Turtle Rock Park Wedding | Markleeville, CA | Adam + Terin

My friend Terin is one crafty lady, and I don’t mean like a fox. She’s so crafty that she and some of her best girlfriends host weekly craft nights. They make, build and design things I wouldn’t even start to dream of. Like quilts. I’m pretty sure that’s a thing they’ve done that I don’t do. I don’t even bother with a crafting club. I straight up just go to Girls’ Drinking Club. In fact, I’ve previously vowed to drink more wine just so that I have more corks to give to Jenna Palacio to craft me a wine cork wreath. Moral of this story: Terin is a master crafter and she killed it at the DIY wedding. Terin: 1. Lauren: 0.

When Terin started planning her wedding to another one of my good friends, Adam, she had the help of her family and friends to transform what is normally a bland looking cafeteria room at a local state park into the place of her dreams. I was blown away by how they managed to turn Turtle Rock Park into a lush, intimate oasis. It was nothing short of incredible.

Almost everything at Adam and Terin’s gorgeous Turtle Rock Park wedding was DIY: her sister made hundreds of tiny cheesecake cupcakes, she wore a reconstructed version of her mother’s wedding dress, they invented, built or designed all the table decor and screens for the ceiling, her mom made their bouquets, they created all the table runners and centerpieces themselves. Seriously.

Adam and Terin were wed at an hilarity filled ceremony, peppered with tears and sentimentality, at a private estate at the edge of the Sierra Nevadas, overlooking the Nevada valley. On our way there, they wanted to highlight all the scenery our backyard offers us, so the wedding party stopped in Hope Valley for photos. The party got wild and went late into the night thanks to the boys at Liquid Craft mobile bartending and Dylan with Lake Tahoe DJ. Adam is apparently also creative: he wrote Terin a song. And then he sung it. In front of everyone. Meanwhile, everyone cried and laughed and then cried and laughed and then realized that Adam ruined weddings forever for all of their future because no one can top that. Adam: 1. Everyone else: 0.