lisa & theis’ intimate wedding

Check out this wedding on our Rock n Roll bride feature!

I LOVE super sweet intimate weddings. Lisa & Theis’ wedding was 6 people altogether. When I first read all the information that Lisa sent over (below) I actually cried… beautiful precious story…

Ceremony: Malibu Pier, Malibu, CA
Reception: Beachcomber Restaurant, Malibu, CA
Bride’s Dress: J.Crew Taryn gown, altered to include straps.
Bride’s Shoes: Culver by Nina in Apple Green
Hair/make up:  Melissa Morck www.stylingbymelissa.com

Lisa:   “Theis and I met on Labor Day 2009 at a friend’s barbeque. We had both just moved to Los Angeles: I was beginning my PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature at USC, and Theis was a visiting scholar, at USC for six months to do research for his master’s thesis in Comparative Literature. I am originally from Chicago, but I had spent the previous six years in New York City; Theis is from northern Denmark, but had lived in Copenhagen for the previous six years. We fell deeply in love almost immediately, and became engaged in December 2009; Theis came home with me for Christmas and proposed to me in my childhood bedroom. Theis’s visa ended in January, and he had to return to Denmark. For the next nine months, we conducted our love affair at a transatlantic long distance. We Skyped twice a day, at 9 AM and midnight California time, to cope with the nine-hour time difference. We also began the lengthy  process of bringing Theis back to the United States legally. I was lucky enough to be able to visit Denmark twice, in March and July, and meet Theis’s wonderful family and friends. Despite growing up very far from each other, Theis and I have found we have a remarkable number of things in common, and we attribute some of our similarity to how alike north Denmark and the upper American Midwest are. Both places have long, cold winters, beautiful vibrant summers, and a strong emphasis on family and community. We also share a great love of literature, cinema and music, and a devoted belief in the other’s talents.

In October 2010, Theis was finally able to return to the US on a fiance visa. We wanted our wedding to be intimate and beautiful, a relaxing day on which we could celebrate our greatest dream  coming true: being together. We had initially planned to have the ceremony in Griffith Park, but our desire to have dinner at Saddle Peak Lodge (saddlepeaklodge.com) made us decide to change the location to the Malibu Pier, a beautiful place that Theis and I had visited together several times in the first few months of our relationship. It turned out to be the perfect setting, very calm on the day before Thanksgiving. In the company of my parents and sister and our friend Bill Handley, we were married on the pier.

Veil: My mom found my antique green veil on eBay. It dates to 1831 and originally belonged to a woman named Elizabeth Litchfield, who received it as a gift from her “Aunt Ret,” according to the message inside the box it came in. My bouquet and Theis’s bouttoniere are from Jasmine’s Garden in Los Feliz, LA.  www.jasminesgarden.net
My headpiece – the “bird hat” – was custom-made by Brenda Waites Bolling, a milliner with a store at the Plaza Shops in New York City.

Our officiant was our dear friend Bill Handley, who is a literature professor at the University of Southern California. Bill sponsored Theis to come to the US as a visiting scholar in 2009 and has been an important mentor to me in my academic career.

My fiance bought my ring in the Los Angeles Jewelry District. It is both my engagement and wedding ring. The inside is engraved with “Lisa My Heart”. Theis’s suit is Claiborne from JC Penney. His tie is Calvin Klein, and his shirt, by Woolrich, was a gift from me on his 26th birthday. I bought my fiance’s ring from Kenny and Mike Kao at Hiwahiwa Treasures on Etsy. The inside is engraved with “You make my heart sing.” The gold bracelet I’m wearing was a gift from my mother-in-law. The silver bracelet was a birthday gift Theis gave me shortly after we started dating. It is a replacement of a bracelet my father gave me when I was ten that I later lost. The original bracelet my dad gave me had my initials engraved on the outside and the phrase “The Truth Is Out There” on the inside, because I loved The X-Files then (still do!) and the idea behind those words. I wore the bracelet for years but sadly lost it in my early twenties. In November 2009, Theis surprised me with a new bracelet for my 25th birthday. On the outside my first name is engraved, and on the inside are the words “The Truth Is Still Out There.”

We read the Walt Whitman poem “To A Stranger” to each other as vows:

Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me
as of a dream,)
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall’d as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate,
chaste, matured,
You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with me,
I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours
only nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you
take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or
wake at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

See more of this wedding on our Rock n Roll bride feature!