This is the start of a series I’ll be doing on our big day. Our photographer, For Love & Light, did too amazing of a job to settle on just one post. I had to share as many pictures as possible! First things first: getting ready.

What an amazing whirlwind. When they say your wedding day flies by… they weren’t kidding. From start to finish, everything was perfect and everything was too short. But, mostly perfect.

We began the morning around 10 by stopping by my salon, The Pink Door. I had inspiration pics for myself and for my bridal party, and they killed it. I wasn’t too stoked on having my veil in all day (mostly because I didn’t want to ruin it), but it barely got in the way. With the baby’s breath and my veil perfectly in place, we headed to The Westin South Coast Plaza to finish getting ready. Here, we popped some champagne, did our makeup, and got dressed.

I decided early on that I wanted to do my own makeup. I’ll be doing a full post on this later on, but here’s a quick note on that: I just wanted to feel like myself. Whenever I’ve gotten my makeup professionally done in the past, it’s beautiful but it’s always just too much. I wanted my look to be natural, light, easy. I wanted my look to be ME.

With hair and makeup done, I got into my dress, put on the finishing touches, and we piled into our limo bus for the ride down to Laguna Beach. Meanwhile, Michael and his groomsman were already at the Laguna house getting ready. I absolutely love the pictures of him prepping with his boys – and the dogs.

The last few pictures in the (long, long) list below are of us waiting for the ceremony to start in the garage above the house. A few people filtered in to say hello, give their well wishes, and to steady my growing nerves. I can still remember that feeling of pure joy, but also that feeling of “oh my god, please don’t fall” that was rushing through me. But, more for that in the upcoming post about the ceremony!

Photography by For Love & Light