High school sweethearts is one thing, middle school sweethearts is another. Ciela and David met in 8th grade during P.E. and became best friends. David proposed to Ciela on their 10 year anniversary where they took a hot air balloon ride. The pilot took them above Temecula Valley overlooking the vineyards where they both grew up. We went to high school with both Ciela and David and were thrilled to be a part of such a special time in their lives. Check out a few photos from their wedding day at Galway Downs below, along with more details from their story below.

A few words from the bride

Q: Tell us about your wedding! What was the inspiration behind your day? Did you have a specific theme, style or color palette? Did you incorporate any cultural or religious traditions in any part of your day?

A: For our wedding day, we really wanted a theme that suited us as a couple rather than the typical "summer palette". We decided to go for a romantic, modern storybook feel. Pinterest was the first thing to inspire us! We went with a deep burgundy, steel blue, and rustic gold palette (definitely not the usual summer look). As far as the "story" theme coming into play, we thought it would be neat for wedding guests to learn about our story. We're middle school sweethearts, and not a lot of people know how we grew up together. We also chose Galway Downs and entrusted the coordinators of Haven House Events and Wedgewood coordinators because of the personal connections we've made there. Galway Downs was the perfect venue that is located in Temecula, which is near and dear to our hearts being that we grew up there. One thing that we are grateful for, was having my great grandma pray before we enjoyed our first meal as husband and wife. It's a tradition in my family to have her be the officiant and have a key role in weddings, so we were honored to have her pray before the meal.

Q: Let's talk wedding decor. How did you decorate your space for the ceremony and the reception? Was any part of the decor DIY?

A: We have a lot of glass terrariums in our home. Again, we love that modern, yet cozy look! We decided to use glass terrariums as a centerpiece, along with real candlelight to add to the cozy scene. We had so many things that we configured ourselves. From the donut display (my mother in law was a huge help in this), to our personalized fans for the ceremony, the guest book, the lawn games put together by my mom, grandpa and sister in laws, the cigar bar my mother in law pieced together, and the window panes we gathered for the table display, we were loke a giant family of wedding decorators. The DIY part really came into play when we decided to do eucalyptus wreaths the day before our wedding ! My mom, grandma, maid of honor and a couple of bridesmaids were so helpful in piecing together bunches of eucalyptus and forming it into a beautiful wreath. The wreaths played a key part in the centerpieces. The next DIY part was having each table number be a chapter in our lives. We made table one, "chapter one" and each guest at chapter one had our first chapter of our epic love story. The next thing we did to add to the story theme is picking love quotes from epic stories and movies. One of my favorite quotes though, comes from Bob Marley about how love is supposed to be nurtured. We had those quotes placed all throughout the venue. We even personalized our wedding favors ! My mother-in-law found this awesome ladder to display our succulents on. We decided to stain the ladder, add these palettes on them, and in each palette there were succulents, terrariums, and pictures of us. It was a really beautiful display. One of the last details we did to make our decor personalized was a really cute idea I found on Pinterest. We decided to have cards at each table for cocktail hour that said 5 things about me, and 5 things about my husband. We thought it would be fun for guests on his side to learn a little more about me, and my side to learn a little bit more about him. When I look back at how much effort we put into our wedding, I am proud, impressed with my skills in decor (considering I have never planned such an elaborate party before!), and so happy with how our vision exceeded all of our expectations.

Q: What were the florals like in your wedding? Did you use flowers in any of your design elements like the bridal bouquets, centerpieces or ceremony backdrop? Did they play an important part in the overall style of your wedding?

A: Although beautiful, picking florals were the most challenging! I knew nothing about flowers, and I ended up learning so much about them from our wedding! With the help of my grandma, we found a reasonably priced and helpful florist named Desiree. She totally brought my vision to life. The flowers we chose were a mix of burgundy dahlias, ivory roses, baby eucalyptus, seeded eucalyptus and some filler flowers. We used these in our bouquets. We also decided to put burgundy dahlias and white roses in our centerpieces the morning of ! The other places we filled in flowers were the ceremony (beautiful floral displays on wine barrels) and garlands on some of the tables and signs at the ceremony and reception. Thanks to our coordinators from Haven House Events, they put this look together for us. Since Galway Downs is full of rich trees and natural beauty, we didn't want flowers to overtake the venue. So we decided to keep it simple and put florals around only where necessary.

Q: Did you personalize the day in any way (food trucks, guest entertainment etc.)? What were some of your favorite parts of your wedding?

A: My husband and I love to have fun. Our whole relationship is built around the memories we make laughing, and enjoying our family and friends. To really put our likes into our wedding, we decided to "X" the cake, and bring donuts and ice cream to our wedding ! We had personalized ice cream flavors (mine being a chocolate mocha, and his being strawberry cheesecake) from Sub Zero. My husband is a science teacher, and we thought it totally fit him to have Sub Zero since they use Liquid Nitrogen to make the ice cream before your eyes! We also had an open air photo booth which was so fun for our guests of all ages. We really got to have so much fun on our wedding day and it's thanks to the vendors we chose!

