A Romantic Lavender-and-White Wedding at the Kansas City Convention Center in Missouri

Although their elegant wedding looked absolutely effortless in the end, Lyna Rehan (22 and a medical student) and Abdul Derbas (26 and an anesthesiologist assistant) had to overcome two major hurdles in planning: Their busy careers in medicine and their 500-person guest list. A bit of help from the internet was key to their success. “Pinteresting—that would be our theme name. As cliché as it may seem, Pinterest can be a couple’s best friend in the time of planning,” the couple says. To make their vision come to life, the couple’s wedding palette was comprised of dreamy shades of white punctuated by notes of purple. Although much of the day was traditional to Lyna’s Palestinian culture and Abdul’s Lebanese heritage, they chose to break with tradition when it came to fashion. 

The couple recalls their grand arrival to the reception as their favorite wedding moment. Surrounded by singers and drummers, they arrived, “to see all of our loved ones and best friends ready to welcome us and party us into the ballroom. The sea of happy and excited faces brought tears to both our eyes.” 

The couple’s reception was all about merriment. We “essentially had a night full of a little eating and a whole lot of dancing.” The couple broke with tradition, but nodded to the locale, with a barbecue menu. The reviews of the brisket and mac’n’cheese, “came raving in the day after our wedding,” they share. Regarding the cake: “We told the chef our color theme and we said work your magic. We might’ve been pushing our luck with the freedom of design at this point, but hey you’ve gotta be spontaneous.”