Get ready to be wowed by our stunning bride, Akela Arriola, who looked breathtaking in our Maya gown! Akela and her fiance chose a coastal venue as the perfect backdrop for their unforgettable day. In our interview with Akela, she shares some special moments she'll never forget and how she felt like a beauty in our Maya gown. As told by Akela:
A moment of your wedding day will you never forget?
This question is so hard because I had so many favorite moments but if I had to choose one it would be walking down the aisle with my mom. My mom is currently fighting lung cancer and last year during the wedding planning she went downhill so fast that we almost canceled our wedding but she told me not to because she was going to fight to be there and walk me down like we always talked about. She was on oxygen 24/7 but that last month before the wedding date she pushed through and didn’t have to use the oxygen to walk me down she was able to breathe on her own. It was an emotional moment for all of us.
One thing you wish you knew as a new bride? What advice would you give to future brides?
I took advice from so many brides beforehand and the one common thing they all said was some things won’t go as planned and to not stress over them because no one will notice. I definitely stood by that the whole day. Luckily for me the only thing that didn’t work the way it was supposed to be the song for my bridal party to go down to but they made it work! For future brides, I’d say the same thing – just enjoy your day, take every moment in, AND take a group photo with every table! I wish we would’ve done that.
We wanted our wedding to feel like “Classic Akela and Paul move” or “I knew they’d incorporate this” haha. Our wedding wasn’t traditional we did everything the way we wanted. I read in a wedding book there’s no “right” or “wrong” way so have fun and create something of your own. We had to have our furbabies incorporated into everything so they walked down the aisle and took photos with us. We also had them in small things like on the napkins and bar menu.
In our seating chart, we put all the places we lived as our table numbers and had to include our favorite fast food (in&out) for all our out-of-state guests.
Ahh, I love this question, so the Maya dress was the first dress I’ve ever tried on. I always knew I wanted a Galia Lahav dress so I made one appointment because I just knew I’d find the one that day. I had an idea of what I wanted and tried on about 5-7 dresses and just couldn’t stop thinking about the first one. I jokingly said after the first one (Maya) ‘ok I found it I’m done.’ I wanted sleeves and I think that was what was holding me back and as soon as one of the girls said we can make it custom I put Maya back on and said this is the one let’s add sleeves!
How did it feel when you put on your dress the day of the wedding? What was everyone's reaction to the dress?
It felt like a dream. I walked out of the room and had my sister and mom help put it on and everyone just went silent. My makeup artist, hair stylist, bridesmaids, KAI, we all just took in the moment together like one big family and they made me feel so special like a real-life princess and pumped me up to go see Paul for our first look.
How did you meet your husband? How did he propose?
We met through a mutual friend on Instagram haha…He found me first and the next day it was his birthday so I just had to slide into the DMs first. Fast forward 4 years later on his birthday, he proposed at a winery in Temecula CA and all of our family and friends were there to celebrate.
