Esther and Fernando’s wedding was about weaving their cultures, their humour, and their grief together to make their day feel personal. They called their theme “Chicano meets Coreano. California sober. Whimsy” and that’s exactly how it played out.

The day started with a first look that involved a ddongchim – a Korean prank where you jab someone in the butt with your fingers. From there, the jovial mood was set! They didn’t follow rules or traditions for the sake of it. Instead, they walked hand-in-hand through the forest to their ceremony spot. “We eloped and exchanged our vows inside a redwood tree”, Esther said. “We’re part of the dead dads club and we had a paebaek tea ceremony after the wedding in honour of their memories. We were dressed in traditional Korean hanbok.”

Esther carried a pearly heart-shaped bag instead of a bouquet which was stuffed with their rings and vow book. She also made her own embroidered fingerless gloves. One arm read ‘tll death’ with their initials, the other ‘ride or die’ with ‘4ever’ stitched across the knuckles. “I wanted to wear my heart on my sleeves – literally,” she said.

Food was untraditional, and not by choice. They had planned tacos, but their wedding date fell on 4/20, which in 2025 happened to be Easter Sunday, so the Mexican restaurant was closed. “Thankfully you can always count on a Chinese restaurant to be open on any holiday!” Esther said. “We had the crispiest orange chicken – it was so delicious.”

Even thought it was only the two of them, the bride enjoyed putting together the tablescape. It was designed with crushed velvet and was topped with Korean snacks like Choco Pie and Yakgwa honey cookies. Artificial poppies were stabbed into pears decorated with pearl stickers. Paper picado banners hung above it all. Esther even commissioned Funko Pops of the two of them in their wedding outfits, though she later realised she should have ordered stands as they kept toppling over on the cheesecake!

The hardest part of eloping was worrying about how family might react to being left out. In the end, they celebrated together at a small dinner a week later and everyone was happy. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings but they were happy to be part of the small reception dinner we had a week later”, Ester explained. “Our advice to other couples would be to skip the rules! We avoided most of them by eloping. Highly recommend.”