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With Terranea Resort as the backdrop, and soft and inviting Anthropologie inspired wedding decor all around, the glowing couple Rebecca and Dan couldn't possibly have been surrounded by more beauty! What a treat this ocean-view California wedding is!
The Couple: Rebecca and Dan
The Wedding: 7.09.11 - Terranea Resort - Palos Verdes, CA
What three adjectives best describe your wedding day? Intimate, fun and unforgettable
Was there a decor theme that ran through your wedding? What was the inspiration for that particular idea and how did it reflect you as a couple? I love all things Anthropologie, which inspired me to create a warm, natural and charming setting for our wedding. As a couple, we love to host people at our home and we always try to provide a warm and cozy environment for our guests. That’s how we wanted our wedding to feel at our wedding too.
What were some of the different ways you used decor elements to create the beautiful, cohesive event you were envisioning? I wanted my wedding to be both timeless and charming. My wedding dress was an elegant, yet fashion forward Carolina Herrera gown. I dressed my bridesmaids in bright, sunny dresses from Anthropologie. Also, I adored my florist, Susan from Peony and Plum, and her arrangements! I chose flowers and centerpieces that were soft and elegant, but still made a statement.
Where did you choose to hold your wedding, and how did the location influence your decor decisions? We chose Terranea Resort for its stunning views of the Pacific Ocean. The location provided the perfect backdrop for a charming and rustic, yet elegant wedding, and we centered our decor decisions around that theme.
The Wedding Team:
Photographer: Picotte Photography
Wedding Planner: Brooke Avishay - Orange Blosson Wedding Events
Ceremony & Reception Venue: Terranea Resort
Florist: Peony and Plum
Wedding Cake: Cupcakes and Couture
Wedding Dress: Carolina Herrera
Bridesmaids' Apparel & Accessories: Anthropologie
Groom & Groomsmen's Apparel & Accessories: Macy's
Hair & Make-up: Symmetry Beauty
DJ: Tim Coy
Dance Instruction: Dance Doctor
Wedding Favors: Corkey Creations
Wedding Rings: Ultimate Jewelry Designs
Rebecca and Dan, we adore the sweet elegance of your wedding! Thank you so much for sharing!
Readers, fall in love with more romantic wedding stories at our Real Wedding Library!
If this doesn't get you ready for summer, I don't know what will! Adorable South Carolina couple Lindsay and Adam joined up with photographer Ricki Ford, hair stylist Sable Lee, and the wedding planning team at Stunning and Brilliant Events to create a roller skating, ice cream eating, roller-coaster riding, amusement park engagement photo shoot straight out of the movies. They even included signs, both big and small, to let their friends and family know to save the date for 6-23. What fun!
Thank you Lindsay and Adam!
For two Texans, a winter getaway wedding to the beautiful Four Seasons Resort in Whistler, Canada was the perfect way to celebrate! Raven and Lanny created a wedding day that featured gorgeous nature-inspired decor; a cozy, comfortable setting for their guests; and a snowy winter wonderland that was wildly different than their Texas home. The whole day (including the furry movie star that popped in to their late-night photo booth!) was beautifully captured by Anastasia Photography.
The Couple: Raven and Lanny
The Wedding: 3.14.11 - Four Seasons Resort - Whistler, BC
What were the top three priorities for you in planning your wedding? Decor, food and comfort!
What wedding traditions or cultural traditions did you incorporated into your wedding and what did they mean to you? We didn't follow many wedding traditions or cultural traditions. We pretty much just did what we wanted and incorporated both of our unique tastes to make the wedding suit our personalities.
Were there any places where you “broke the rules” in your wedding planning? Why and how did you do that? We decided not to have a wedding cake. We had 56 guests, so rather than have a small cake, we had the Four Seasons make individual portions of desserts to be served at dinner.
What was your biggest wedding planning success? Having our florist, Rembrandt Designs Co. cut trees for the seating at our ceremony!
What was the most important thing that you learned through the wedding planning process and what would you tell other brides-to-be? Hire a good wedding planner. The day of the wedding was so easy and stress-free because Roxanne Cave, of Celebrate Events took care of everything!
Also hire a great photographer...pictures last a lifetime!
The Wedding Team:
Photographer: Anastasia Photography
Event Planner: Roxanne Cave of Celebrate Events
Ceremony Venue: Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Center
Reception Venue: Four Seasons Resort, Whistler
Videographer: Weddings In Motion
Invitation Designer: Leslie Daly Susies Paper, Fort Worth TX
Catering: Four Seasons Resort, Whistler
Florist: Rembrandt Designs Co.
