An Ethereal, Romantic Chinese-German Fusion Wedding at Estancia La Jolla in California

Dreamy, romantic, ethereal—that's the vibe that anchored Beverly (Bev) and Jordan's Chinese-German fusion wedding at Estancia La Jolla in La Jolla, California. "From the get-go, my husband's one request was that he wanted us to get married somewhere with greenery," explains Bev. "Our wedding planner did a fabulous job with helping us search for a venue that was a destination for our guests and also allowed us to embrace the outdoor greenery. In our planning stages, I truly took to our planner's styled shoots that she had taken part in and picked the styles that embodied our intended design. With having an outdoor ceremony and reception, we loved the garden feel that our venue gave us and wanted to hone in on that theme. As far as the color palette, we share a love of blue and our accent colors began to fall in place once we finalized our venue. To honor my Chinese/Malaysian culture, it was important for me to incorporate a Chinese tea ceremony to invite our family to partake in and learn the tradition and beautiful meaning behind it. To honor my husband's German roots, we opted for a unity ceremony with a German beer and Coca-Cola, a drink that we enjoyed on a previous trip to Munich."

Because the couple's venue is beautiful on its own, Bev and Jordan "let the venue space speak for itself—we wanted to accent the greenery in the best way possible," says Bev. "With the intimate feel that a micro wedding gives off, I wanted to incorporate family-style seating for the reception. When it came to flowers, we wanted to be intentional in the floral design where we could repurpose different pieces in both our ceremony and reception space. My one request for florals was to incorporate peonies since they are my absolute favorite. With our design, I wanted to have florals that utilized our color palette of blush pink, dusty blue, and sage green."

While the couple's wedding weekend was absolutely stunning, Bev shares that one of her favorite moments actually happened before the celebration began. "Before we started our road trip to La Jolla for the wedding, my mom sat me down on her bed and handed me this red jewelry box," says Bev. "In Chinese culture, it is typical to give gold and jade jewelry to the bride and groom. Inside this little red box were two pieces of jewelry: a jade heart and a gold pendant that was strung onto a gold chain. The minute I opened it, it took me back to when I was a little girl playing with these pieces whenever my mom would take out her jewelry. My mom explained how the jade heart was a gift to her from my dad and how the gold pendant was a wedding gift from her mom. These heirloom pieces are definitely something I hope to pass onto future children when their wedding day comes. After my grandma's passing in 2018, I knew that I wanted to have her with me on my wedding day. I was able to wrap the necklace around the base of my bouquet and have her with me. To me, this was such a sweet and touching moment of the wedding that I got to share with my mom."