Unveiled Real Weddings with AP Pros: Serendipity Events + Amaya & Peter's Night at the Museum

We’re back with Unveiled Real Weddings with Aisle Planner Pros! In this exciting series, we’re sharing an exclusive and intimate behind-the-scenes peek at real weddings planned by our talented Aisle Planner community. We’re highlighting the gorgeous details, delicious cuisine, memorable moments, top-tier planning, and the Aisle Planner tools that helped bring these weddings to life.

In this installment of Unveiled, we're taking you to Amaya & Peter's Night at the Natural History Museum, planned by the amazing Serendipity Events! The Aisle Planner and The Aisle Guide team were honored to attend this special night and have an opportunity to showcase Serendipity Events’ expertise and Amaya and Peter’s love story.

Meet Laura Schwandt - Founder of Serendipity Events

Laura has been planning and executing special events for over 10 years. In 2009 she earned her BA in Communication and a certificate in Meeting and Event Planning and later completed a MA in Communication and Leadership with a certificate in Intercultural Communication and International Media.

She has experience in planning a wide range of special events including weddings, non-profit galas, and social events - both public and private. She served on the board for the San Diego chapter of the International Live Event Association and enjoys giving back to the local and global community through various elements of community service. 

Her educational background and industry experience allow her to seamlessly execute every detail throughout the planning process. Her exceptional communication skills allow her to interact with both the client and the creative team effortlessly, providing a stress-free environment for everyone involved. 

With over a decade of experience in the industry - and a true passion for planning, organizing, and designing, Laura puts forth a calmness through the planning process of any event providing a truly memorable experience for her clients. Over the years Serendipity has grown into a beautiful company with a powerhouse team of designers and planners making our couple's wedding dreams come true!

"I love creating happy memories. Helping people celebrate their best moments of life is a blessing, and being a part of the process from start to finish gives me pure joy!" — Laura Schwandt

Meet the Couple - Amaya & Peter

1. How did you meet?

We met on Bumble! Shortly after we met, we learned that we had a longtime mutual friend. One of Amaya’s best friends from high school is a family friend of Peter’s family. Peter’s parents went to college with this friend’s parents, and Peter’s sister was roommates in college with this friend too. It's kind of a wonder that we had not crossed paths beforehand.

2. What was the proposal like?

We live in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego, and we absolutely adore our neighborhood. There is a town square in the center of it that we heavily frequent: it is surrounded by trees with string lights, it has our favorite bar, and it has our favorite breakfast place where we went every week while we were dating but not yet engaged. One evening Peter invited Amaya out to said favorite bar, and as they turned the corner they encountered a banner strung up between two of the trees in the town square. The banner read “Amaya, will you marry me?” and had pictures of them and their dogs. Peter got down on one knee, and the rest is history.

3. Where did you pull inspiration from for the wedding design/theme?

We really wanted to take a lot of inspiration from our venue, the San Diego Natural History Museum, and let it speak for itself. We accentuated the dinosaur and bug themes in every element of the wedding to make it seem as if the museum was coming to life. Additionally, because our wedding was in November, we kept the palette around autumnal colors such as burnt orange and burgundy.

4. What are your favorite wedding details + traditions you incorporated?

We both really wanted to have a ceremony that was meaningful and special to us. Our amazing officiant, Bethel Nathan, set the tone and designed a beautiful and personal ceremony that incorporated a stone blessing element. Every guest was given a unique stone and impressed their good wishes and hopes for us, and we collected them all into a vase that now sits inside our home.

We also really loved our live artist, Joshua Spieker and the dessert station, provided by Little Fox Cups + Cones (recommended to us by Laura), which served delicious ice cream tacos during the reception. They were a smash hit, without a doubt.

5. What was the planning process like?

We booked our venue on our own and then began planning with Laura and Serendipity Events nine months before the wedding. She and her whole team made the process shockingly stress-free and kept it all extremely organized. We were able to keep our focus on high-level design, creative brainstorming, and getting excited about being married! We were expecting so much more stress from all the horror stories we’ve heard, and we feel very fortunate that we found Laura and had such a wonderful experience both planning and executing the wedding.

6. What was your experience like working with Laura and using the Aisle Planner tools as a client? Do you have any favorite features? 

Aisle Planner was at the center of our design and planning process. We found a way to use every feature, but our favorite was definitely the vendor list and how we could keep everything organized. The ability to comment and update on each individual vendor while keeping them all in one place made it incredibly easy to multitask and keep everything on schedule.

Hero photo courtesy of Emily Arnold Photo