The Perry House Wedding || Monterey California

November 15, 2023

Christina and Jourdan’s wedding with intimate tea ceremony.

The Perry House in Monterey is my absolute favorite romantic venue to shoot at. It’s gorgeous inside and out, there’s places to take my couples within walking distance for extra portraits and you really never have to leave the venue! Settle in with a nice warm cup of coffee or other beverage of choice, because this blog post is worth the read!

Christina + Jourdan:

Christina and Jourdan met a long, long time ago connecting over the fact that they are both Cal Bears. Jourdan took Christina on a date in Berkeley to show her all his favorite food spots, which soon became both of their favorites over time (plus a few more were added to the list!). There was so much good food that eventually the food tour became Jourdan finishing Christina’s portions since she got too full! They also had a lot of good conversations and it was such a fun time that they decided to continue dating shortly after.

The year before Jourdan proposed, Christina and him went to Oahu to celebrate a new job that he was going to start. He was also scouting places to propose, but Christina didn’t know that (she kinda did)! They discovered a beach in Haleiwa where they could set up a hammock and watch the sunset. They also met a special turtle with a barnacle on its head. The next year they returned to Hawaii, but first visited Maui. Jourdan had always planned to propose at the spot where they would hammock in Oahu, but there were moments in Maui that would’ve also worked (there was a rare moment at Twin Falls where we were totally alone, the rocks outside of their Hana condo that would clack with a rhythm determined by the receding waves), but Jourdan didn’t have the ring on him. Still, those instances did fill him with confidence that there would be no shortage of romantic moments to experience during the trip. Jourdan finally proposed at Haleiwa beach in Oahu as Christina sat on the hammock watching the sun set. She said yes! And then the turtle finally came on shore (barnacle and everything) and totally stole the moment.

The Fairytale Day at The Perry House:

Christina says, “I was in awe with how all the wedding decor came together! It was such a lovely sight to see after planning and picking items separately over the year. There were some agonizing color choices and in the end, it all looked so beautiful. Everything was picked specifically because it had sentimental meaning to Jourdan and I, even though from a guest’s view, it may look ordinary. It was very “us” and we loved that so much.”

Christina did two getting ready times, along with two first looks. She did a getting ready and first look for her tea ceremony dress, and then a second one with her bridal look!

This day was so special let’s take a look!

After the intimate tea ceremony, Christina dove right into her getting ready for her bridal look, while Jourdan saved some special details of his tux for the bridal first look, which is just so cool that he was able to surprise her for the second first look.

Christina and Jourdan state. The wedding day itself… it was all a blur!!! We thought since we had a smaller wedding, it would not be like that somehow, but it went so fast and we wish it could have been longer. We also joke that we wish we were guests to our own wedding since it was so beautiful haha. One thing about the wedding day which I loved hearing from Jourdan was that he said he knew before it started that everything was coming together flawlessly. He was able to see the decor come in, meet some of the vendors, hear the strings start to play… and it was just magical and he knew that everything was going to be alright. I didn’t get to see that being more or less “trapped” in the bridal suite beforehand haha!

One of the things that I specifically love about The Perry House is the ability to “hide” AND do portraits upstairs. Christina didn’t want to risk being seen before the wedding started so we did the bridal first look and all the couples first portraits upstairs. With ALL the natural light that feeds in from all sides of the venue it makes it such an easy thing to do!

Love how I work at The Perry House? You can book me as your Monterey Wedding Photographer here!

Shugs was a vital part for Christina and Jourdan at the wedding!! They visited Seattle in 2016 almost around the time when Shugs first opened, so it’s been 7 (long) years of waiting to have them again!

Christina says, “It was crazy at first to us, like yes, we wanted them at the wedding, but they were from Seattle, but wait.. it’s our wedding, let’s do it! We loved how all the guests enjoyed it during the evening, getting multiple servings and then also how pretty the lights were, posing with the moon arch after. Great way to end the night 🙂

Congrats to the new Mr. & Mrs.