Cactus Joe’s Vibing Wedding | Christine & Jesse

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Yes, we are usually at Valley of Fire but we had the fun treat of being able to organize this wedding at the adorable wedding venue of Cactus Joe’s Blue Diamond Nursery. And before we tell you all about this wedding, we have to gush about how cool this venue space is. Ashley, the event coordinator at Cactus Joe’s, was so kind, she helped us get settled into decorating the space. Cactus Joe himself came over to meet us; he was adorable and excited that we were using a new area of the venue. Most weddings there use the center nursery but we wanted to be by the UFO. Since Jesse & Christine love all things kitschy and fun it just made sense for them. We loved how it all came together!

These two have been together for over 9 years now! They joke that their love story could be from a movie; such a journey! When Christine first moved to Australia, Jesse’s coffee shop was next door. Jesse’s smile and hilarious personality was infectious to Christine. For the two years that she was in Australia, she was crushing on Jesse the entire time. But secretly Jesse was harboring her own crush. Two weeks before Christine’s flight home they were at a party together and Jesse worked up the courage for a kiss! Sadly, it was the worst timing with Christine heading back to the States. Sure that they would reconnect one day; signing letters to each other that ended with “never goodbye.” Flash forward 3 years; brought an impromptu meet-up for drinks that happened last minute when they both were separately on a trip in Washington DC. They ended up chatting for hours that night and it was like they’d never been apart. That was the beginning of the end. Jesse was back in America later that year and they’d been together ever since!

So you can imagine with a love story like this that the ceremony was a tear-jerker. During Christine’s vows, she said “I promise to pick your head up when you’re down” Then she immediately started to cry and Jesse reached out and tenderly picked up her chin to lift her eyes. That moment everyone dapping at their eyes, including us! (We are still crying about it!) But we had some laughs when Jesse realized that she had written her vows in her book upside down by accident. At the end of their ceremony, they did a special secret handshake and hugged all their guests before walking down the aisle and kissing again. Jesse and Christine are just so very organic and fun to be around. They share love in so many ways, including giving our team a gift bag full of Aussie gifts!

And boy, did we love their style! Jesse had such a great retro 80’s vibe; complete with a mullet. Her hilarious and witty presence was a perfect match for Christine’s. With near-matching lace shirts, they were just so complimentary to each other, we loved watching them love on each other. They also had rings engraved rings that read “Never Goodbye”. How romantic is that!

It was really fun for us to be able to do the portraits at sunset and still be able to have the reception into the night. We loved the string lights that turned out so great against the colors of purple and navy velvet textures that were so gorgeous together with the floral box centerpieces. Drink before the ceremony, and throughout the night were served by our friends from Trixie’s Moblie Bar. Dinner was followed by dancing into the wee hours. We wish you, Jesse and Christine, many more years of dancing together!