California

Pyucin & Dylan were married at Shelldance Orchid Gardens, Pacifica, CA. It was important to them to pick a venue that they didn’t have to decorate themselves too much, as Pyucin explained, “When picking a venue, our goal was to keep it sustainable. We didn’t want to purchase a bunch of decor that would be thrown away the next day, and we wanted to make sure that the site represented who we are. Thus, we went in search of a unique site that was within our budget, and we were so happy when we discovered this little green house. The Shelldance Gardens is a non-profit organization so we were happy to contribute to a good cause, and, on top of that, the site is so beautiful that it barely required any extra decoration. It is so green and earthy – it really reflected our love for nature and the outdoors.”

Pyucin wore two dresses, a white one from The Limited and a traditional Burmese Gown, which was handmade in Burma. “The search for the perfect dress was somewhat hectic,” the bride told me. “I initially had a vision of wearing gold for my wedding, wanting to look like a goddess in the greenhouse. However, ordering the dress from Burma proved to be a challenge because communicating my design concept from The States was much more difficult than I thought. For my first dress, I thought I gave very clear visuals and directions on what I wanted, but the dress that they made was nothing like I had in mind. It was a very generous gift, but I didn’t feel comfortable wearing the dress on my wedding day. In a panic, I took my mother’s Burmese gown and made my SECOND dress. While this gown was better than the first, I couldn’t find the shade of gold I wanted, or, for that matter, the type of fabric I wanted. So the second dress became my back up dress, and I still kept my search for the perfect dress going. The THIRD gown was a gown that my florist promised me after she heard about my lack of luck in the dress department. She told me that the dress was close enough to gold in shade and it was very traditional and beautiful. Unfortunately when I saw the gown I just knew that it was too much for me…it was too fancy, too traditional – in a nutshell, not me.”

“Then just 10 days before my wedding, a family friend sent me the FOURTH gown, which was actually a bridesmaid gown that her daughter had worn. I had seen this seen dress before through email, but when I finally saw it in person, I knew it was my dress. When I put it on, all my doubts were gone because it was just exactly what I had searching for all along. The search for the white dress wasn’t as difficult. I wanted something simple and within our budget. I was looking at both Anthropologie’s and J Crew’s bridal collections, but then I came across The Limited’s wedding selection. This dress was Dylan’s pick and when I tried it on, it was perfect too!”

The wedding was a real family effort, and nearly everyone involved in the wedding was a friend or family member. “With the exception of the caterers, everyone involved in this wedding was a friend or a friend of a friend, which made the wedding very intimate,” Pyucin continued. “Our dear friend Dustin Garrison provided the music for the wedding. Dustin was also one of our groomsmen. He worked so hard to make playlists that would reflect our taste, and he was up late into the evening the night before our wedding, incorporating all the songs that Dylan and I added at the last minute.”

“The flowers were done by a family friend, Ei Hlaing. She made me such a gorgeous bouquet, making sure to incorporate all the different colors from both of my dresses. She also made us the garlands of flowers we placed around our neck during the ceremony as tradition in Burma.”

“My make-up was done by one of my best friends – make-up artist extraordinaire Devon Nespica. Devon is a freelance makeup artist for Lancôme and we have been great friends since our freshmen year of college. I showed her the look I wanted to achieve, and she showed up with all her brushes and talent, making me feel incredibly beautiful. I am sure it was stressful day for her to be both make-up artist and bridesmaid, but she certainly didn’t show it.”

The DIY elements can also be seen throughout this wedding. “My sister Ohmar made the little pennants for our cake topper. She took a piece of yarn and sewed the little triangles of fabric to it. We then attached the yarn to two chopsticks. It was so simple and yet so adorable. My other sister Thirii made our little paper mache people as the other part of the cake topper. She added a green bow tie for Dylan and some flowers on my hair. This project only took us an hour at max.”

“The centerpieces for the cocktail tables were also very simple and sustainable. I went to the local library and found hard cover vintage books for decorations. It was a bit harder to find library books that didn’t have the plastic library stickers on them, but it still didn’t take too long. We then went to the goodwill and found small glasswares to place single stems of flowers in. The total décor didn’t cost more than $15. My sisters also helped with the finger print tree. Dylan and I didn’t want a traditional guestbook, and we have been seeing these finger print trees everywhere. We wanted ours to be a bit different, so asked my sister Ohmar to add two little birdies on the branches, and these birdies became the trademark for our wedding. The birds were incorporated into every little detail including the wedding programs, the invites and the wedding cd/ favors.”

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