Wedding Dress: Vera Wang
Bridesmaids' Apparel: Lula Kate Dresses from Bella Bridesmaid
Groom and Groomsmen Apparel: Armani
Hair and Make-up: Brenda Bakker
Live Music: The Hairfarmers
Thank you so much, Raven and Lanny, for sharing your special day with us!
Don't miss our Inspiration Gallery, which features weddings images of everything from fabulous flowers to spectacular decor!
Lindsay and Chris's wedding day was an elegant, charming, and oh-so-stylish garden celebration complete with sweet details, a stunning sunset, and an ethereal color palette. Held at the Villa de Flores in Rancho Santa Fe, California, and beautifully captured by Bryan N. Miller Photography, it's the perfect way to start off the week!
The Couple: Lindsay and Chris
The Wedding: 9.10.11 - Villa de Flores, Rancho Santa Fe, CA
What three adjectives best describe your wedding? Classic, magical and fun
What was your wedding color palette? Sparkling neutrals
What inspired your personal wedding style, and how did you incorporate your style and personalities into your big day? We loved the idea of getting married outdoors right before sunset, and then dancing the night away under the stars with our nearest and dearest. When we first visited the venue, we immediately fell in love with its beauty and ability to create the kind of wedding we wanted. We are drawn to sophisticated, yet simple styles, which influenced our planning choices.
Looking back, what are the moments, decisions or memories that you love the most about your wedding? Our most vivid memories include waiting in anticipation of walking down the aisle, and then walking back up the aisle together after saying “I do.” The moments in between were surreal and a bit of a happy blur! Dancing with our friends and families, listening to the heartfelt speeches and jumping into our classic getaway car at the end of the night were icing on the cake.
I highly recommend doing a first look before the ceremony, as it gives you that much more time to be with your fiancé on your big day, and you'll walk into the wedding feeling like you're taking this major step together, as a team.
What piece of advice would you give to a bride planning her wedding today?
Find a way to really enjoy the planning process. You only get to do it once and it is as much about the journey as the destination, as cliche as that sounds. Focus on how you want the event to feel. If a certain detail doesn't contribute much overall and you don't care about it, scrap it and don't look back. Ask for help! Friends and family may want to help, but don't want to impose. Hire the vendors you have the best gut feeling about and let them do what they do best. Try to structure your wedding day in a way that will keep you calm, focused on what's about to happen and ready to have fun!
The Wedding Team:
Photographer: Bryan N. Miller Photography
Event Planner: First Comes Love Weddings and Events
Ceremony/Reception Venue: Villa de Flores
Officiant: Tom Boggs
Invitation Designer: Wedding Paper Divas
Catering: Four Seasons Foods
Cake: Nothing Bundt Cakes
Wedding dress: Watters
Bridal accessories: J.Crew
Bridesmaid’s Apparel and Accessories: Macy's
Groom and Groomsmen Apparel and Accessories: Friar Tux Shop
Hair: Kristee Tamulis
Make-up: Cheryl Cowell
DJ: Michael Tiernan
Guest Transportation: Balboa Transportation
Rentals: Abbey Party Rentals
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful day with us! We wish you the best!
See more beautiful wedding photographs on our Photobug blog!
Bianca and Ernesto share a love of books, libraries, reading, and incredible old buildings with the perfect amount of romantic decay, so when they found Alder Manor, just minutes from downtown New York City, they knew it was the perfect place to write their own love story! Their day was filled with family, friends, music, food, and inspired touches that reflected their shared passion for all things literary in the most beautiful of ways. Bianca and Dave Robbins Photography generously shared every chapter of their day with us!
The Goals: When we first started looking for a wedding venue all we knew is that we wanted our guests to feel like they were being taken away to a different place and time. When we happened upon the beautiful Alder Manor, in disrepair and filled with romance, we knew this was the place. I did the planning myself because I love the details and wanted to really choose things that we love and represented us. For me, the biggest things were aesthetics and food, and for Ernesto, it was the music and food. We are big foodies and took a lot of time putting together the menu. We decided on a multi-course meal that had smaller plates and more variety rather than just one big main course, because this is the way we like to eat- a little bit of everything! We also wanted it to feel like a big dinner party so we used long tables instead of rounds for a communal feel. In terms of music we knew from the beginning that a really good band was a must!
