Meghan and Derek’s Micro Fall Wedding in California by Brittany Bender Photography

Meghan and Derek held an intimate wedding that took place in La Jolla, California with just the couple’s closest loved ones in attendance. Brittany the photographer says ‘One of my favorite parts of this wedding was all of the handmade details created by the bride! She hand painted all of the signage, embroidered each guest’s napkin, curated individual place settings that included a sentimental photo of each guest with the couple with a handwritten note expressing how much they meant to them, as well as many other details.’ I just love the detailing in this wedding, everything that Meghan and Derek have put together is so considered and personal. The beauty of having an intimate or micro wedding is that you can really go to town with all the small details, and that is exactly what this gorgeous couple have done. Big thanks to Brittany Bender Photography for the gorgeous photos.

Our wedding was an intentional and thoughtfully curated celebration that reflected who we are and the relationships we cherish most. Surrounded by our closest loved ones, we created an evening centered on connection, joy, and celebrating this new chapter together.

Meghan and Derek were married on 26th September 2025 at Villa Francesca, La Jolla in California. ‘We actually originally wanted to elope at a courthouse, but we both have parents and siblings who are very involved in our lives. We knew we needed to include them in our day, so we decided to throw a small ceremony and dinner reception. We wanted the vibe of a backyard, family-style wedding. Unfortunately, we don’t have an actual backyard. We both love gardens (he actually planned his proposal at a botanical garden), so we were looking for something like that. Villa Francesca combined the small, backyard feel with the beautiful garden. And it allowed us to have our ceremony and reception all in one place. we had an intimate wedding of 30 people. We were engaged for 1.5 years, and we slowly planned our wedding throughout. We knew we wanted to get married in the fall because we had a dream fall honeymoon trip, and wanted to be able to leave for our honeymoon right away. Since he proposed in the spring, we decided to wait until the next fall to get married to give us time to get it together. We didn’t need 1.5 years to plan the wedding, but having that much time allowed us to slowly gather and create personal and meaningful decorations and aspects of the wedding.’

How they met 
We met working at a restaurant here in San Diego. It was peak COVID times, and almost ever other person in our restaurant had unfortunately been laid off. Luckily for us, that meant that we were working side-by-side almost every day. We slowly got to know each other, then began to start to see each other outside of work as well. Being early COVID times, it truly felt like we were in a little bubble, and nobody else in the world existed for us. Luckily, even after that bubble popped, the world started to return to normal, and our jobs and lives changed, we kept feeling like we were the only people in the world to each other. When we got married, we were just short of our 5 year anniversary.

Tell me about the proposal
Derek planned a beautiful, intentional weekend getaway that included all of my favorite things: gardens, libraries, good food, and being away from the rest of the world. He later told me he had planned to propose to me at the Huntington Garden in Pasadena, which was our first stop of the trip. The original plan was to propose at the garden, celebrate that night at dinner, then spend the weekend exploring and continuing the celebration. But, he ended up having to change his plan at the last minute due to some unexpected events at the garden. Derek later shared that the rest of the trip he was trying to come up with new plans, but they kept getting thwarted. My suspicions had started to rise, and these perfect movie moments kept happening, but no proposal. Finally, at the end of our weekend trip, while almost home, I confessed that I thought he was going to propose that weekend. Derek responded by telling me that he was, and he had the ring in his pocket! We talked about all the ways his planned proposal had gone wrong, and we both found so much humor in it. Laughing in the car about how all his perfect plans had gone amiss is one of my favorite memories. That night when we got home, in our living room, he finally got down on one knee and proposed. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

How did you allocate your budget?
We both decided what was most important to us as a couple, and to us as individuals. To both of us, we highly valued the location and the photography. I personally had big dreams about the florals, while he had big dreams about the food. We decided to invest in those areas first, and reserve any extra to other things that were lower on our priority list. We had a max amount in our heads that we could allocate to the whole wedding, so we started by finding the things most important to us, and blocking those in the budget.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We splurged on photography and florals. And I say that lightly, because we still did not have to spend too much on either. Since it was a small wedding, our needs were also small. Areas where we were able to save were more because we are lucky enough to have great friends. Our friends from Bica in Normal Heights catered the dinner for us. Our cake was made by our friend Kylie, who is the pastry chef for the Puffer-Malarkey restaurants in San Diego. I also love DIY, and was able to save on decor by making a bunch. I made all the signage, napkins, baskets, and miscellaneous decor. Another area we saved was having my sister officiate!

How did you choose your photographer?
We found our photographer online. We knew we needed to find someone who was going to understand our vision. We didn’t want this huge, grand wedding with portrait shots to remember it. Instead, we wanted meaningful, personal, and in-the-moment pictures, so that when we looked back, we remembered the way we felt that day. When we found Brittany’s work, right away I knew she would get what we were going for. After our first conversation, we both knew she was going to exactly what we needed. Every single person at our wedding has shared how much they loved Brittany, and we are so tremendously happy with the pictures from our day.