Q: Let's talk fashion. How did you both choose your wedding day look? Describe the looks in detail.

A: For me, choosing a look was easy. I always had the idea that I wanted a form-fitting wedding dress and long veil. I went to a total of two stores before finding my dream dress that brought tears to my eyes when trying it on. I wanted something that felt romantic, beautiful, sexy, and most of all ME. I enjoy dresses that are a little more unique, and I'm also a sucker for lace and vintage buttons. My dress had it ALL. My dress was ivory (I didn't want white), had lace details along the front and back, a low back, and had a very long lace train with vintage buttons that ran down the backside. It's funny, because I always thought I'd go for a strapless, but something about having lace straps added to the charm of my dress, and seemed to suite me better. I added a French bustle (5 buttons to hook on to) because I knew I would want to dance the night away and there was no way it was happening if it wasn't bustled. My shoes were found online from Amazon ! They were a beige thick heel, pointed closed-toe, with ties on them. I felt they matched the dress well and also brought a classy look to my outfit. My veil was a cathedral style veil that went past the length of my dress, talk about romantic ! It added to the romantic style I was going for. My lace garter was handmade by my talented grandma. I decided to do the traditional "something new, something borrowed, something old and something blue" that brides wear on their wedding day. On top of my veil, I had 3 clips. Two were gifted from my auntie, and the last was my something borrowed from my mom. The something borrowed clip was my great grandmas (my grandpa's mom who prayed before the dinner at our wedding). My bouquet had my something old, which was my Nama's bumble bee necklace I've had since she passed away, and my something blue was a ring from my grandma. Last, my something new was my engagement ring. The extra jewelry I wore to piece my outfit together were a pair of teardrop, diamond earrings, and matching necklace. I also wore a special ring gifted to me by my husbands Nani (grandma) to symbolize me joining their family. I am happy that my look was pieced together by myself, the women who shaped me, and the women of the family I would be marrying into.  Although a man's outfit is usually more simple, David really put thought into what he was going to wear for our wedding, and I think that's special. David wanted a suit that he would be able to feel good in, and still stand out. He mentioned that he wanted to look good, and feel good too. He knew I would want to dance the night away, so a comfort fit was important too! He decided to go for a dark navy blue (hints of grey) Kenneth Cole three-piece suit. His suit included the suit jacket, vest, and pants that were all tailored perfectly. His shirt was a long-sleeved ivory button up, followed with a deep burgundy tie, brown belt, burgundy socks, and brown shoes to finish the look. He looked absolutely handsome! His suit was topped off with the boutenierre to match. The boutenierre had an ivory rose, part of a seeded eucalyptus, and wrapped with a burgundy ribbon. Our rings match as well. My engagement ring is a silver band, with a beautiful princess cut diamond in the middle. My wedding band is a thin rose gold band with small diamonds along the top. David's ring is a black titanium ring with a copper stripe to separate the black titanium strand. The copper and rose gold fit well together when we show others our set !

Q: How did you meet? Tell us about the proposal.

A: David and I are middle school sweethearts. We met in 8th grade during P.E., and became best friends. The rest is history! He proposed to me on our 10 year anniversary. We had to wake up very early, and of course, we woke up late!! He was more stressed about being late than usual and I didn't realize that a proposal was causing his stress. We eventually made it barely in time for our hot air balloon ride! Our pilot took us up above Temecula, CA where we grew up. David asked our pilot when we were at the highest point we could go, and I lost my breath, not only due to the height, but due to seeing him down on one knee, asking me to be his wife. Of course, I said yes ! After, he took me to brunch at a beautiful gold course where I was surprised to see my family and friends waiting to celebrate our new engagement. He had the entire back room decorated with our pictures from our relationship. It was the most special moment and having everyone close that we loved there, made it even more special!

Q: What was the most anticipated or special moment of your wedding day?

A: The most anticipated moment for both of us was seeing each other for the first time. We decided to do a first look because not only did we want to save time during the wedding, but we also wanted our own intimate moment with each other. I've heard that many couples don't get to have time alone with each other because they're busy greeting guests or taking pictures. We really wanted to enjoy our day, and we did! Seeing each other before the ceremony was extremely special to us. After the tears of seeing how handsome he looked and seeing the expression on his face after seeing me, we got to be our fun and goofy selves while taking pictures with our photographers. We had so much fun during this moment. It was probably the highlight of the day.

Q: Do you have any wedding planning or marriage advice that you'd like to share with other couples planning their day?

A: Our advice to other couples for wedding planning is to not let others take the fun out of it for you! Being engaged is stressful, but remember they are good stressors. Those experiences go by so fast and only happen once in your life, so try to enjoy them. You will look back and laugh at how some of the things that were so minor took up so much space on your minds ! Our advice on marriage is to be in the moment with your spouse. Nowadays it's very easy to escape on social media, and hard to be present, but to build a strong marriage means to communicate, laugh, play, romance with one another. Have a conversation with each other and keep learning about each other. You will be with this person for the rest of your life, so cherish every moment with them.