Sarah + Jeremiah wanted a wedding day that felt like it equally embodied them both. With representing their cultural heritages a top priority, the couple got to work creating a day that felt aesthetically informed by Jeremiah’s Mexican, Spanish, and English background and Sarah’s Japanese and German roots.
They turned to planners from La Vie Events to help them achieve their multicultural design vision and the result was this joyful + thoughtful Santa Barbara celebration that filled Villa & Vine with SO many bright, spring-tone flowers!
On top of typical bride + groom responsibilities, this couple put their skill sets to work. Jeremiah—a web designer—built their wedding website from scratch, and Sarah—a graphic designer—designed their invitations, menus, place cards, reception seating chart, and more!
We are so pumped to show you the beautiful pictures that Wild Whim took of Sarah + Jeremiah’s colorful and meaningful day!!
Get some gold origami paper to create your 1000 paper cranes in the warm metallic color palette Sarah + Jeremiah used!
Sarah + Jeremiah placed white paper hand fans on every seat as guest favors, a thoughtful way to invoke the Japanese, Spanish, Mexican, and English historic and cultural use of fans while giving their guests a way to stay cool in the Santa Barbara sunshine.
Take a peek at our list of 39 creative and unique wedding favor ideas to find a memento your guests can take home to remember your special day!
Our Musical Choices Processional: "Dawn" by Dario Marianelli (from the film "Pride and Prejudice")
Recessional: "Miracles Happen" by Myra (from the film "The Princess Diaries")
First Dance: We actually didn’t have a first dance! Neither of us are big dancers and we don’t love being the center of attention, so we nixed this.
“I absolutely loved seeing our two cultures blend together both aesthetically and between our families!” says bride Sarah.
“We knew we wanted the venue to do a lot of the aesthetic heavy-lifting,” say Sarah + Jeremiah, “so when we came across Villa & Vine in Santa Barbara, we knew it would be the perfect fit. The quaint and intimate Spanish-style building and courtyard meshed perfectly with our vision, and its creamy white archways were the perfect backdrop for our vibrant flowers.”
And definitely investigate the options on our list of 33 half-up half-down hairstyles for every hair type and occasion if you’re loving Sarah’s bridal hair look as much as we are.
Our Advice To Those Planning Now From the bride: "I don’t want to inundate brides-to-be with too much planning advice, but one thing I would recommend based on my own experience is to ditch anything that doesn’t feel like you. There were a lot of wedding traditions that felt stuffy and patriarchal to me, so I only kept those traditions that felt like “us” and not like obligations. This meant nixing first dances, the bouquet toss, the cake cutting, and a lot of other things that I sometimes got pressure from others to incorporate. But in the end, I was happy that I blocked out the noise and only focused on the things that really mattered to us. As a result, our wedding was absolutely perfect for us and everything we could’ve wanted!"
“As I was choosing vendors, I tried to prioritize those that were female-identifying,” Sarah says, “not only because I wanted to support those vendors, but also to create a feminine and gentle atmosphere at our event. This was most important (and also most difficult!) in the DJ department — since this would be the MC of our event, we didn’t want the strong masculine presence that’s more typical of male DJs, but finding a female wedding DJ that fit our vision was surprisingly difficult! We were super happy to find Dani from Dart Collective — she was exactly the “cool girl” LA vibes we were looking for.”
Our Favorite Memory From The Wedding From the bride: "There are too many favorite memories from the day to choose just one, but one that stands out is when my uncle and cousin led the banzai toast during dinner, which is a tradition in Japanese weddings in Hawaii. My mom is from Hawaii and every family wedding I went to growing up had a banzai toast, so I knew I wanted to have it at my wedding as well. The banzai toast involves guests participating and shouting “banzai!” to wish the bride & groom 10,000 years of life, and it’s always energetic and an easy way for guests to get involved during toasts. But a close second favorite memory would definitely be when my father-in-law busted out his break dancing moves on the dance floor!"
Congratulations, Sarah + Jeremiah!! Your Santa Barbara wedding day was vibrant, multicultural magic! GWS wishes you all the very best!
photography: Wild Whim Design + Photography // venue name: Villa & Vine, Santa Barbara, CA, USA // event design: done by the bride! // planning: La Vie Events // florals: Royal Bee Flower Co // wedding dress: BHLDN Willowby by Watters – Katara and Rime Arodaky – Patsy Jumpsuit // wedding dress boutique: Blue Sky Bridal // wedding dress boutique: Still White // bride’s ring: Brilliant Earth // hair stylist: Esther Harville // groom attire: Indochino // groom’s ring: Brilliant Earth // groomsmen attire: Menguin // paper goods: Oblation Papers + Press // catering: Petros // desserts: Fernando’s Churros // tabletop rentals: Theoni // linen rentals: BBJ La Tavola // music: Dart Collective // photo booth: Soirée Photobooth Co