There is something awesome about running through photos from 6 months ago and having it suck you right back into the moment. Thats exactly what happened to me with this wedding. These two are great friends from our home town of Rockford, IL and we felt so lucky to be able to be apart of Kathlynn and Ray’s wedding. They wanted their wedding day to be small and intimate, so they decided to go with a destination wedding. Ray and Kathlynn got married on the beaches of Del Mar / Solana near San Diego, California where Ray once lived and which is a favorite vacation spot for them both. Its was beautiful! Lets just say when you throw in an amazing couple, some sand and a vintage mustang… you get some great images! We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed taking them! Share it, Pin it and let us know what you think in the facebook comments below! Also check out Kathlynn's personal write up at the end of the photos! ~ Dustin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~From the Bride~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Ray & I got engaged we had already been dating for almost two years and were so ready to be married. We started looking at options for a local wedding, although we really didn’t want to spend another year or so planning our wedding. Everything started adding up quickly and we realized that we would either have to compromise on the number of friends and family we could invite, or be forced to push out the wedding several months. We didn’t feel that either of those options was viable, nor did I feel like I ‘needed’ the big wedding. At the end of the day, the most important thing to us was to be together, and we didn’t want to spend our time wrapped up in wedding planning for the next several months. We wanted the focus to remain on our relationship and each other, and we wanted a ceremony that was true to who we are – a couple whose love for each other is the most important part of us. With all of that in mind, we decided to scrap the local wedding and sneak away to the San Diego, CA area, where Ray used to live. We only told (and invited) immediate family and kept it a secret from everyone else until we returned from our honeymoon (kudos to our families for keeping it under their hats for so long). I loved the idea of getting married under the radar and sharing that private moment with only our families. It was the first idea we’d had that I was absolutely sure of, and once we decided that was our plan, everything started falling into place. We chose the Del Mar/Solana Beach area for its beautiful beaches with large coastal bluffs, which provided a gorgeous backdrop for our day. We didn’t know what our specific wedding location would be until we arrived there a few days prior, but we found the perfect spot where the bluffs cut in from the ocean; it was just right. We had rented an oceanfront condo on a cliff, which turned out to have these amazingly rusted steps down to the beach; we couldn’t have planned that location better and just knew it would be an awesome spot for photos. I didn’t have a specific color palette but wanted to use colors that would complement the setting, so I chose a deep blue J. Crew dress for my sisters, along with different pearl necklaces for each of their unique styles; Ray chose various colorful neckties from The Tie Bar for the guys. I purchased gorgeous blue Badgley Mischka shoes (my ‘something blue’) – by far my favorite wedding purchase. Since I didn’t wear them on the beach my sister stitched our wedding date (in blue thread) into the bottom of my gown…one of my favorite personal touches. I borrowed my friend Lindsay’s pearl J. Crew necklace, which she wore in her wedding, and my ‘something old’ was a vintage pearl ring from my mom. A friend led me to Franco’s Flowers where we found the most unique, bright and beautiful flowers that went perfectly with the colors we had already chosen. Franco’s was so helpful & efficient and I was able to pick out exactly which flowers I wanted.Ray & I had agreed that having amazing photos was one of, if not the, most important aspects of the entire wedding experience, and I was thrilled with our photographers. Dustin & Courtney of Waller Wedding Photography are not only incredibly talented photographers, but they’re good friends that we’ve known for years and it was so fun to have them spend the day with us. I couldn’t be happier with our photos and how they so perfectly captured the love, joy and emotion of our day. Our wedding day was everything I wanted it to be. It was low-key and non-stressful and I loved spending the morning with my sisters, mom and brother (hairstylist extraordinaire), drinking mimosas and getting ready. When I finally got to walk down that long rusty staircase to see Ray for the first time it was the absolute best moment of the day. Our ceremony was personal and emotional, and we both laughed and cried as we said our vows. I loved all of the personal touches in our ceremony...my brother Brandon played guitar and my sister Katrina sang Cat Power’s “Sea of Love” as I walked down the sand ‘aisle’ on my dad’s arm. Our good friend Chad married us and our parents gathered around and prayed for us after we took communion together. I’m so thankful to have had such a wonderful experience. It was the perfect day and I wouldn’t change anything about it.