This Couple Recommends: Venue: Mission Bay, near Paradise Point Bridal Gown & Alterations: The White Flower Bridal Boutique Bridesmaids Dresses: Anthropologie and Banana Republic Bachelorette Party: Vin de Syrah Cake: Marie Calendars
Florist: Cynthia Rogers (friend) Favors and Invitations: made by bride and groom Music: Dennis Howard Officiate: Craig Knudsen Photographer: Stephani Dennis Photography
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pring of 2009. Jeff was living on the east coast, Sierra on the west. Simultaneously yet independent, they were being handed some of life’s most vicious and traumatic experiences. Jeff had had enough, packed up everything he could fit in his car, grabbed Pono (his dog and best man in the wedding), and drove west. Somewhere in the middle of the United States is when he decided to buy a boat and live on it. Around that same time, Sierra too had decided she was done with feeling the wrath of life and death, as her family had just lost her brother to a brain tumor. She bought herself a boat and randomly chose a marina, Half Moon Marina at Humphrey’s By the Bay, the same marina Jeff called home. “Jeff and I both needed an escape, needed to see life from a new angle, and wanted to reverse the pain,” remembers Sierra. “We both acted on a few odd decisions to do so, fell right into eachother’s way, and the rest is history.” On a snowboarding trip in January of 2011, Sierra suggested they take the lift to the very top of the mountain. “It was just he and I on the lift and he suddenly got real quiet and clammy. He started fidgeting with his snowboard pants and finally pulled out the ring saying ‘you better put this on, quick,’” says Sierra. “I could barely speak. The Jeff I first met had told me he would never get married. Two years later, he is asking me for the commitment of a lifetime.” “I have so many good memories from our wedding day it is hard to choose one. I wish it could’ve lasted forever. The beautiful weather, the beautiful guests, the love, the laughter. I remember feeling so utterly overwhelmed and amazed that it all came together and couldn’t help but cry when I had moment to look around,” says Sierra. Sierra’s advice to brides: “do what is natural to you. It’s your day, and a day that is supposed to represent you as a couple... don’t force anything that isn’t real!”
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