One Couple's Peachy-Hued Lakeside Wedding at Hellman-Ehrman Mansion in South Tahoe, California

Diana and Tony celebrated their wedding by planning a modern, romantic lakeside celebration with Vietnamese elementals woven throughout. South Lake Tahoe holds special meaning to both Diana and Tony as they both grew up going there and have lasting memories of time spent vacationing at the lake during their early years. So as soon as they got engaged, they knew the wedding would take place in the area and Hellman-Ehrman Mansion in South Lake Tahoe, California, ended up being the perfect fit for their peachy-hued lakeside wedding celebration packed with cultural details. Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced the couple to postpone their nuptials, when the lakeside wedding day finally came, it was nothing short of beautiful. 

"The venue had everything we were looking for and really drove the inspiration behind our wedding day...intimate, lakeside, and not your typical hotel ballroom," explains Diana. "I knew the style that I wanted was modern and romantic. The color palette was dusty rose and neutrals. We really wanted to capture the natural beauty of Lake Tahoe yet bring an elevated, refined style to the rustic, natural feeling of our venue. Most importantly though, the biggest thing that was special to us about our wedding was the location. We both grew up going to Tahoe with our families every year and we've been able to include my now-husband, Tony, on our family trips since we’ve started dating 9 years ago. However, Tony's family had not been back to Tahoe in a very long time (close to 10+ years), ever since his grandfather passed away from pancreatic cancer. When Tony and I spoke about wedding locations, Tahoe was such a special place to both of us, in different ways, where we made so many happy memories together and separately, and for us, it was the only place that felt perfect to bring both our families together, to start our new journey together and to create a brand new memory for our families. We also drew so much inspiration from the reason why we chose Lake Tahoe as our destination and we really tried to incorporate that into our guest experience on our wedding day. Since we were having a mini destination wedding, it was difficult for us to include my Vietnamese traditions entirely and coordinate it all. However, I had a custom-made, traditional Vietnamese Áo dài by Thai Nguyen Atelier that I wore during our wedding reception. It was really important to me to make sure that I still had a nod to my culture, especially because it meant a lot to my grandma."

To start the day, the couple exchanged wedding vows down by the lake. As they were planning their Lake Tahoe wedding ceremony, it was paramount to the couple that they "really be able to show the impact of Tahoe's beauty by not going over the top with decor but rather selectively choosing how we wanted to enhance the ceremony site. We had a semi-circular ground floral arch and two large floral pieces at the entryway of the aisle. These pieces allowed for a great focal point for our ceremony but did not take away from the overall beauty of the lake backdrop that was right behind us (funny fact: there were 2 cute little squirrels hiding out in our floral arch during our ceremony...we like to think they were a couple)," says Diana. 

Diana recalls the ceremony as the most anticipated part of the entire wedding day. "I think after waiting for so long to get engaged, planning our wedding, postponing a whole year due to Covid and navigating those unchartered waters, bouncing back and forth on whether we should just have a minimony/elope or just wait and really growing stronger as a couple (and creating a family with our fur baby, Mochi), this was really the moment that we had been waiting for, for so long," explains Diana. "When walking down the mountain to get to the aisle and seeing Tony at the end of it, I will always remember the look on his face and the feeling of excitement, nervousness, joy and comfort all in one. It's hard to explain the feeling when finally being up there with your soon-to-be husband but it almost feels like everyone else disappears - it's like finally being at ease and so full of happiness to finally be doing this thing. We both wrote our own vows to each other and they were so special to the both of us because it truly captured how genuinely in love we are with one another and really showed how we were made for each other (our vows were literally almost identical...even some of the jokes—and no, it was not planned)!"

Following the lakeside wedding ceremony with VIP squirrel guests, the couple and their guests decamped to the reception area that had a "dining under the stars" ambiance to it. The couple explains that they "really focused on our table details and specialty rentals for our wedding decor with beautiful linens, ceramic plates, gold-and-white silverware, custom-made bar, and specialty glassware. Our tables were also lined with lots of candles and more beautiful florals—to keep things a bit 'modern,' our florals were still the same flowy, organic style however the tables had different arrangement styles. Overall, our wedding decor was really to enhance the natural beauty of our venue and location. Since I really knew I wanted to be hands-on with our wedding design, I wanted to ensure that we were tying in all the details from start to finish to really give a cohesive feeling and capture our love story."