Timeless Romance by the beach at Del Mar for these Two Doctors in Residency

After meeting at a local BBQ joint while attending a medical school orientation event, Michelle and Cary both left feeling intrigued by the other. A few coffee shop study dates later, and they officially started dating. They dated throughout medical school and then couples-matched into residency together in San Diego. During their intern year, they vacationed in Lake Tahoe to enjoy the snow and mountains. On one of the first sunny days of the trip, they Cary headed out for massages and then drinks at a restaurant. Unfortunately, their rental car got stuck in the snow at the bottom of the hill for almost two hours. Despite this little mishap, Cary proposed to Michelle on the dock outside the restaurant upon arrival.

When planning their wedding with TIMELESS EVENT PLANNING, Michelle and Cary knew they wanted to honor the city of San Diego, where they were doing their residency. They wanted beach vibes and something right by the water and L'AUBERGE DEL MAR offered them the perfect location – which was also reflected in their beautiful hand painted invitations by LAVENDER AND SEA. This happy couple had many fun personal touches and details throughout the day. The cocktail napkins had fun facts about them, and their dog Naomi’s face was on everything – their cocktail sign, their invites, and even their engagement photos. They made their favours of bottles of coffee cold brew they created at home and a raspberry sour home-brewed by Cary. Since Cary’s dad is Jewish, they did a loose version of Hava Nagila, which was a fun moment to end off the night. MADELEINE COLLINS was there to capture all the festivities!

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND YOUR WEDDING STYLE? We knew we wanted to have our wedding in San Diego where we were doing residency and living, and were inspired by beach themes. We ideally wanted part of the wedding on/near the water (which we got!).

HOW DID YOU MEET? We met during a medical school orientation event at a local BBQ joint in Durham, North Carolina. I actually had a hard time telling Cary and his 2 other roommates apart, haha, since they were all tall (>6 feet) and white! I was in a long-distance relationship at the time, which ended a few weeks later. Cary and I started dating a few months into medical school after a few coffee shop study sessions, class potlucks, and Shooters (one and only club in Durham, extremely popular amongst the students) bus rides later!

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROPOSAL: Cary and I couples-matched into residency together in San Diego and moved here after graduating medical school. During our intern year, we took a vacation up to Lake Tahoe in February to enjoy the snow and mountains. We actually went during a week that ended up being during/shortly after a snowstorm which made for treacherous roads, particularly for some very unprepared travellers (us) haha. It turns out he carried the ring on him during our first few days there, skiing and snowboarding in the mountains during the heavy snow! (Luckily he didn't lose the ring…) Midway through the week on one of the first sunny days, we had planned to get a massage at a local spot but our morning started out rough as our rental car got stuck in the snow at the bottom of a hilly road, which resulted in us/mostly Cary spending nearly 2 hours digging it out! (Turns out this was the day Cary was planning to propose so he was not pleased haha.) We managed to make it to our massage (very late) and wanted to get drinks at a restaurant on the lake afterwards to unwind. On arrival to the restaurant, there was a dock that we decided to walk onto/take pictures on, and while posing for a picture Cary proposed 🙂 Unbeknownst to us, there was actually a photographer nearby watching the whole thing, who kindly took pictures for us as it all happened!

TELL US ABOUT FINDING YOUR WEDDING DRESS/ATTIRE: I wore Rime Arodaky's Enola dress, purchased at The Dress Theory in San Diego. This is was actually the only store my sister and I went to for dress shopping! My shoes were Loeffler Randall. Cary rented a navy suit from Menguin. He also used to wear bowties all the time when we lived in North Carolina, so naturally wore a bow tie for the wedding as well!

DID YOU HAVE ANY DIY ELEMENTS? We made our own favours! Cary loves to brew beer and we both love coffee, so everyone got a small flip-top glass bottle of either "Cary's Home Brew" (a home brewed raspberry sour) or "Mich's Cold Brew" (cold brew using Bird Rock coffee beans that we brewed at home). An escort card was hung around each bottleneck.

FAVOURITE DETAIL OF THE DAY: I loved our personal touches – cocktail napkins with fun facts, party favours (see DIY question), and putting our dog on everything! Our dog Naomi is a rescue and looks just like a black lab. We were hopeful about including her in our wedding in some capacity, but she's a bit too mischievous/naughty, haha! Instead, we put her face on everything…she's in our engagement photos and on our invites and signature cocktails sign, and we even named a signature cocktail after her. She had to be a part of the party!

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT? The dancing! My all-time favourite song (not an exaggeration, I request it at every wedding reception) is "Mr. Brightside" 🙂 The DJ played it twice, and we heard it one more time at our afterparty! We also do a loose version of the Hava Nagila (Cary's dad is Jewish) which was SO fun!