Boho Hawaiian Fall Wedding - Storyboard Wedding

A destination wedding in Hawaii brings forth so many idyllic images. We see nothing but sea, sand, and sun plastered on our imaginary inspiration board if we were to hop on a plane to get hitched on the Hawaiian islands. Darbey and Jack, though, wanted to stray away from the sometimes-garish design with tropical weddings. For their boho Hawaiian fall wedding at the Olowalu Plantation House, the pair turned to the colorful nature scenes and put a fall twist on their color scheme.

Just in time for Pantone’s 2020 color of the year, Classic Blue, Darbey and Jack were rightfully inspired by the panoramic ocean blue views. Pops of blue along with traditional fall colors in Darbey’s Dellables bridal bouquet and their exotic-meets-classic table florals fused together effortlessly. It’s so customary to see bright and bold tones for tropical weddings; this muted and slightly moody bohemian fête is like a breath of fresh and crisp fall air.

How did you meet?

Jack and I met in middle school. During lunch one day, a friend of mine told jack that she didn’t like his hair spiked and apparently I stepped in to defend Jack and I complimented him on his hair and said it looked nice (he has been spiking his hair ever since)! Though we kind of ran in the same circle in middle school, we never became good friends until freshman year of high school. During that year our friendship grew and grew and eventually one summer night before our sophomore year Jack decided to hold my hand. The rest is history!

What is your proposal story?

Jack and I are both very patriotic people. We love our country and our favorite holiday is the Fourth of July. July in Sandpoint, Idaho, is the most beautiful place on earth. Boats are gliding over the glassy lake in Northern Idaho known as Lake Pend Oreille. Wildlife surrounds you wherever you go and neither of us could imagine being anywhere else on the Fourth.

It had become a tradition for the Russo and Scrimsher households to spend this holiday together as one big happy family. Knowing that Jack was planning on proposing some time during the summer, I suspected that it might be on the best day of the year, but as the day dragged on it seemed as if Jack had no such plans. Jack did have plans though. He had big plans.

For the past few weeks he had been setting up the perfect plan to surprise me with a proposal. It is customary in Sandpoint to watch the holiday fireworks on the boat in the middle of that lake. This poses a slight problem for a proposal as you can never guarantee the conditions of the water, the seating on the boat, and even the positioning of the boat as it relates to the actual show. To get around this issue Jack, along with our families, pretended that the boat had broken down so they would have to watch from the dock.

Jack walked me to the end of the dock and laid down a blanket that he had previously embroidered with the destination of our wedding and the date of the proposal. That is when he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes and after the firework show everyone went back to the Russo house to celebrate!

Tell us about your attire choices.

As previously mentioned, I knew that I wanted the natural beauty of the island to be the main focus so we decided to go with a neutral pallet color scheme for the attire as well. My bridesmaids wore nude Show Me Your Mumu dresses in three different styles. Since I had six bridesmaids, I wanted there to be some variety amongst the dresses. Jack and his groomsmen wore the same light blue suit that looked absolutely stunning at our setting. Their suits were complimented by brown leather belts and shoes along with a fun hibiscus floral tie to bring a pop of fall color. After seeing our photos, I feel as tho the attire stood out yet complimented the venue perfectly.

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

While we were planning, it was really important to us that our guests would walk away from our wedding feeling welcomed and like they had a great time. When we were picking out our food, we made sure to create a menu that would accommodate all different types of tastes. We were also very adamant that we wanted the best DJ. Let’s just say, he did not disappoint! Our DJ knew how to get the party started and keep guests entertained and having a good time. Our bar stuff was amazing and would walk around serving cocktails so nobody drink were empty.

We decided to splurge a little bit on our photography and I am so glad that we did. Our photographers were able to capture nearly every aspect of our wedding and we are so satisfied with how they trued out!

What were your favorite parts of the day?

Jack and I shared our vows to each other a little differently. We decided that we wanted to share them to each other privately before the wedding but we didn’t want to see each other. We wanted our first looks to be at the alter. So, with the help from our wedding team, we went back to back without seeing each other and shared our vows. I absolutely loved doing this and it ended up being one of my favorite moments of the entire day. It allowed me and Jack to share a moment together in pure bliss before the wedding started. It was very calming for me to be able to hold his hand and be in the moment with him for a couple of minutes. It completely whipped away all of my wedding nerves!

Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?

My #1 tip for brides is to try not to stress! It is easier said then done … I know … I wasn’t perfect at this! But, you have been planning your wedding for months and now it’s time to have faith and put trust in all of the wonderful people you’ve asked to help you on your big day. People aren’t lying when they tell you that you need to take every moment in because the day flies by. Stressing out about things that are no longer in your control only takes away from your day. Just enjoy and live in the moment!