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So small back story about today’s stunning feature that not even Summer Land {the bride} knows!  My little sister is always on the hunt for the next witty thing to entertain her.  She stumbled upon, Summerlandish, and felt she found a kindred spirit.  I decided to follow Summer on Twitter & FB as if nothing else, the things she says in 140 characters make her follow worthy!  Now comes the funny life timing part, not too long after that Summer actually contacted me about featuring her wedding {apparently SBW had helped her along her way} who knew!?  Would the chicken or the egg come first, who knows, what I do know is when she reached out regarding her wedding, I pretty much accepted it without really seeing the images.  I felt it was worth the potential risk as a girl like Summer, loving to be bold, brash, risque, & simply looking to have  good time, if nothing else was going to make for one fun post and that was a  risk I was willing to take.  When the images finally landed on my desk I soon realized I was in for a treat!  This gorgeous Park City Utah wedding allows nature to do all the heaving lifting all the while putting in just the right touches to make it brilliant.  Beautiful strong  wood tables are used for dining while a great white lounge area was erected for guests to relax.  Intense pops of blue pink & orange are woven into the right places giving life to the natural tones around.  Summer’s bridal style is equally well put together, taking a cue, as she puts it, from Martha Stewart preppy, opting for a lovely wedding frock with pockets!  With her hair swept into the perfect low back bun, the finishing touches of a floral fascinator & veil are all she needs.  Prince charming comes in the form of an Aussie man {Paul Jongsma}, clearly smitten by Summer’s charms & quite happy to be so.  For their feature I wanted to do a blind questionnaire, neither knowing each others questions or answers….until now!  Enjoy this gem as its a true Friday treat!

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Its pretty clear you & your boys mean a lot to one another {as well as have a good time!}, how did it feel going through such a big life change with them at your side?

Paul: “It was such a good feeling knowing that my friends care for me that much to fly all the way over from Australia and be by my side.”

What was your most memorable moment with your boys while getting ready?

Paul: “The week before the wedding, we decided to get “ready” in Vegas. Since jumping out of an airplane over the strip is more exciting than learning how to tie bow ties, this stands out in my mind.”

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What was your most memorable moment with your girls while getting ready?

Summer: “We lip-synced a group performance to Carly Rae Jepson’s Call Me Maybe. And it’s incredible. However, one girl refuses to let me put it on the internet. I will beg her because it’s so blog worthy.”

When you look back over your wedding photos, which image is your favorite & why?

Summer: “That’s a really hard one. They are all so special to me. I mean I obviously love the group shots, the dancing, the couple ones, the details, etc. But I guess the one I look at all the time would be my bridesmaids one. {Above photo} I love my girlfriends so much. And many of them are the reason that Paul and I are together. Megan, my maid of honor and best friend  since middle school actually met Paul a week before we knocked on his door and had his number. She played a bit of a matchmaker. Emily, my friend from University, was doing a working holiday in Australia and spent two months traveling with Paul and me. These girls have always been there for me and witnessed Paul and I fall in crazy Ameristralian love. And since we’ve all be separated by jobs, loves, etc. It is incredible to have them all by my side.”

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What was going through your mind when you saw Summer for the first time on your wedding day?

Paul: “Oh my God I didn’t think anyone could look that beautiful and I remember her worrying about whether I’d like the wedding dress and I was shocked to think I couldn’t like it once I saw her in it.”

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How did you go about putting together your complete wedding day look?

Summer: “It’s pretty easy to get a look when you’re back drop is Park City. I didn’t really need much in terms of floers for the ceremony since it was outside. And I am a huge fan of low table centerpieces. I found some wonderful ideas online and then asked Melissa to help me source something. We usually ended up finding something a little different, but equally special. I actually ended up buying quite a few things from Etsy- Mason Jars, Burlap, Paper Straws, Bunting, etc. Other than that I just thought about all of the things I loved from other people’s weddings. Flip Flops, Couches, etc.”

“Paul and I wanted people to see where we met and fell in love. We wanted people to feel comfortable and relaxed. I like to describe it as Martha’s Vineyard meets Park City. A nice preppy mountain affair 🙂 With a dash of Aussie!”

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What was going through your mind when you saw Paul for the first time on your wedding day?

Summer: “Everything leading up to a wedding can be quite stressful (for the bride.) For me, it wasn’t that I needed everything to be perfect. I just needed to know that everyone was having a nice time. On the actual day of the wedding, I took a friend’s advice and focused on enjoying what we had created. I really looked at everything. And when I looked at Paul at the end of the aisle, I felt completely relaxed, excited, happy, content and a little shocked that we managed to find ourselves back in the same place we met- four years later- saying I do. I no longer worried about if the seats would be comfortable enough, or if the umbrellas were doing their jobs shading people. I even didn’t worry about the storm lurking behind the mountains. I could have stood up there in a hurricane with Paul. I was just so unbelievably happy. But as soon as it was over, I felt like I couldn’t remember what had just happened. Paul and I went back into our suite for a moment and we said our vows again. It was really cute. hahahaha And then of course- we danced!”

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We see you guys strive to achieve vertical height in the form of standing pyramids, what gives?

Summer: “As much as this looks like it was an ex-cheerleader’s idea, I swear it was Paul’s. He loves a good shoulder stand. I’m assuming his love stems from his festival days in Australia. As for me, I instinctively go to a high V whenever performing a balancing act. Nothing like a little Cirque du Soleil show at a wedding. (Thank goodness I didn’t face plant. There was quite the crowd watching.)”

Paul: “It started off at festivals. Everyone was always sitting on people’s shoulders thinking they were the kings of the world. So I thought I’d do one better and stand on my best friend’s shoulders who happens to be the tallest man in the world. It just sort of became a thing that we did. Once, I had Summer stand on my shoulders to pick mangoes in Northern Queensland.”

