This Wedding Wisdom is actually a little bit different than the others! Both Crystal AND Joon were able to be there for the interview and answer each question from both the perspective of the bride and groom, which I thought was super helpful and good 🙂

Question #1: What Did You Love About Planning Your Wedding?

Crystal: Deciding on all the decor and details! The second we got engaged I went straight to Pinterest (of course haha) but that was the fun part! To figure out all the floral colors, cake, dress.. just jumping into all the little details! That was really fun.

Joon: My favorite part about planning the wedding was choosing the photographer and videographer! Because I wanted to capture every moment.. that’s literally the only thing that you get to keep from your wedding day, and that was so important to me. So I loved jumping right into it and researching everybody right away.. and obviously, it worked out perfectly because the photos are absolutely beautiful!

Crystal: Yeah, and because we had that foundation of wanting every moment captured, I knew I wanted to figure out all the details with decorations and what not because I knew they were going to be photographed. Regardless of the guests noticing the decorations or not, it was important to me because I knew it was going to get captured.

Question #2: What Were Some Not So Fun Parts?

Both: The guest list was the most difficult thing.

Crystal: It was so hard because if you’re inviting people coming from long distances, or this person, or that person.. then you have to invite this person, and this person, and I really didn’t want to have to hurt anyone’s feelings. I think I remember you saying that you didn’t have a problem being assertive enough to decide what you wanted, but that was the really stressful part for us with our guest list.

Joon: You have to bug them for RSVP’s

Crystal: Yep haha so that was mainly the part that wasn’t as fun. We would have loved to have EVERYONE there, but like you said the more people you have the more expensive and gets AND the more you have to accommodate everyone!

Question #3: What Was Important To You When Planning Your Wedding? Style, Experience, Time, Etc.

Crystal: Like I said before, the style and details behind how everything came together visually was really important. But genuinely, I would say all of those things! Everything that we had envisioned I wanted to execute as much as we could. What’s funny is that when I was a little girl I didn’t have a “dream wedding” or anything like most girls do, but as soon as we got engaged BOOM suddenly I started dreaming and thinking about it all the time! Another factor that was funny was that I always said that I didn’t want it to be too extravagant or over the top, but it actually ended up being that way hahaha! I couldn’t help it!! Because that’s our one wedding day and we should do what we want to do!

Joon: We talked about our wedding while we were dating, and went over everything that we would have wanted for our wedding day. Right off the bat I knew exactly what I wanted and she envisioned the same thing actually. What was really surprising for me too was her dress, her makeup, everything… what she looked like that day was everything that I imagined it would be. Of course, she’s the most important part of my day that day and she was absolutely perfect. And the venue looked perfect too.

We also had great photography – you and your assistant were so great and so helpful that day and we were so grateful! Our videography team was great too, the venue, like… the fact that everything went so smoothly was everything I could have wished for.

Crystal: The way that our venue was set up was important too because we thought a lot about our guests. The venue was very flat and easily accessible (some venues have hills and things like that), and we wanted them to be comfortable and have a good time.

Question #4: What was something you wished you spent LESS time stressing about or working on?

Crystal: I’ll say that I stress out on a lot of things haha but I kinda wanted to and it was worth the stress! So for example, like the invitations… initially I thought I just wanted something simple because at that point I was getting really tired of doing all the other stuff haha and my mom wanted me to do a nicer invitation… in the end I’m so glad we did because they came out so nice!

But it was quite a process! We had to order one part of the invitation through one person and then the folding part of it from someone else… so like the technical part of it took a lot of time and it was pretty stressful! But I knew that I really wanted that because I knew that you were going to capture it so beautifully.. which you did. So to me, that was worth the stress.

Another one was our guest favors! I think I would have liked to have spent less time on that haha. We had a little plant with a sign on it, which came out super cute! and my mom helped do that – but even then I didn’t want her to have to go through all that extra stress to create guest favors haha but other than that I don’t really think there was anything else. If anything I wished I could have taken away the stress because things started to be “less fun” as the wedding day drew closer haha

Joon: Oh and the weather hahaha

Crystal: YES the weather!! haha that’s obviously something we can’t control haha

Joon: Yeah we kept checking the 3 weeks leading up to our wedding.

Question #5: What was your favorite part of your wedding day?

Crystal: My favorite part of the day was meeting Joon at the altar. Waiting for that big moment where I wake up in the morning to get ready and then meet my groom at the altar to get married! Also because I’m in my dress, and my dad’s walking me down the aisle… that whole moment was definitely one of my favorites. Walking back down after being announced was great too! Dancing at the end of the night was another favorite moment and ALSO when my parents surprised us with the banner! That was SUCH a surprise.

Joon: Well for me, it was definitely seeing her walk out through those doors… seeing her in her dress for the first time… and she really kept me in suspense with the wedding dress for all those months leading up to it haha I even tried to get a peek at it, but no. So yeah.. definitely seeing her in her dress for the first time and seeing her walk out with my father in law. It’s just a moment where you feel like time stops – you don’t see anything else, you don’t feel anything else, you just see her coming towards you. So that’s definitely my all time favorite moment ever. It was such an emotional moment.