The outfits
The dress is from Luv Bridal. Shoes are just from amazon. I wore a simple necklace and earrings from Grace + Hudson.
The suit is from Sid Mashburn.
No bridesmaids!

Theme or colour scheme
Our theme and color scheme were neutral, moody fall colors. One of my favorite colors is mauve, so I kind of centered my theme around that. I wanted it to flow naturally with the venue and the season. I added greens, golds, ivories, pink, and browns to complement.

Flowers
I wanted whimsical, airy flowers. My only request was no sunflowers or roses. My florist did an amazing job of considering the theme of my wedding, the venue and the season. My flower arrangements included dahlias, chrysanthemums, and cosmos.

Decoration
We luckily did not need much decor, since the venue itself was so gorgeous. Most of what we did have, I made myself. I sewed and handpainted our welcome sign, and the sign behind us at our reception table. I made all the fabric ribbons used in the signs. I designed and framed signage, and used the same fabric from the ribbons to matte the signage in the frames. I collected baskets for things like cards, pens, utensils, etc. and used the fabric ribbons I had made to decorate them. I designed stationary for guests to write letters and pieces of advice for us. I sewed and hand embroidered napkins with each guest’s name on them, which was placed on their plate as their seat marker. At each plate, I also had collected photos of us with the guest attached to a handwritten note on the stationary we designed. Each guest that was invited was highly meaningful in our lives, and we wanted them each to know how grateful we were to celebrate this with them next to us. My florist did a great job with the tablescapes, and had candles and little jars of flowers. We also had a kids table, and I designed kids placemats with activities for them, to keep them busy during the reception. While the decor was minimal, it was all intentional and meaningful.

Food
Our friends from Bica in Normal Heights, San Diego catered the event for us. All food was presented and served family style.
For a starter, we had focaccia bread, made by Sienna from Companion Bread.
For the main courses we had an option of Slow Roasted Chicken, or Dry Aged Ribeye. For sides we had Crispy Confit Potatoes, Sauteed Garlic Green Beans, Farmer’s Market Cucumber salad, and a Heirloom Tomato Salad.

Wedding cake
Our cake was a 2-layer chocolate cake with whipped ganache, orange marmalade, and swiss meringue buttercream. Our friend, Kylie, who is the pastry chef for the Puffer-Malarkey restaurant group in San Diego made it for us.

Who supplied the stationery?
The save the dates and invites were from Zola. The remaining stationary throughout the wedding was designed and printed by me.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We left the day after our wedding for a 2-week East Coast Fall roadtrip. We went to Boston, Maine, Vermont, and Montreal.

Personal touches
Like I mentioned before, I handmade most of the decor. One of my favorite personal touches was the photos with each of our guests, and the handwritten notes to each of them. Each guest that was invited was highly meaningful in our lives, and we wanted them each to know how grateful we were to celebrate this with them next to us. I also made and hand embroidered napkins for each guest, which they took home to keep. While we had professional photography, We also had a digital camera and a camcorder, which we and our guests used to take photos and videos throughout the night. Some of our favorite memories are from that.

Special moments 
I think the most special part of our day was getting to have our friends and family not just attend the wedding, but be a part of throwing it. Accepting help, and having them be a part of it made it feel less like a grand show, and more like an intentional celebration. My sister officiated, my nieces got ready with me and were my flower girls. Seeing my vision come to life after thinking about it for over a year was also super special. One of my favorite memories was sitting down at the long family-style table, surrounded by all our guests, while our nieces and nephews ran around. We felt surrounded by so much love that day.

Advice for other couples
Focus on what matters most: celebrating your love and taking the next step with those who mean the most to you. Choose your top 1-2 things that you must have, and focus your attention and resources on that. Remember that a wedding celebrates two people, your partner should feel just as involved as you. Even if they are not a planner, they should have opinions and thoughts about how they want to celebrate this event. Don’t get lost in what is most trendy, instead focusing on what your own style and interests are, and build your wedding around that.

Biggest surprise 
I know everyone says it, but it truly goes so fast. Even though we did everything we could to be slow and intentional, before we knew it the day was over. I am so grateful we have candid photos and videos from the time we woke up to the time we went to bed to remember all the moments in between.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Photography: Brittany Bender Photography
• Planning: Frances Loves Francis
• Venue: Villa Francesca
• Florals: Flower Snob
• Hair and Makeup: Beauty by Heather Arnold
• Catering: Bica
• Rentals: Rustic Urban Events & Adore Folklore
• Dress: Luv Bridal
• Suit: Sid Mashburn
• Cake: Made by the bride’s close friend Kylie (not a business)
• Signage & Paper Goods: Handmade by the bride

Brittany Bender Photography

www.brittanyjeanbender.com/ / www.brittanyjeanbender.com/blog / [email protected] / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / PINTEREST

Brittany Bender is a San Diego based wedding photographer specializing in candid, emotionally honest images that capture your connection as it truly is. She photographs weddings, elopements, and couples throughout Southern California and is available for travel worldwide.