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Richly colored flowers, lush succulents and a gorgeous mountain backdrop made this wedding of couple Marney and Booth at the Arizona Desert Botanical Garden absolutely breathtaking!
The Couple: Marney and Booth
The Wedding: 4.9.11 - Desert Botanical Garden Phoenix, AZ
What three adjectives best describe your wedding? Flexible, playful and uniting
What was your wedding color palette? Avocado and natural kraft
What inspired your personal wedding style, and how did you incorporate your style and personalities into your big day? When we giddily called my parents to tell them the exciting news that we were engaged, my mom said, “Shall I book the Desert Botanical Garden?” We secured the venue within the week! The garden is absolutely breathtaking with statuesque cacti framing a backdrop of vibrant red rock mountains. We wanted our wedding decor and details to feel natural and local, as if they had sprung up from the garden itself. The florals were succulents found in the surrounding desert, and a green, twine and kraft paper palate kept wedding details from overshadowing the beauty of the garden. When rain rolled in and temperatures dropped 30 degrees, we overnighted 70 avocado pashminas for our lady guests. They even matched the desert!
We wanted our guests to have a truly unique experience that was chic, yet approachable and fun. Our verbiage and homemade wedding favors were often cheeky. I'm a big DIY crafter, so I loved designing the components myself - thank
goodness for family and friends to help stamp, glue, tie and cut!
Looking back, what are the moments, decisions or memories that you love the most about your wedding? Where to start? We both loved so many moments of the day - spending the morning in anticipation with our friends and family, seeing each other for the first time and saying our vows. But our first dance was a clear winner. We worked with a fabulous choreographer and danced to the happy tune, "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. As we twirled and giggled, our guests circled round and clapped in unison to the music. It was the perfect kick-off to the celebrations that ensued.
What piece of advice would you give to a bride planning her wedding today? Know it won't all go as planned - whether it’s uncooperative weather, making the rounds to all your tables or snapping a candid with your grandfather. But it will most likely be the best darn day of your life. Just relax, be present and enjoy your guests and each other. It goes so fast, it's not worth fretting about anything once the event begins!
The Wedding Team:
Photographer: Hollye Schumacher
Event Planner: Victoria Canada Weddings and Events
Ceremony & Reception Venue: Desert Botanical Garden
Videographer: Bright Bokeh
Officiant: Hon. Andrew Hurwitz
Invitation Designer: Mr. Boddington's Studio
Catering: Santa Barbara Catering
Florist: Petal Pusher
Wedding Cake: Honeymoon Sweets
Wedding Dress: Carolina Herrera
Bridesmaids' Apparel and Designs: Clutches - Emerson Fry
Groom and Groomsmen Apparel and Accessories: Groom's shoes - Allen Edmonds, Groomsmen suits and ties - Macy's
Hair and Make-up: Corinna Cooke
Live Music: The Walkens
Transportation: Real London Bus Co.
Dance Instruction: Ballroom Dance Chicago
Wedding Favors: Handmade British wedding crackers
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals
Wedding Rings: Simply Brilliant
Marney and Booth, your cheerful wedding was absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
Delight yourself with more uniquely inspired wedding stories in our Real Weddings library!
 While planning our Fashion Report photo shoot that took place last Friday (and that we'll have up on the site soon!) I've had men's wear for weddings on my mind, so when I learned about the online shop The Grunion Run I was excited to see another great resource for fun men's fashion. Based in L.A. and run by husband and wife team Kevin and Yun, The Grunion Run offer grooms and groomsmen "a convenient and affordable way to find unique, stylish, non-traditional groomsmen apparel that would be great both for and after the wedding." If you're looking for apparel or accessories for your groom or groomsmen, check out their website to see for yourself!
Today's beachy, tropical wedding was a dream for couple Leigh and Brian! A dream they had long held of a romantic destination wedding, and a dream to plan because the incredible team from Tropical Occasions - Aimee Monihan and Alessandra Silveira - were there to help with all of the long-distance planning. The day ended up being everything they'd hoped, and was beautifully captured by Julie Comfort of Comfort Studio. Enjoy this little vacation!
