Tell us a little about yourselves!
We are a designer couple living in San Francisco, CA. Jeena is currently an art director for retail design at a consumer electronics company, while Steve is a product designer for a social media company.
We first met at a church 8 years ago, when Jeena moved to San Francisco for her first job after graduating from art school in New York City. We fell in love shortly after and have been by each other’s side throughout the highs and lows.
In our free time, we love traveling, swimming, visiting galleries and museums, and playing and cuddling with our cat Dooboo. One of Steve’s biggest joys in life is cooking for Jeena and seeing happiness on her face.
Why did you decide to get married where you did?
Daecheon is Jeena’s hometown, where she spent her youth and where her family still lives. In the summer, she would go swimming in the beach with her parents until the stars rose after dusk. As a child, she always dreamt of having her wedding on the sands by the sea during sunset, and we were fortunate to turn her childhood dreams into reality.
How many guests did you have?
We originally planned for 150, but ended up having around 300 guests total!
Tell us about your outfits.
Planning a wedding remotely from a different country across several time zones was not easy. Once we flew into Korea for the wedding, we went into a 14-day mandatory quarantine, after which we only had less than a week to pick out our dresses and suits for the wedding. This meant that there was very little room for error, but the vendors we worked with were fantastic and made sure everything went smoothly.
Jeena’s dresses for the ceremony and reception were designed by Portia Contemporary, which is a shop owned and operated by two very talented female designers in Seoul. Jeena had admired them for a while through social media, and when she finally visited them for a fitting, she immediately fell in love with their bold and elegant style.
The dress Jeena wore for the ceremony on the beach was never worn by anyone else before, and they previously had a hard time finding an owner for it due to its bold style. Also, the dress she wore for the reception was a new dress, which she was the first one to wear. After the wedding, the shop decided to name the dress after her.
Steve wore a classic black suit from Suitsupply for the main ceremony. For the reception, he worked with Saints Armour, a Seoul-based tailor who helped him find the perfect color and fit.
Aeri Go, who is a very talented jeweler in San Francisco and also a dear friend of Jeena and Steve, worked on custom pieces for us including Steve’s wedding band and Jeena’s accessories for the reception. Her organic and fluid style of accessories perfectly encapsulated the theme of the wedding, which was for it to be one with nature.
Kyungshin Kim, who is a renowned artist and also a close family friend of Jeena, uses traditional Korean papers and other Korean elements in her work. She created custom earrings for Jeena as a wedding gift, which she wore for the ceremony.
What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?
There were many aspects that we needed to keep in mind to plan an outdoor wedding on the beach. We had to calculate when low tide would be, and plan our setup around that time.
Weather was another big concern for us as well. It was raining up until the day before the ceremony, but the weather turned out to be absolutely perfect on the day of our wedding.
Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?
We tried to make sure that our setup was in harmony with nature and our surroundings, rather than standing out in the midst of it. We wanted to capture the beauty of the beach and utilize various elements from the ocean throughout. For example, we collected hundreds of seashells on the beach which we used as decoration for reception tables. We also utilized various shades of blue in our theme, especially in the flower decorations done by From Sunmi.
Any tips for couples getting married, particularly during the pandemic?
It’s important to remember to remain calm and positive. With ever-changing regulations around the pandemic, we dealt with multiple headaches and last-minute changes. We had to change our reception venue two weeks before the wedding, and were almost prevented from setting up our ceremony on the beach on our wedding day due to a misunderstanding regarding permits.
Even after all these mishaps, we had an amazing ceremony and we can look back and laugh about it. Not everything will be perfect or go according to plan, but we always tried to be positive, and have fun throughout the journey.
Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?
We could not have asked for a better wedding director/planner than Your Big Day. We had countless Zoom meetings for many months leading up to the wedding, and she was there for us every step of the way. We were fortunate that our aesthetic tastes were similar, and she did an amazing job of understanding what we exactly wanted.
We first found out about our photographer Kelly Kang through a close friend of ours. We thought that her style really suited our characteristics as a couple, and asked her to do our engagement photoshoot in San Francisco. From that day, we became really good friends and kept in contact with each other. For our wedding, she flew all the way from Seattle and even went through a mandatory 14-day quarantine to be our photographer, which we are so grateful for! She also came to San Francisco again at the end of last year to shoot our official wedding ceremony at City Hall in San Francisco. She was able to beautifully capture the various precious moments in our lives, and we will always remember them through her photos.
Photographer : Kelly Kang @kellykangweddings | Assistant Photographer : Himchan Lee @chansnap_ | Ceremony + Reception Location : Daecheon Beach in South Korea | Celebrant : Bride’s Childhood Pastor | Planning + Styling : Your Big Day @your_bigday | Flora : From Sunmi @fromsunmi | HMUA : Jindonghee Beauty @beautyjindonghee | Catering + Beverages : Mudita Company @muditacompany | Cake : Bangakkan Dessert @bangakkan_dessert | Stationery : Designed by bride | Bride's Dresses + Shoes : Portia Contemporary @portia_contemporary | Groom's Suit : Suitsupply @suitsupply (Ceremony) Saints Armour (Reception) | Engagement Ring : Derco @dercodiamonds | Wedding Rings : Cartier (Bride) + Aeri Go Jewelry (Groom) @aerigojewelry | Groom's Shoes : Allen Edmonds @allenedmonds | Bride's Earrings : Kyungshin Kim @kyungshinart | Earrings + Hairpins : Aeri Go Jewelry @aerigojewelry