Another moment that actually surprised me was the mother/son dance. We actually kinda snuck that into the agenda, and I don’t think I danced with my mom since I was a kid. It was also such a great moment too!

Question #6 & #7: What was your thought process for choosing a photographer? And what stood out to you the most about Kate Garcia Weddings?

Crystal: This was a REALLY long search for us! Like we said earlier, it was the most important thing for us and I remember going on Instagram and looking at a TOOOON of photography pages. And we actually did find a photographer and we almost booked with her.. but then we realized her work wasn’t necessarily what we were looking for. So for example, her work was a lot more light and airy kind of style, and we realized that we wanted more of a realistic approach.

Joon: Yeah we wanted to have someone who could capture the authenticity and details and not make it look too fairy-like, but genuinely capture how it was. So we did one more search and when we came across your work, we had no doubt. We jumped on board as soon as we found your pictures because even your personality and the way you were as a photographer and as a person was great! We’re a little more introverted and so having your personality really really helped! Your guidance, experience and confidence… I mean you had photographed so many weddings before that all looked different and had different people and that really helped us to know where we needed to be and what we needed to be doing. The wedding rehearsal only takes you so far – when the wedding day came, you were there as a pillar, you guided us through a lot of things and that gave us a piece of mind. And then watching you capture all the different parts of the day gave me peace of mind too because I knew all of it was going to get captured. I got to just enjoy it 🙂

Crystal: Yeah you made us feel so comfortable throughout the day – you were such a calming presence on wedding day. And I know you asked for the wedding day, but it’s hard not to mention when you did our engagement session as well. That was so fun and helpful because we got to work with you and we got to put the creativity in your hands. I remember being nervous because that was our first shoot, but it was truly just comfortable and easy from then on. And your website was totally and completely YOU – you were excited on there and that made me want to contact you and get to know you.

Joon: Yeah how you were on your website was exactly who we saw on wedding day!

Question #8: Did you feel like you booked an adequate amount of time?

Crystal: I would say it was perfect. I think we booked you for 10 hours, and we technically added an extra hour too. But yeah I think it was the perfect amount and you got to capture a lot and your assistant was awesome too!

(For reference: Crystal & Joon chose 10 hours of coverage, with a second shooter, and their wedding was around 73 guests)

Question #9: Was there any other vendor that you couldn’t imagine not being there?

Joon: Videography for sure. He made it look like a movie! And the way you meshed with our videographer too was just like one team haha it was like a team of directors guiding us every step of the way. I was so blessed and thankful to have you, your assistant and our videography team. Our wedding wouldn’t have gone as smoothly without you guys there.

Crystal: Oh yeah definitely, I mean there were times when I didn’t really know where our coordinator was on wedding day (that’s not to talk bad about them) but I felt like you and our videographers were our planners. I remember when the guests started arriving and we really didn’t want anyone to see us cuz we were taking photos on the side, and you guys really helped us out with that. The other part of it was when the banner with the airplane came out! (Crystal & Joon’s parents surprised them with a banner that was flown by an airplane that said their names and their wedding date!) We saw you guys whispering and we were like “Oh no! What happened?” haha but then you guys brought us out to the open and we saw and it was just so awesome! You guys didn’t even know about it till the day of, so for you guys to take that on and still capture amazing moments was incredible.

Question #10: If you could give advice to all the newly engaged couples out there, what would it be?

Crystal: Okay, there’s a LOT haha! First, I would say just be okay with the fact that your wedding will not be 100% perfect. So for example, I paid for the little flower petal cones to be thrown after we were announced husband and wife, and nobody threw them!! Well, one person did, and you got that moment captured of the one person throwing petals, but I don’t think our coordinator told our guests about that. So just little things like that – nothing will go 100% perfect. My veil popped off while I was walking back down the aisle too, and if you had told me a year ago that that was going to happen, I probably would have freaked out.

Also, I think depending on what’s going on in your life, you have other things happening while planning your wedding/on wedding day. I just really think it’s important to be as realistic as possible – you can’t control other people’s feelings. Overall, it’s your wedding day and you’re starting a new chapter in your life, so focus on that!

Joon: I would say, enjoy every. single. second. It goes by SO FAST! Everyone will tell you the same thing haha and they’re not kidding, it really goes by in a flash. So enjoy that day as much as you can. Take in everything, and take those mental photos. Observe everything that’s happening – you’re gonna remember your friends dancing, your family there, the way your soulmate looks – if I could go back I just wish that I could have stopped time because it goes by really really fast.

Crystal: Yeah, the time of day when I used to look around and take everything in was during the ceremony. Because after that, you keep moving forward with the schedule so, I used that time to really take everything in. It really is what all brides say haha, you can’t control everything.. and I believe it’s all in God’s hands – how everything happens and how everything goes – and ultimately God is bringing you two together so that’s what’s most important.

LOVED this interview as we were able to hear from both a bride and groom! Crystal & Joon had a lot of really great tips and advice for all the engaged couples out there, so take advantage of what they shared! So thankful for my couples 🙂

Stay safe out there!

Kate