The Design: The inspiration for the style of the wedding grew out of the venue itself - the first thing we fell in love with was the library! We both dream of building a beautiful dark wood library one day, the walls covered in shelves filled with stories we have read. From the library came the idea to make our save-the-dates into a little book, entitled "A Love Story", that told our story. My brother and I worked on it tirelessly (he did all the illustrations) until it was perfect. All of guests loved it and it set the tone for the whole wedding. Our tag line for the event, printed on the invitations was "The best love stories never end." We continued this theme throughout the decor and the leather bookmarks we gave guests as one of the favors. On several occasions I have seen the bookmarks in use at my friends' houses, which always makes me happy! Our invitations were created by Paperfinger, and incorporated the work of Ice Cream Social Shoppe. We had them design a monogram that included a cupcake to represent me, a crown to represent Ernesto, and a bumble bee to represent our daughter Bianca Sophia, who we call B. Each of these made their way on to the invitation pieces.
We used a palette of purple and gold because purple is my favorite color, and gold just seemed to fit with the venue and create a vintage, glamorous feel. The colors were of course in our invitations, and also my bouquet and other flowers, bridesmaids attire and shoes, groom and groomsmen attire, programs, favors, signs and welcome bags.
The Look: I wanted something romantic, sexy, and elegant with a somewhat vintage/old world feel to it. More than anything, I wanted something that looked like me. This was the main reason I wore my hair down, because I love wearing my hair down and more importantly, Ernesto loves it too!! For my veil I knew I wanted a mantilla, because I love the old world Spanish look, and I knew I wanted a long one! I am not one of those brides who dreamed about my dress and wedding my whole life, but the one things that did stick with me from childhood was Julie Andrew's long dramatic veil from "The Sound of Music." I didn't take it quite that far, but that was the inspiration for my long veil! The dress I finally decided on was all lace and felt vintage (even thought it wasn't).
For my bridesmaids, I wanted the look to be soft and romantic and for the dresses to have some movement as they glided down the aisle. My two sisters and two best friends are all beautiful, so it didn't take much effort on my part to make them look good. I wanted the groomsmen to look sharp (which they did effortlessly) and they had to have suspenders because I absolutely love them!
The Moments: The moments that stand out the most are when I began walking down the aisle on my father's arm to Coldplay's "Yellow," (which my husband picked for me!) and finally saw him standing there waiting for me. We had insisted that we did not want to see each other that day until I walked down the aisle, and it was absolutely worth the wait. I cannot describe the feeling of seeing him and it finally hitting me that we were really getting married! After that, the next best moment was our daughter breaking it down on the dance floor. She had just turned two and loves to dance. She stole the hearts of all our guests. Exchanging our vows was definitely unforgettable. We had chosen vows that included everything we wanted to say to each other, and the moment when we finally said those words was really beautiful. And I have to mention our private first dance! We had a fun first dance planned for the reception, but I wanted to share a private moment with my new husband before going to meet all our guests. I surprised him with a couple members of the band playing Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight (the first song on the playlist he played for me the night he proposed!) under the trees in the garden. It was so amazing to take those few minutes to be together dancing close, all alone.
The Pros: Visit Bianca and Ernesto's page in our Real Wedding Library for more information about the talented professionals that contributed to the wedding.
 Thank you for sharing your spectacular day with us Bianca and Ernesto! Our best wishes for your new life together! Readers, you can find more real wedding stories in our Real Wedding Library, along with more details from Bianca and Ernesto's big day.
What do you do when you want to ratchet your engagement photos up a notch? You call in the pros to get creative! Gorgeous LA couple Christina and Steve did just that for their recent engagement session, and with the help of photographer Kris Kan and floral designer extraordinaire Eddie Zaratsian of tic-tock Couture Florals, they created engagement photos filled with a spectacular coral, pink and orange floral backdrop, and romance galore!
From bride-to-be Christina: I have no idea where to even begin but let me tell you that Kris and Eddie made all my dreams come true. Kris was everything a girl could wish for in a photographer. He and Eddie chose the Park Plaza Hotel, and as soon as I heard about the location I was so happy. It just seemed perfect! As far as Eddie's floral designs, just look at the pictures.
Eddie and Kris saw us as a young fresh couple and the concept they came up with to show that was elegant yet simple. A perfect choice for me since those are the two qualities I'm always going for. The shoot was really just us being us, but with the addition of cameras and flowers. Kris and Eddie made it so easy for us to be ourselves and enjoy the experience to the fullest.
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