Hamilton Tributes and Wes Anderson Inspired This Wedding at the San Diego Botanic Garden

“Imagine that Wes Anderson made a movie about California, and we’re the main characters.” That was Jake and Katherine’s marching order for their vendors to create their best day ever. “It at least helped us narrow down our cheerful California color palette of poppy oranges and ocean blues, with pops of yellow and pink,” Katherine says.

The lovebirds, who first met as neighbors, chose the San Diego Botanic Garden for their “I dos”—and for its customizable venue. “The most important thing to us was that it reflect the joy we were feeling and encourage everyone to be present and happy.” Zip-a-dee-doo-dah details were everywhere: the Spotify playlist on their invite, the vibrant mandala backdrop at the altar, a fake newspaper that served as the program, a maid-of honor speech that riffed on the opening song of Hamilton.

As the bride sums up the day: “Having everyone we care about in one place at one time was more joy than we could imagine.”

Jake proposed by hiding the ring inside a geode. Then at their ceremony, the couple wrote notes to each other and put them in the same geode to open at their one-year anniversary.

“Seeing the reception site for the first time was everything we had hoped for. It was like living in a Beatles song.”

“The mandala backdrop we came up with was symbolic. We chose it because to us it represents care, patience, harmony, and diligence to nurture something, in order to build something beautiful.”