A Rustic Wedding at The Summit House

"Our vision for the wedding was to make it as much "us" as possible. We wanted every little detail to be something we love, hobbies we share together, and something our guests would enjoy. Our overarching theme was "rustic" and "games-themed." As Mike is a video game designer and Anne a board game lover, they both enjoy playing games with each other. We wanted to incorporate that as much into the wedding as we could. That led us to having an escape game wedding gift adventure, lawn games available for guests, board game titles for table assignments, meeple game pieces for escort cards, and shoe game activity. It made the wedding unique to us and we absolutely loved how it turned out!" -Bride & Groom

The Proposal:

On December 10, 2016, Mike set his intricate plan into motion. After a relaxing day together filled with entertainment including a game of TIME Stories and a viewing of Arrival, the two of them made their way to Huntington Beach for dinner at LSXO. There, they enjoyed each other's company and beautiful views of the ocean at sunset. After dinner, they took a stroll around Pacific City, enjoying the holiday decorations. In the main courtyard stood a large festive display complete with beautiful Christmas trees and lights. Mike stopped Anne here, and with the ocean in the background, he got down on one knee, pulled a ring out of his coat, and asked her to marry him. Anne was completely overjoyed, and neither of them could stop smiling. She said yes, of course! As they continued walking around to enjoy the moment, Mike suggested that they check out a nearby rooftop lounge to celebrate. Little did Anne know, there was another surprise waiting there. Ready to congratulate and celebrate with them were both of their families, including Anne's parents and brother from Orange County, Mike's brother from Los Angeles, his dad from Palm Desert, and even his mom and step-dad who flew in from Denver! They all partied the night away together in celebration of this special day.

What was the most important to the two of you while planning? Was there anything that you chose to splurge on or skip?

The most important thing to us was making our wedding unique to us. It's easy to get caught up on what every other wedding is doing especially since you see it all over Pinterest, but trying to find ways to do things where the guests can say "that is SO Anne and Mike!" made our wedding day feel more like OUR wedding and not shaped by social media's or Pinterest. These aspects were incorporated in our board game themed decor and the calligraphy and crafting (the bride's hobby) that was tied throughout the entire wedding.

We also splurged on the live band. It was a big splurge (LOL), but SO worth it as we're big fans of live music and go to concerts all the time together. It was nice to see that on our special day, we got to enjoy that hobby of ours watching and dancing to a live band. It was also a plus as the groom is passionate about drumming and got to go up on stage and play with the band...the crowd went wild!

How did you choose your wedding venue?

It was a recommendation by the bride's piano teacher who also plays the violin and performs at many weddings each year. She stated that this wedding venue is always one of her favorites to attend and perform at since the food is excellent, service superb, and coordination flawless! We couldn't have agreed more and feel so lucky to have had our wedding here.

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A Rustic Wedding at The Summit House