Colleen and Stefan met 5 years ago in a coffee house in Kansas where they were both going to school.  Colleen was going to school to become a veterinarian, and Stefan to become a physicist. Colleen claims the date almost never happened because of her busy school schedule, but was quite taken by Stefan’s persistence.  In Stefan’s defense, why would he let the opportunity to go on a coffee date with an intelligent and pretty woman such as Colleen slip by?  After dating for a bit Colleen feel in love with Stefan…  Colleen loves that Stefan works to put others before himself. He always turns her stressful days around. He also pushes Colleen to be more adventurous and try new things.  Stefan loves how thoughtful Colleen is and how caring.  She goes out of her way to plan events that she knows Stefan will enjoy.  Stefan knew Colleen needed to be his wife!  While in Kansas which is the sunflower state, they had heard of a giant field with sunflowers as far as you could see. Stefan woke up early and packed a picnic lunch with the ring hidden inside. Stefan never gets up early so Colleen knew something was up. While they were eating lunch, he got down on one knee and popped the question. Colleen can’t remember what he said but that her answer was yes!  They picked the La Valencia because they loved the 1920’s glamour feel to the hotel and the history of the hotel itself. The hotel has so many unique features, not least of which it is a pink hotel. They liked that their reception would be outdoors on the patio under the chandeliers and market lights. It is a San Diego landmark that they know will be around for decades and so they can return any time they wish to reminisce their wedding day.

Venue: La Valencia Hotel

Coordinator: Holly Kalkin Weddings

Cake: Twiggs Bakery

Photography: ABM Photography

Hair + Makeup: Knight + Veil ~ Kelly Scripps

Kent

We loved working with Bobby and all the staff at the La Valencia!! Here is what someone else thought!!

“WOW WOW & WOW!!! In all honesty, i had the best vacation of many here at la Valencia! It’s almost kind of bad, because now they’ve set the expectations so high for our next vacations! I’ll start with the staff, because staff at hotels REALLY influence how you stay goes, and man were they are out of this world!! Greeted everywhere you go, helped anytime you need (or even if you don’t, is swear), they are friendly and so so so kind and caring! Such genuine people who you can actually have great conversations with and man do they go out of your way for you!

Right when we got there, we were greeted by all of valet and they swept the car, making you feel like royalty the way they care for your things, and converse genuinely with you. It was amazing after hours of traveling. Then we walked in and met this nice man with whom we clicked with right away and started having a great conversation with! He turned out to be the manager, and he actually upgraded our rooms for us and took care of so many things for us man the room was RIDICULOUS! My fiancée and I are horrible with remembering names, but we definitely didn’t and wont forget Patrick. It was seriously one of the nicest things & he was so sweet and genuine I honestly will never forget his kindness or high extent of his generosity.

The views are gorgeous!!! The best location because it’s walking distance from EVERYTHING and the beaches near by are beautiful!! Not to mention you’re like 20 feet away from the beach when you stay La Valencia, so perfect! Not having a private beach is not even an issue, you have beach for days near the hotel or you can drive 5-10 minutes in either directions and have plenty of other awesome beach options. Again, you can’t beat the location of this place it’s right at the heart and center of all the action, you won’t run out of things to do and that’s if you even want to leave the beautiful premises of the hotel. Also, I care a lot about hotel cleanliness and am very particular about this matter, and it was absolutely not an issue at all, very very clean, well maintained and kept. Worth every penny!!! And we can’t wait to go back, La Valencia is now on our list of regular visits.”