We wanted to incorporate the natural beauty of southern California, and have all the fun of a summer wedding through everything from our florals to our napkin color.
Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
Delynn: My name is Delynn Harmon Reitmeyer, I am originally from Indiana and now live with my husband, Noah, in Oceanside, CA! I currently work as a graphic designer in downtown San Diego, which is a dream come true for me. I love summer camp, crying to rom-coms, colored glass cups and my cowboy boots. In my freetime I love to thrift home decor, try new coffee shops & local restaurants, oil paint, host dinner parties and spend time with my family + friends!
Noah: My name is Noah Reitmeyer, and as of June I started working at Cintas as a Management Trainee. I love sports, specifically Michigan football (Go Blue) and the San Diego Padres. I love being active, so hikes, golfing, swimming, and working out is what I like to do in my free time. I also love spending time, specifically at the beach, with my friends and family.
How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
DR: I first met Noah the summer of 2020, pretty much after my life had fallen apart (as it felt like the rest of the world was). I had been sent home from college (Tennessee to Indiana) because of the spreading virus, was living in my grandma’s basement & had just received a call that my summer job had been called off. I pretty much was out of luck until I got a call from my college friend, Eliza, asking me if I wanted to live with her for the summer in Carlsbad, CA-I had a flight by the end of the week. Before my plane had even taken off, Eliza texted me about some guy she thought I would hit it off with, one of her family friends she had grown up going to school with. I was recently single and incredibly not interested in having a summer fling, which I told her clearly…that was until I met Noah my very first week in CA at a backyard barbeque and totally ate my words. He was a tall, kind-hearted, baseball player with deep dimples, and spent most of the night asking other people about themselves. At the end of that week at another dinner party, my friend Eliza walked him out at the end of the night and asked, “so when are you going to ask Delynn out?” And he said, “I’m just not sure, Tennessee is so far away” and she responded simply: “trust me, she’s worth it”.
He texted me later that night and we went on our first date that Friday (a week after meeting); we spent a magical summer together watching sunsets and talking till 2 am, and on the plane ride home 7 weeks later, I started writing my wedding vows to him (which I ended up reading this past June)! When I went back to Tennessee, and he went back to school in Arizona, he just kept calling me. All this to say, I’ve pretty much been head over heels since the summer of 2020.
NR: We first met at my family friend’s house at a BBQ. Delynn was staying with them for the summer and since we were both somewhat recently single, they were trying to set us up. My first impressions of her was that she was very cute and also a little shy; I later found out that she was just nervous and is actually very well spoken and loves to laugh.
When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?
DR: It’s hard to write it off as a single moment when I was totally smitten at first sight. It was a million little moments of Noah proving to be different than any guy I had ever met, the first of these moments being about a week into knowing Noah- We were at my friend Eliza’s house for dinner, and as conversation flowed, Noah made his way to the kitchen. No one asked him to, it wasn’t his house, but Noah stood in the kitchen doing the dishes. I was shocked at his kindness to do such a thing, but little did I know at the time, that was just how Noah lived his life-incredibly selflessly, and always serving others without needing to call any attention to it.
Apart from that it was a combination of his deep love for his family, for ministry, for travel and his relentless pursuit of me, despite thousands of miles between us.
NR: I also find it hard to narrow down an exact single moment where I realized that I wanted to marry Delynn. However, we spent our second summer together at a Christian summer camp called Winshape. It was amazing to see how God orchestrated us being able to see each other while also serving in youth ministry at camp. It was that summer that I realized Delynn’s heart for the Lord and her willingness to serve was aligned with someone that I’d want to be my wife. I am grateful for her desire to do what is right and the joy she brings to everyday life.
Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…
I’ll be completely honest, I am the worst at surprises; not only am I unable to keep them a secret, I also am such a snooper that I always ended up finding my parents hidden stash of christmas presents in early December. I was so incredibly sure I knew when, where and how Noah was going to propose. In fact, I was SO sure that the night before my proposal I kept my best friend, Sydney, up till past midnight explaining to her back and forth all of my hypotheses-none of which included a Thursday in August, in the little park right by where I lived.
One of the things that made me so sure of the fact that I could guess when Noah was going to propose was the fact that we were dating long distance, meaning every trip we had was put on a calendar. The weekend of the proposal I thought I was heading to Sydney’s bachelorette party, she had moved about an hour away and so came into town a night early to sleep at my house and catch up (hence me talking her ear off about my best guesses for the proposal, which I assumed was in October). She had recently started a new remote job and because of this when she told me that warm Tennessee Thursday afternoon that she remembered she needed a new headshot, I didn’t bat an eye. She came to pick me up from my last class and casually mentioned in the car that she wanted to get the headshot out of the way before dinner, so we headed to the nearby park. Good quick back story on Sydney: she’s an incredibly talented photographer and the last time I had been to this specific park with her was 3 years prior, when she had taken pictures of me and my boyfriend the day he officially asked me to date him!
As we made our way through the park I was working my butt off to get Syd the best shots for her new job, and she just kept rushing me through the path. Eventually she asked me if she could change the lens on her camera and so I handed it over to her and kept walking as she fumbled through her bag. Then I turned the corner and saw a picnic blanket with flowers and frames set up, and I quickly told her “Syd, we need to get out of here, someone’s about to get engaged.” And then I looked at her and the camera was pointing at me.
Noah stepped out from behind the bushes to my complete shock; he stumbled through some sweet words and I said “yes”. Then immediately after I said, “how did you get here?!” To this day he claims it as the greatest pull off of his life. Sydney also claims it as the worst secret she’s ever had to keep.
Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…
When planning our wedding we knew we wanted it to feel incredibly intimate, even if it was not in size. We wanted to incorporate the natural beauty of southern California, and have all the fun of a summer wedding through everything from our florals to our napkin color. We wanted the food and the photography to excel, but most importantly of all, we wanted it to feel like ours-our music, our hand written vows, our people.
Something that felt so precious about our wedding was getting to hire so many of our loved ones to play pivotal wedding roles-our officiant, florist, photographers, day of coordinator, and videographer were all close friends. We booked the Vista Adobe because of it’s beautiful architecture, western draw (which we fully lean into) and rich history; to our complete luck everything was in super bloom because of California’s immense rain this past year.
Two sweet elements we dreamed up early on to make our guests feel special were the two of us giving a pre-dinner speech addressed to our guests, and paying tribute to all the love that came before ours by printing and framing a wedding picture of each of our invited married guests. For each couple, we took time to write about the impact their specific love story had had on us as individuals and as a couple. Each wedding picture was displayed with the personal write up and was set out for guests to read.
VENUE Rancho Buena Vista Adobe PHOTOGRAPHER Fontana Lane, @fontanalane VIDEOGRAPHER Christopher Vega, @vegaguy ENTERTAINMENT Dylan Bowley HIRE Allie’s Party FLORA PineStreet Floral, @pinestreetfloral CATERING & BEVERAGES Senor Grubby’s, @senorgrubbys CAKE Churros El Tigre, @churroseltigre STATIONERY Delynn’s Art, @delynnsart WEDDING DRESS Reev Bridal, @reevbridal SUIT The Black Tux, @theblacktux RINGS Olive Ave Jewelry, @oliveavejewelry SHOES Lulus, @lulus BRIDESMAID DRESSES Park & Fifth Co, @parkandfifthco; Birdy Grey, @birdygrey
