Jessica and Bryan planned their wedding hundreds of miles away, in San Fransisco. With the help of Jessica’s mother doing the flowers, and Jessica’s brother finding the reception and putting everything together…they had a beautiful wedding day. One other quirk is that Jessica and Bryan are both vegans. They wanted food to be a huge part of their day, without people even knowing it was vegan. Warning: this post may make you hungry!
An aside: I love the detail on the back of Jessica’s dress by David’s Bridal, so elegant, and the lace is classic.
My favorite part of the day was seeing my husband stand at alter at church,” says Jessica. “He looked so happy! My favorite element of the whole celebration was probably the food. Not only did it taste wonderful, but so many guests came up to me to say how much they liked it!” – No mean feat when you consider it was all vegan. During the planning process, when the couple told people about their unusual plan for the food, they heard all sorts of reactions, and many of them negative, but they stuck to the plan and it paid off.
“I think anyone who wants to have a vegan wedding, should do it! Just do your research,” advises Jessica.That means taste test, taste test, and taste test, with vegans and non-vegans to make sure it meets non-vegan standards. “We didn’t want to serve straight tofu or to scare anyone with fake meats.” The pair tried to go with dishes that weren’t too exotic and more “accidentally vegan” with a Spanishy theme . They served Spanish paella, meatless Colombian empanadas, and portobella mushrooms. The appetizers were patatas bravas and little pita chips with various dips – recognizable foods that people weren’t afraid to try.
Jessicas and Bryan’s DIY projects:
Jessica and her twin brother who lives in southern California designed all the stationery using Photoshop and the screensharing feature on our Mac computers. Bryan works at a printing company so he was able to print and cut them so everything fit together nicely. Unfortunately, there aren’t any photos to share.
Jessica’s mother and sister hand-drew and outlined the tree and text on the canvas for the fingerprint project. “It worked out OK, but I’d sketch it out on something first, and then use marker on the actual canvas, because the pencil can smudge. Lastly, don’t be afraid to get some nice ink!”
My advice would be to plan early, to just follow your heart as to what you want the day to be like and don’t worry about what others think. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have consideration for others feelings or to have discussions about who paying for what.. those are strongly recommended. Instead, I’m just saying don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s your day. Lastly, spend time with your DJ planning the music (we didn’t spend nearly enough), and music is such a big element of the reception! You want everyone to enjoy the ambiance and dance. A friend of mine set up a website where guests could submit their choices for songs they wanted to hear. I heard about this *after* my wedding, and wished I would have done it as well!
