For Marina and Niccolo, an engagement shoot should show the couple as they are in their natural element. Photographer Giovanna Aprili definitely captured the couple in the most natural of elements for this Italian engagement session in the forest. From waterfall to trees as tall as skyscrapers, the couple nestled into the rich landscape to enjoy one another’s company. They celebrated their upcoming wedding without the fuss of striking a pose or holding props, and instead let the environment speak volumes of their deep connection to each other and the Earth.
Thank you to Giovanna Aprili for sharing such stunning images, and to Marina and Niccolo for sharing these intimate moments with Junebug. For more engagement inspiration, you have to see Connie and Bryan’s colorful bike engagement session.
Kimberly and Paul’s modern Santa Barbara wedding was inspired by the sleek elegance of fish scales. From the invitation design to actual koi and goldfish on site for the celebration, the fish scale motif was impeccably implemented by La Fete Weddings. The ceremony over the koi pond was such a beautifully planned aspect of the event, as the water reflected the couple and their love so clearly as they exchanged their vows.
The Couple: Kimberly and Paul
The Wedding: Santa Barbara, California
The Inspiration: “We have a very compatible design sense — we wanted a wedding that was modern and minimalist, sleek and elegant. Our main colors, aubergine and champagne, fit this theme well, while our accent color, orange, really popped to keep the design fresh and vibrant. We wanted the decor to be more architectural and structural in nature, and we emphasized elements like lighting and water, and chose flowers and plants that had more interesting visual texture, rather than romantic blooms and petals.
We came up with the fish scale motif to tie together all the various elements of our wedding — from the invitations and menus, to the koi pond at the center of our ceremony site, to the water elements and goldfish in the floral arrangements and escort card table. Additionally, the symbolism of goldfish and koi in Asian cultures, representing love, marriage, and harmonious balance was a nice homage to Paul‘s Chinese heritage. (And Kimberly‘s love for sushi.)
For the wedding day fashion, we wanted something classic with a bit of a modern flair. Kimberly immediately fell in love with the interesting lace pattern and understated elegance of Modern Trousseau Couture’s Finnley dress.Paul wore a classic & simple bespoke suit by Tailorable & Co, but also integrated a few bold accents, like purple cuff buttonhole contrast stitching and orange polka dot socks.”
The Moments: “After the ceremony finished, all the photos were taken, and the cocktail hour concluded, while the guests moved from the rooftop terrace to the downstairs ballroom for dinner, we had a few minutes to ourselves, hiding out of sight before our grand introduction as a married couple. That was the first moment we had to catch our breath and to be alone, and it was a giddy, but wonderful moment to reflect on how perfect the ceremony was, how lucky we were to have so many friends and loved ones there to support us, and how much we loved each other. While the entire wedding weekend was everything we had dreamed, after putting so much thought and time into every single detail, sharing this moment alone outside was so special.”
The Couple Recommends: “Above all else, we were incredibly happy with Colette & Kaitlin at La Fete — they helped us assemble a dream team of vendors, put together a wedding that fit our style and personalities perfectly, and ensured that everything flowed smoothly and seamlessly on the big day. They were simply amazing.
Barabra Mousouris was such an engaging and effective officiant, everyone assumed that she had known us for years, when in fact, we had mainly only spoken with her via Skype a few times, and actually, the first time that Paul met her in-person was at the rehearsal — a true testament to her abilities to get to know a couple deeply and compose a ceremony with gravitas and emotional trajectory. Ashleigh Taylor was a wonderful photographer with a bubbly personality that put everyone at ease, and captured some magical photos of us and all the guests throughout the night. Dwight Kennedy was a spectacular emcee, going well beyond his duty as bandleader to be the “producer” for the whole evening — everything from running back to the kitchen to keep the servers on time, to maintaining the energy on the dance floor and the emotional flow of the event. Nico Cervantes took in all our ambiguous, yet stringent demands for flowers and produced masterful centerpieces that brought the room together with such a high level of polish and skill, and created a stunning escort table display that created a real “wow” effect from the moment guests stepped into the room.”
Thank you so much to La Fete Weddings for sharing your inspiring wedding designs, and to Kimberly and Paul for sharing your special day with Junebug. For more modern wedding inspiration, you have to see Nicole and Fernando’s stylish modern Washington D.C. wedding.
The light was absolutely stunning throughout Julie and Tom’s laid back California wedding, and the exceptional photographers of Chaffin Cade Photography were there to capture every natural sun flare and tender moment. Bride Julie is a designer, so the aesthetics of the day were impeccable, from the sweet menus to the rustic chic place cards. The color palette for the celebration couldn’t have been better chosen, as the coral, orange, and yellow décor perfectly mimicked the sunset portraits.
The Inspiration: “I would call the overall theme: California Vintage/Rustic Chic. I grew up in LA but Tom is a recent transplant from the East Coast. He is still blown away by the rugged beauty of California and has made me appreciate it on a whole new level. The outdoors, and California landscape in particular, is very important to us so we knew we wanted to have an outdoor wedding. We also had many guests from the east coast and across the country so we wanted the event to feel uniquely California – fun, laid back, colorful, yet still elegant. I am a designer so the aesthetics of the day were obviously very important to me (and I designed all of our printed materials – invites, name cards, table number, programs, etc.) but above all else we wanted everyone to have fun, dance, and party!”
The Moments: “My favorite moment was walking down the aisle and seeing Tom at the end, teary-eyed. Tom is a musician; he plays the guitar and writes songs. We had a jazz duo play at the ceremony and I secretly asked them to learn one of Tom‘s songs that he often plays for me, which he calls my song, to play as I walked down the aisle. I had never seen Tom cry before so I knew it was a good surprise! Almost no one else knew it was one of his songs so having that as something shared between just the two of us made it even more special.”
The Couple Recommends: “Our photographers were phenomenal. They not only produced amazing photographs of the day, but they were also extremely nice and put our entire wedding party at ease. Claudia, our coordinator, really made sure our day went off without a hitch and served as a great sounding board and friend throughout the entire planning process.”
.jpg "Photographers")
