Kari & Cherish’s Laid Back Irvine Nature Center Wedding in Baltimore, Maryland

Images: Maria Linz

So far, not doing great for getting back on track with blogging this week … but my sisters and I went up to NJ (yes for a half a day) to celebrate my mom’s retirement. So I am running low on sleep, and even less energy, and gearing up for my last wedding before baby this Saturday! So here’s a beautiful Baltimore Wedding with fun, brightly colored rainbow details & a beautiful nature center venue.

Kari’s academic advisor (and now our life-long friend), Paz, recognized that we had similar research interests and set us up on a lunch date to discuss working in a lab together. In the following months we started doing research together and eventually started dating. Before I knew it Kari proposed to me by throwing me a surprise graduation party, singing “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” and then asking me to marry her in front of all of our friends and family. Wen I said YES there was so much confetti and champagne popping everywhere! I had originally thought the party was a going away party for Kari’s sister Erin, so I had no clue what was going to happen! The best part was I was already planning to propose to Kari and I already had a ring for her, which I was planning to give her on her birthday (when we first said “I love you”). I was so proud that I was still able to keep the ring a secret till her birthday!

The inspiration for our wedding was wanting to throw a giant party with all of the people we love the most! We opted for a nature-vibe so the Irvine Nature Center was the perfect place for our wedding! Because the Irvine Nature Center is so naturally beautiful we wanted to ceremony decor to be minimal. Since Paz takes credit for starting our relationship, she and her spouse, Carin, were our first choice to officiate our wedding.

For the reception we filled the tent with fresh sunflowers and red daisies on the tables and hung DIY sunflower balls for the tent ceiling. Kari’s dad had also made a rustic wooden stand for our cupcakes and surprised us with matching coasters with our names and wedding date as favors for all our guests. We are both vegetarians, so it was important to us to have a caterer who specializes in vegetarian meals, and Zia’s knocked it out of the park!

My mom and I are huge “Say Yes to the Dress” fans, so when it came to my wedding day look we were so excited for me to go try on dresses! We went to Posh Bridal and I fell in love with the second dress I tried on. The whole process turned out to be much easier than I ever imagined! Kari also went to try on dresses but discovered she was more comfortable in a suit. She originally wanted a white suit, but ended up going with black after she couldn’t find what she had envisioned. She went with a red bow tie to go with the wedding, and because its her favorite color.

There were so many special moment throughout the day but I was especially looking forward to the ceremony that Pa and Carin wrote for us and to exchange the vows Kari and I had written for each other.

I think the best advice I can give to couples planning their weddings is, when your wedding day comes, it’s going to be perfect no matter what because at the end of the day you get to walk away married to the person you love more than anything else in the world! So don’t even sweat the small stuff.