The Couple: Leigh and Brian
The Wedding: 3.10.12 - Cala Luna Point - Guanacaste, Costa Rica
What were the top three priorities for you in planning your wedding? Having everyone we love in one place together; getting the entire hotel to ourselves for the weekend; and enjoying good food and delicious cocktails!
What wedding traditions or cultural traditions did you incorporated into your wedding and what did they mean to you? Even though we don’t consider ourselves to be “traditional” there were definitely some wedding traditions that were very important to us. One, in particular, meant a lot to me. I did not want Brian to see me at all before he saw me in my gown walking with my dad down the aisle. I’ve thought of that moment for so long; the look on his face when he would see me for the first time. That is always one of my favorite moments in a wedding, so I was really intent on not seeing each other until the ceremony. We also really wanted to do a first dance and have father/daughter and mother/son dances.
Were there any places where you “broke the rules” in your wedding planning? Why and how did you do that? Not really, although, when we first explained our "destination" wedding idea to our parents, they were less than thrilled. We went back and forth a lot between doing a small backyard wedding at home or doing a wedding in Costa Rica. From the very beginning, we knew a destination wedding was what we really wanted. But, we also knew that we wanted our parents to be happy as well. In the end, we followed our hearts and actually heard, “You guys were right!” from both sets of parents! Even now, months later, they continue to tell us how happy they are that we stuck to what we truly wanted all along.
What was your biggest wedding planning success? Trusting the people we were working with! Planning a destination wedding can be especially tricky because we weren’t able to be in the places to visualize where the tables would be, where the flowers would go, how the ceremony would be set up, etc. For example, we were supposed to take a trip to Costa Rica in November to check out the hotel where our guests were staying and where our reception would take place. Unfortunately, we had a passport issue and had to wait until January to go, which seemed so close to our March 10 wedding! Needless to say, we were really concerned about not having enough time to finish everything that needed to get done while in Costa Rica. Our wedding planners - Tropical Occasions - were so fantastic and eased our minds, ensuring us that everything would work out. All the people we worked with, from the planners to the hotel staff were simply the best. We definitely would not have had such an amazing wedding without all of their hard work.
What was the most important thing that you learned through the wedding planning process and what would you tell other brides-to-be? Don’t stress! The planning process is supposed to be fun, so do all that you can to enjoy every moment because it will go fast! Take one thing at a time and really look at the big picture. Getting married is about more than just that day, it is truly about merging two lives into one. Even if things don’t go just as you might have liked, in the end you married the love of your life!
The Wedding Team:
Photographer: Julie Comfort of Comfort Studio
Event Planner: Aimee Monihan and Alessandra Silveira - Tropical Occasions
Ceremony/Reception Venue: Cala Luna Hotel and Villas
Officiant: Groom's Aunt - Bonnie Mallin
Catering: Cala Luna
Florist: Laura Sanchez - Stylosy Flores
Wedding Dress: Martina Liana
Bridal Accessories: Earrings - Tashka by Beatrice at Urban Details, Shoes - Christian Louboutin
Bridesmaids' Apparel and Accessories: Anthropologie
Groom and Groomsmen Apparel and Accessories: J.Crew and Vineyard Vines
Hair and Make-up: Diego Alfarro
DJ: Stephen Denton
Transportation: 3 Monkies
Favors: Costa Rica gift bags - Tropical Occassions
Rentals: Cabo Luna Event Rentals
Rings: Spring Lake Jewelers
Leigh and Brian, your luxurious Costa Rica wedding is absolutely breathtaking! Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
To learn more about wedding professionals from across the world, check out our World's Best Planners & Designers library!
If you follow wedding design, or have a sweet tooth of any sort, there's a good chance you know of dessert table guru, Amy Atlas, and her incredible dessert table creations. Amy has dreamed up and created countless inventive, delightful and delicious dessert tables for weddings, parties and events of all kinds, and now she's compiled hundreds of her unique ideas, recipes and DIY projects in a new book, Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It.
To help you, our dear readers, make your wedding dessert dreams come true, we're thrilled to be giving away a copy of Amy's new book along with a $100 gift certificate to one of her favorite sources for candy, CandyWarehouse.com! Candy Warehouse offers a huge assortment of candy that is perfect for creating beautiful candy and dessert displays - they even allow you to shop for candy by color, and they give tips in a series of how-to videos! To enter to win this fabulous prize combination, simply leave us a comment here letting us know what you're excited to have as the "sweets" for your wedding day, and we'll randomly choose a winner on Monday, May 14th, 2012.
