New Yorkers Victoria and Ryan first met in 2019, and had an ice cream first date (in January!!). After spending the pandemic together in a small NYC apartment, they were engaged in Martha’s Vineyard while on a sunset sailboat cruise. How romantic is that?!

Victoria and Ryan reached out to me in April of 2023, and mentioned they wanted their wedding to be “tasteful and timeless, yet fun and not over-the-top for the sake of it”. They referenced one of my previous client’s invitations (click here to see Sarah and Connor’s invitation suite and other Highlands, NC weddings!) and told me that they wanted to blend Victoria’s Vietnamese culture seamlessly into the wedding. My response? “LOVE IT SO MUCH, LET’S DO IT!!”

The invitations included a watercolor floral bouquet, the blue ridge mountains, Vietnamese lanterns, and a unique watercolor map of the locales for their weekend festivities. The envelope liner was a watercolor painting of the bridge at The Farm at Old Edwards, adorned with more Vietnamese lanterns. The overall feel was classic and timeless with meaningful, intentional details.

For their wedding day stationery, we designed a wedding crest (with the New York skyline!) and created ceremony programs, cocktail signs, menus with vellum place cards, a welcome sign, thank you cards, and a Pittsburgh Cookie Table sign.

I recently asked Victoria and Ryan to answer a few questions for me about their wedding.

A year later, their excitement about their wedding day was still there and their love for each other just radiated from the computer screen. Here’s what they had to say:

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What was your wedding inspiration? I know we covered this pre-wedding, but it may have changed along the way!

The wedding inspiration was all Ryan! He knew he wanted to blend both our cultures (Victoria being Vietnamese / Chinese) and wanted to stay away from the mainly white palette. He pulled a few different vision boards together of what he saw had been done at the venue before and added a sprinkle of the Vietnamese floating lanterns to tie everything together. Our florist and wedding planning team did an excellent job pulling together the final vision!

What was your most anticipated part of the day? Was there anything you were nervous about?

Victoria: I was nervous being the center of attention so definitely walking the down aisle with all eyes on me was a little nerve-wracking. That being said, I was the most excited to just get married to my guy and also never wedding plan again.

Ryan: I just wanted everything to go perfectly for Victoria. I know she hates being the center of attention and I’m just glad that everything went well, from the ceremony, to pictures, to her father-daughter dance, I couldn’t ask for a better day and better weather!

Did anything unexpected happen? Were there any surprises?

No “bad” unexpected things happened, but we were overwhelming surprised by what the final venue and vision looked like. Our planning and floral team just did an amazing job!!! We were really surprised walking into the venue!

We also were shocked that we were able to pull off our coordinated first dance without any hiccups. We were still practicing in the parking lot of our hotel leading up to the big deal with plenty of mistakes so we were surprised when it ended up turning out more than okay!

What was your favorite part of the day?

We just loved dancing during the reception!!! After all the “big” movements, it just nice to let loose and have a good time with all our friends and family.

What made you choose your venue?

We had spent time down in Asheville / Highlands / Brevard area during COVID-19 and just fell in love with the area. So when we were exploring wedding venues, we were very open to any venue across the US. Once we took a peek at North Carolina and found Old Edwards, we were very happy and pulled the trigger almost immediately. We have no regrets at OEI and their team did a fantastic job!

Describe your ceremony! I want to hear about special traditions, if you wrote your own vows, why certain things were or weren’t incorporated, etc.

We wrote our own vows, which were super important to both of us. Ryan had a little trouble limiting to the number words / minutes we agreed upon – we guess he just had so much love to share in words! We had incorporated both our mothers into our ceremony – first, Victoria’s mom to read a poem that we selected The Giraffe & The Monkey by Daniel Thompson and second, Ryan’s mom with the Loving Cup (a family tradition of which bride and groom take three sips from the cup).

What advice would you give to couples who are currently planning their wedding?

To not worry too much about the things that seem big, but in actuality, won’t matter on the big day. What do we mean about that? The food or wine (you will barely get to eat and / drink it), the napkins (no one will care and you won’t even notice). The thing we felt mattered most in terms of aesthetics or what guests may notice is the flowers.

How did you feel at the end of the day?

We felt AMAZING!!!! We were just so relieved to see everything come together for the big day and that most of our loved ones were able to attend and celebrate.

What did you like most about working with Dear Kathryn?

Kathy was truly one of our favorite vendors to work with – she was super sweet and patient with our change requests. We also appreciated her thoughtfulness in the gift that she sent us when we started working together – a Vietnamese cookbook! It showed that she truly did pay attention to her clients and what they shared with her.

Cheers to Victoria and Ryan! I absolutely loved working with you and wish you all the best. Thank you for letting me be part of your special day.

Wedding Vendors:

Photography: @michaelfreas
Planning and Design: @radhikakelly @vergeevents
Wedding Venue/Reception: @oldedwardsevents
Invitations and Stationery: @dearkathryninvitations
Florals: @floraasheville
Music: @partywithsts
Hair and Makeup: @anariebeauty
Bakery: @kat_lushcakery
Vintage Excalibur: @airhavenlimo
Rentals: @professionalparty
Rehearsal Party Venue: @flatmountainfarm