Elegant Palm Springs Wedding

This gorgeous Palm Springs wedding from NINA & WES PHOTOGRAPHY is quite the global affair with 60% of the guests coming from overseas ééò from Australia to Germany. Jina & Eddie work in Hong Kong but wanted to hold their wedding somewhere special to them, that was also accessible to their friends and family, so Palm Springs it was. They first met Kentucky based Nina & Wes over Skype after initially discovering them via Instagram.

Jina had this to say about their meeting, ééòEddie and I met originally 8 years ago at a very romantic club/bar in Seoulééò it was not the most ideal place to meet your future partner, but fate seemed to have it in for us starting that day. Eddie was living and working in Seoul at the time and I was just visiting for the summer from LA. I had to leave back home the next day so we exchanged emails and said to keep in touch.

Two years pass, and I was back in Seoul again for a summer internship and decided to reach out to Eddie. For the next two months, we had an amazing summer ééòflingééò! We call it a fling since we both knew that eventually we had to part ways. At the end of that summer, we said our goodbyes and returned back to our normal lives.

Fast forward three years and this time Eddie was in LA for a friend’s wedding. We decided to catch up and ever since then, we have together. In between then and now, it still hasn’t been easy. Eddie was living in Hong Kong at that time and I was in LA, so he would fly to visit me once every three weeks. A 15 hour flight just for the weekends- that definitely showed commitment. After one year of doing long distance, I took the plunge and made the move across to Shanghai where Eddie was being relocated to. Making our way through Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai and LA, I think our love has outlasted the distance and fate really wanted us to be together ééò as cliche as that sounds.ééò

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROPOSAL: Eddie is a very private person and he wanted the proposal to remain intimate and involve family. And family in Hong Kong meant our dog, Madison. I came home from a long day and she walked out from the bedroom with a box tied around her collar. I was initially so confused, but then it slowly dawned on me what was going on. Eddie was so nervous that he didn’t really know what to do and instead just blurted out “Let’s get married!” and then asked, “will you marry me?”

TELL US ABOUT FINDING YOUR WEDDING DRESS: Living in Hong Kong, my options were a bit limited but I was lucky enough to find a boutique where I was able to try on dresses without a trying on deposit (which most boutiques charge here). I initially had no idea what I wanted when I walked in but the salesgirl convinced me to try on the Oscar dress. I initially cringed, hating the bow and not sure what I thought about the fitted trumpet look. But when I slipped it on, I knew that it was it. The biggest plus ééò it was super stretchy and comfortable!

ANY BUDGET ELEMENTS? I work in wholesale, so I will never pay retail when possible. I was able to source a lot of the small items thanks to my amazing business partner and bridesmaid, Chloe. A lot of this wedding wouldn’t have been possible without her keeping me sane.

DESCRIBE YOUR WEDDING FLOWERS: I honestly didn’t have many options as we didn’t want to go overboard on this. We kept it as modest, clean and simple as possible with an all-white palette.

WHAT ADVISE WOULD YOU GIVE OUT TO A COUPLE PLANNING THEIR WEDDING?Nothing ever turns out 100% as you would like so in the end, just learn to let it go and try not to stress. Keep things simple and definitely, definitely hire a planner! Remember that it’s more about the people and the experiences, not the dinner napkins or party favours.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT? In the midst of all the chaos, the moment that we realized it was all actually happening was when Eddie and I got 10 minutes alone after the ceremony pictures and before the reception.