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Loving the white on white cake, along with how it was displayed!  What was your inspiration behind it & how do you feel it turned out?

Summer: “Initially I didn’t really want a wedding cake because neither of us have a sweet tooth, but when I began working with my wedding planner, Melissa, from Soiree Productions, she explained that I would regret not having one. I knew that I wanted something simple. I searched on Pinterest and 100LayerCake, but ultimately found one featured on Martha Stewart’s site. We had a local pastry chef recreate it. It didn’t turn out exactly like the picture, but that made it even more special 🙂  I loved the table, votives and bunting around it :)”

From The Baker: “The cake flavor was a delicious Madagascar Vanilla Bean with Sour Cream, Cream Cheese Buttercream and Homemade Fondant. The cake design named after the bride, the “Summer” is covered in layers of delicate dimensional blossoms and leaves edged in pin-point piping, reminiscent of a lavish antique lace tablecloth.”

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How did you know Paul/Summer was the one?

Summer: “I just really wanted to marry him and have his babies. I think it was his pheremones. He’s also super cute with baby animals and knows some really good jokes. But seriously, we just didn’t want to stop hanging out. Like ever.”

Paul: “There were a thousand things that made me want to marry Summer. But I’d say when I really fell in love with her was on our 7 week camping trip on the east coast of Australia in 2009. We slept in a tent rain, hail or shine and rarely showered. If you’re still attracted to someone after going through that, you should marry them.”

 

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When it came to planning the wedding, how ‘in to it’ were you really?

Paul: “Um, I would say more than I expected. I really let Summer do whatever she wanted, but she asked for my opinion even for the finest detail. I actually chose the wedding cake. (Well she gave me three options to choose from.) If it wasn’t for her, though, it wouldn’t have been as amazing as it was.”

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With a wedding spanning 2 countries, well across the world from one another, what were some of the tougher points to sort out when it came to planning?

Summer: “A major thing for us when planning an international wedding was that people could actually come. We ended up having a two year engagement so that our Aussie guests had plenty of time to save annual leave and funds to come. It was amazing in the end. We had around 30 Aussies come to the US 🙂 Most ended up staying for about 5 weeks and traveling around.”

“There were also things that we wanted to incorporate from Australia that we couldn’t get in the US. We thought it would be fun to do some of our local beer and wine from Mudgee (wine region where we live), but shipping was incredibly expensive.”

“And lest we forget the time change. I seriously would have been lost without a wedding planner. Instead of me staying up until 3am to make phone calls to vendors, I could just send Melissa an email and she would sort everything out.”

“In terms of budget- I felt like I had to entertain everyone. Since it was a destination wedding for all but two families, I organized quite a few events.”

The Wedding Plan

Wednesday was a outdoor concert at Deer Valley Ski Resort.
Thursday was pool/ bachelorette. The girls went to High West (a ski in ski out whiskey distillery) and then we met up with everyone at No Name Saloon on Main Street.
Friday- Bridal Brunch/ Grooms Golfing Session and then a Welcome Party at my Maid of Honors house which was the “rehearsal dinner”
Saturday- Wedding!!!!!!
Sunday- brunch

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Novella of the Bride…

Paul is from Wollongong, Australia and I’m from Gainesville, FL. Paul and I first met in Park City in 2008. He was renting a house with about 11 other friends from Australia, New Zealand and England. My friend Megan’s family owned the house across the street. I was visiting for Thanksgiving and Megan and I decided to bring the boys some leftovers. We knocked on there door while balancing trays of turkey and stuffing. Paul and I were immediately drawn to each other. The next night we went out on Main Street and as the story goes- we lived happily ever after 🙂 I am a writee at my site Summerlandish and Paul is a Mechanical Fitter and works for Xstrata Coal.

We chose Park City because it is a really sentimental place for us. Neither of us wanted to get married in our home towns, so Park City became the perfect destination.  The wedding was all outdoors. We honestly didn’t need to bring in many floral arrangements because our backdrop was so beautiful. For the reception, we had big wooden tables and an old wooden floor made of barn wood. We wanted an elegant Kennedy-esque backyard wedding.

A couple of my bridesmaids also went above and beyond. Megan, my Maid of Honor hosted a Welcome Party for all of our guests, a bridal brunch and planned my bachelorette. My friend, Emily, helped me sort out bridesmaids dresses. Of course the one we chose was now three seasons old, so all nine girls had to track it down on Ebay, etc!  We actually made a little viral song and sent it to Lilly Pulitzer to help us find the dress. They loved it and tried their best! Here is the link to the song. {SBW Note: This is actually freaking hilarious, lol}  Lilly Pulitzer tweeted about it. Emily also designed the CD for our favors and my friend, Molly, made the programs!

My friend told me that on the day, I should take a moment and just watch. Once everyone was seated in the tent and eating, I stood up and looked around and felt so lucky to have so many friends and family willining to travel (pretty far) to watch us get married. I also couldn’t believe just how beautiful all of the tables were. Everything was truly perfect.  We also had our first dance song made specifically for us.

Summer Love Final

Vendor Love

Venue: Hotel Park City  | Wedding Dress: Anne Barge | Bridesmaid Dresses: Lily Pulitzer  | Shoes: Grace  | Hair + Makeup: Paula J Dahlberg  | Groom’s Suit: Jack London | Music: Utah Jive  | Florist: Decoration Inc  | Caterer:Hotel Park City  | Baker: Carrie’s Cakes  | Wedding/Event Planner: Soiree Productions | Photographer: Nick Sokoloff