Jen and Andrew have a love for all things coastal (the food, the scenery, the aesthetic/decor, and the activities) so it’s fitting they got engaged in summer 2022 on Nantucket island – an island off the Massachusetts coast. Jen being from the east coast and Andrew from the west coast–it made perfect sense to have their wedding weekend in the Orange Coast in Newport Beach. For their rehearsal welcome party, they knew they wanted something that would play up the area’s coastal elements and Lido House Hotel which blends classic Cape Cod architecture with modern California cool was the perfect place to do so! Guests arrived in coastal California attire and dusty blue accents were central at their welcome party – signature drinks consisted of Hers-Coastal Margarita and His-Old Fashioned by the Sea with custom blue and white cocktail umbrellas, a blue and white floral wall with custom neon sign, custom sugar cookies with their logo in adorning navy ribbon, custom serving linens for servers passing out steak tartare and crab cakes, and dusty blue signage throughout. The floral certain pieces and accents of bright blue hydrangeas and delphinium were the perfect highlight to this coastal affair.
How did you two meet? What were your first impressions of one another?
Andrew and Jen’s love story began in the summer of 2020, an unlikely time amidst a global pandemic. Andrew suggested dinner and drinks for their first date and agreed to meet Jen on her side of town. Andrew arrived in an N95 mask (thinking it was high fashion at the time), and Jen arrived, eager to tour him around her neighborhood. Jen immediately felt at ease when Andrew greeted her, and that feeling carried on throughout the entire evening, which to them, felt like five minutes, but ended up lasting over four hours. They both left the date feeling like it was the start of something very special. Immediately after the first date, Andrew famously called his friend Jonny and told him that Jen was“Wife Material”, which was not something he had ever said before. I guess you could say he manifested his wife!
Tell us a funny story relating to your wedding day or relationship!
Jen and Andrew’s early relationship consisted of a variety of dates to keep learning about each other and enjoy different experiences – hikes, long walks around the westside, and trips to nearby beaches. Andrew once took adventuring a bit too literally, and decided to take Jen to Point Dume beach in Malibu, his idea of a romantic picnic – for those that haven’t been, one has to practically scale a cliff to get down to the public beach area at Point Dume. Needless to say, Jen wasn’t exactly thrilled by all of this – especially when there was high tide and Jen got completely soaked. On the way back from the date, they also had to scale a cliff when the normal way up which was a staircase with a railing, got completely eroded by a recent storm. Now, the date now holds a special place in their early memories together and always makes for a good story.
Describe a hurdle you had to overcome in your relationship or during your wedding planning.
As soon as we got engaged, we knew we wanted a coastal Newport Beach wedding weekend in September since it’s typically sunny and perfect weather. The week leading up to our wedding, there was suddenly clouds appearing on the forecast…which then turned into scattered rainstorms. The chance of rain kept increasing as we got closer to the weekend and it really tested our patience given we were having an outdoor welcome party and wedding ceremony. We trusted that it was all going to work out the way it should and tried to rejoice in all the family and friends that had traveled to be with us no matter what the weather had in store. It did end up raining (luckily before the ceremony only for a short storm), and it made for beautiful lighting, a rainbow, and we got to have our all of our wedding activities outside which was exactly what we wanted. It definitely tested our patience through the ups and downs, but definitely made us appreciate the events and every moment even more!
Any special ways you incorporated your family or family history into your wedding day?
We really wanted to make our wedding day our own and start new traditions! Jen kept the wrap around her bridal bouquet to pass down to future generations.
What part of your wedding day was/is most important to you?
For us, we wanted to really transport our guests into elements that embody both us as individuals and us as a couple. Starting from the signature florals – which anyone that knows us and comes to our home, that we love blue hydrangeas even down to the coastal cocktail dresscode for the rehearsal. We infused so many of our trips to Nantucket and New England into our wedding events and having that shine bright for all of our friends and family to see was the most important to us!
What is the best thing you’ve learned from one another?
Jen definitely learned from Andrew how to be decisive! There’s so many possibilities and choices these days with weddings and wedding planning. As someone who has always struggled making detail decisions, Andrew was the perfect partner in crime to Jen and always kept the process moving along. We’ve carried this synergy into so many decisions since we’ve been married, too!
For Andrew, it’s Jen’s compassion and thoughtfulness. Even when she’s having a bad day, she’ll think about how she can brighten someone’s day, sometimes a even for a stranger…if anyone who’s gotten a random giftcard at Starbucks when they’ve gone to purchase their coffee – it could be from her!
What is your favorite thing about each other?
For Jen, it’s Andrew’s amazing listening ability. She can tell him a very thorough and detailed story while he’s watching an intense football game (when his favorite team is on, the Pittsburgh Steelers), and he’ll still understand every detail and ask poignant and thoughtful questions. For Andrew, it’s Jen’s loving nature – she will wake up early on a Saturday morning and make him an elaborate breakfast (though he may be asked to acquire the ingredients) and then devise a fun adventure for them.
What was your favorite part about planning your wedding?
Mocking up how the space was going to look leading up to the wedding weekend was such a fun part of the process for us! Jen makes a lot of decks in her day job and it was fun to be able to use these skills in a more creative outlet to show vendors what she was envisioning. </p> <p>We knew we wanted a coastal New England flair for our rehearsal from the beginning and it was such a fun experience to think through how to bring that vision to life with different enhancements (cocktail umbrellas, signage, custom cookies). When it all came together, it truly embodied them as a couple. Even down to the venue (Lido House Hotel) which was modeled after Cape Cod!
If you had one piece of advice for other couples, what would it be?
Sometimes the most cliché advice resonates the most! Throughout the planning process, everyone had told us to enjoy every moment because it goes by so fast and is over in the blink of an eye. It really is true now that the best weekend of our lives is behind us and we get to relive it from our memories and our photos. Take a moment to step back and appreciate every single vendor, friend, family, and person that come together to make your wedding weekend so special and spend as much time soaking it all in. It’s such a journey to get there, it really is the time to sit back and just marvel at how it all came together! I still check in with my wedding vendors periodically since they made our weekend so special and we spoke so often during planning – choose a vendor team that really jives with your vision and personality!
What is the most honest thing you can say about love?
Most people, when thinking about love, think about the emotion – the romance of falling in love and the desire to share every moment, and learn everything about this other person. After going through planning such a major life event together, it’s clear that love is far more than an emotion. Emotions are fleeting. They are here one moment, and gone the next. Love is unconditional and takes a lot of hard work. We work every day to be better than the next and choose each day to love the other and put the others desires first.
Photographer Jasmine Marie Photography
Venue: Lido House Newport Beach
Stylist / Planner / Designer: Engaged Events
Floral Designer: Elegant By Design
Dress Designer: Cinq a Sept
Makeup Artist: Makeup by Devynne
Hair Stylist: Bibbidy Bobbidy Beauty
Rentals: Stephanie’s Linens
Floral wall: Happy Memories
Custom cookies: Luckey Mom’s
Earrings: Jennifer Meyer Jewelry
Publisher at The White Wren and Bajan Wed, Award Winning Photography + Videographer at Live View Studios, Dad, 80s music lover, crunchy health advocate
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