntington Beach | Julie & Andrew

I feel so blessed when previous brides refer me to their friends and family, and that's exactly how I had the privilege of photographing Julie's wedding. The year before I had been at the wedding of her sister, Amy, and I got to know Julie and the other bridesmaids. I was not surprised at how sweet and considerate this entire family is and how welcomed they make me feel. Not only that, but Julie and Andrew were so sweet and considerate to all of us vendors, and there's no better feeling than being appreciated.

I loved the aesthetic Julie chose for her wedding: soft, romantic, and elegant. Her choice of color was mauve, which was perfect for the bridesmaid dresses and in the florals. Noguchi Garden in Costa Mesa was the perfect backdrop for the first look and bridal party portraits with its mixture of cool architecture and greenery. The ceremony at Venue by Three Petals was pure elegance as the whole space was white with statement pieces, a floral chandelier and floral arches, and romantic candles lining the aisle. Jen and her team from Campfire Events did such an amazing job making sure everything ran smoothly and even transforming the space from ceremony to reception. During the reception, Julie and Andrew donned traditional Vietnamese attire as they went from table to table. At the end of the night guests enjoyed mingling, dancing, and a Boba bar!

I am so happy this special day turned out just as Julie and Andrew had imagined, and I was honored to have been there to document it all.

Q&A with the bride

Q: Tell us about your wedding! What was the inspiration behind your day? Did you have a specific theme, style or color palette? Did you incorporate any cultural or religious traditions in any part of your day? A: Our inspiration was that we wanted to do something simple, but make it look good. We went for the "modern, romantic and minimalistic" look. Our color palette was mauve, greenery, and gold. A Vietnamese tradition we have is doing table visits during the reception and visit each table. We made it special by changing into our traditional Vietnamese outfits called an ao dai. During our ceremony, we decided to have communion as our unity celebration.

Q: Let's talk wedding decor. How did you decorate your space for the ceremony and the reception? Was any part of the decor DIY? A: Our space was decorated in mostly greenery and candles. We wanted to make it simple and elegant. The only DIY in decor were the table numbers in which we printed ourselves as well as the reception programs.

Q: What were the florals like in your wedding? Did you use flowers in any of your design elements like the bridal bouquets, centerpieces or ceremony backdrop? Did they play an important part in the overall style of your wedding? A: The florals in our wedding were mostly smilax, eucalyptus, gardenias and white roses. We used flowers almost everywhere, such as our bouquets, on our trio framed structure with simple greenery, table runners, and even aisle way. The flowers played a big part in our wedding as our venue is a blank canvas and we're able to decorate it any way we wanted, which is why we chose a lot of greenery.

Q: Did you personalize the day in any way (food trucks, guest entertainment etc.)? What were some of your favorite parts of your wedding? A: We LOVE boba! So we catered boba to all our guests. Our favorite parts of the wedding was seeing our friends and family get together in one place and witness our marriage. We loved seeing our vision come to life and how every little detail looked so perfect.

Q: Let's talk fashion. How did you both choose your wedding day look? Describe the looks in detail. A: We chose our wedding day look based off of what we thought would be comfortable but looked good. The wedding dress was from BHLDN, the bridesmaids dresses were from Azazie, the groom and groomsmen suits were from Hollywood Suits. For our makeup, we all wanted to go simple and natural so that we still felt like ourselves.

Q: How did you meet? Tell us about the proposal. A: We are both RN's and we met at work. The proposal was very sweet and thoughtful. Andrew knew that growing up, I (Julie) dreamed of living in a specific house that looked like a castle in my neighborhood. Every Christmas, I would put on my Christmas list "castle house." He told me we were going to have date night and surprised me when he pulled up to this castle house that had a cute little set up decorated in front. That is where he proposed and asked me to marry him.

Q: What was the most anticipated or special moment of your wedding day? A: The most anticipated moment of our wedding day was finally being able to say I do and calling each other husband and wife.

Q: Do you have any wedding planning or marriage advice that you'd like to share with other couples planning their day? A: It all comes down to having a great wedding planner. With a great wedding planner, your job is stress free. Our wedding planner, Jen was so helpful where she created a stress free environment. She was very thorough and detailed that we didn't have to worry about anything.