I can't wait to hear all the sweetness you're dreaming up. Yum! Big, big thanks to Amy Atlas and candywarehouse.com for their generosity!
When you see Eleftheria and Daniel's elegant, romantic wedding, you'll never guess what their week before had been like. Eleftheria and Daniel had more than their fair share of challenges to overcome in getting to their wedding celebration, but thanks to their loved ones and some very talented professionals, the day was the funky, fun soiree they had dreamed of. They treasured every single moment, knowing that each person there, and life itself, is precious.
The Goals: Eleftheria and Daniel had two top priorities in planning their wedding day - they wanted to start their new life together in the Greek Orthodox church she was raised in, and then they wanted a fantastic party to celebrate! It was important to them that their guests have an evening of fun revelry, so they made sure the music kept everyone moving and that there was plenty of food and drink to keep the energy level up throughout the celebration. The couple had the extra challenge of losing their caterer three days before the wedding, but are eternally gratefully that Crystal Bay Caterers stepped in, took over the job, and just blew everyone away with the amazing meal they produced in three days!
The Design: The couple describe their day as soft, elegant, and funky! They chose a white, lavender and gray color palette for a romantic look that was also modern and clean. They incorporated the soft purple shade on the ties for all of the men, the candy bar, and even had guests throw actual lavender flowers as they exited the stunning Greek Orthodox church. The beautiful antique car they took to the reception was the result of a happy accident and a little gumption...Eleftheria saw someone driving it down the road one day and actually stopped him to ask if he'd chauffeur their wedding. I love a bride that knows what she wants and makes it happen!
The Look: Eleftheria loved everything about her breathtaking Vera Wang gown and it's layers and layers of silk. She accented it with a pair of blue Badgley Mishka shoes that were the color of the Florida sea. It was the perfect combination to create the simple and elegant look she was going for. She also wore "something old" - a pair of earrings her parents gave her when she graduated college - and "something borrowed" - a Greek keepsake called a filakto. It belonged to her maid-of-honor, who had also worn it on her own wedding day. Eleftheria kept the look understated for her bridal party with pale lavender dresses; but then added a splash of funky style with layers of draped pearl necklaces for her girls.
The Moments: For Eleftheria and Daniel, their wedding day was bittersweet. They lost three loved ones the week of the wedding which was devastating, and also meant many other dear family and friends were not able to attend their special day. It was a reminder of how precious life is, and made their first look, first dance, and Eleftheria's dance with her father all the more memorable. They said that it was so important that they just be present, step away to take it all in and soak up every moment. Eleftheria said "At the end of the day, we knew our loved ones that we lost were shining down on us! That made us smile!" The Pros: Check out Eleftheria and Daniel's page in our Real Weddings Library for more about the talented team that helped to create the couple's elegant wedding day.
What a gorgeous day, Eleftheria and Daniel! Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
We love diving fully into the fashion world now and then at Junebug to produce inspirational photo shoots for our Fashion Report section, and tomorrow we've got an awesome one we can't wait to tackle! This time it's all about the guys - men's wear! We've partnered with the wedding team at Nordstrom to showcase their many looks for grooms and groomsmen, and our incredibly talented friends at J. Garner Studios will be capturing the magic all day long. Come follow along live tomorrow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (@christyweber) for a behind the scenes look as we shoot all that manly fashion magic!
Here's a little sneak peek at one of the looks we're working with - a modern approach to a classic tuxedo. (Love those shoes and cufflinks!) Thanks Nordstrom!
Tuxedo: Armani Collezioni 'Giorgio'
Shirt: Armani Collezioni Trim Fit Tuxedo Shirt
Ties: David Donahue Silk Black and WhiteTie and Calibrate Satin Tie in Black
Cufflinks: David Donahue Sterling Silver Cuff Links
Pocket Square: Michael Kors Pocket Square in black and white
Watch: Movado 'Large Bold' Bracelet Watch in black
Shoes: Salvatore Ferragamo 'Party' Slip-Ons
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