WEDDING BLOG

(Images from WildflowerLinens.com)

Wildflower Linens, one of the nations top special event linen rental businesses, invited us to visit their showroom in Los Angeles and from the moment we stepped through their doors we were nothing short of blown away! Young Martin, Wildflower’s owner, began her career as a fashion designer. When she transitioned her work into tabletop linens she truly transformed the industry. Young approaches her linen designs just as she would fashion. Each season brings a new collection with a theme, a color palette and a visual cohesiveness. She incorporates the highest quality fabrics, many hand beaded and embroidered, and thinks ahead to the trends she wants to set for the future, not ones that already exist in the marketplace.

Whether you’re interested in a wedding color palette of rich, creamy and warm hues…

(Images from WildflowerLinens.com

…or bold, bright and daring combinations, Wildflower Linens has tabletop decor like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

(Images from WildflowerLinens.com)

Inside the showroom we were incredibly impressed by the impeccably organized displays that showed off each individual fabric, while at the same time inspired creative exploration. Our brains were crackling with ideas for color combinations and themes! And the ties to fashion were evident everywhere you looked, but especially in the ruffled, layered, corseted and perfectly tailored chair covers. Amazing!

Just steps away from the beautiful showroom, we entered another world; their massive warehouse that literally took our breath away! With huge work areas for their highly skilled in house tailors, an incredible organizational system, eco-friendly dry cleaning capabilities, industrial irons and steamers, and rack upon rack of linens it was a sight to behold.

Young and her hard working staff were so helpful and welcoming I can’t imagine it would be anything but a joy to work with them on a wedding. Luckily for all of us, Wildflower Linens can ship their products anywhere, and are more than happy to work with both wedding coordinators and independent brides to come up with the perfect table scape for any size event and budget. Check out their website for contact information or to schedule an appointment at one of their three California showrooms, and take a peek at their blog to find out what genius things Young and her team are working on next!

During our week in L.A. we were graciously invited to join public relations and marketing guru Michele Shuman at Owen’s Market, a neighborhood grocery shop owned by celebrity wedding planner extraordinaire, Mindy Weiss. Owen’s has had a long history of quality since it opened in the 1950s and is well loved by a grateful community of Westsiders who grew up with it as a part of their lives. Recently, in order to ensure that it never lost it’s charm, Mindy purchased the market and gave it a detailed revamping that only her passion and talent could create! 

Outside you’ll find bright blues and greens in the retro signage inviting you through the doors…

…and inside it’s a wonderland of organic produce, specialty foods, locally made baked goods, butcher meats, wine and spirits, and thoughtful gifts. The friendly guys grilling bar-b-que just out front, the made-to-order sandwiches and the fresh salad bar made me wish I could drop in for lunch every day, and the sweet and thoughtful signs throughout the store made it a joy to shop (and photograph) every single aisle. We finally pulled ourselves away after purchasing an assortment of delectable pickles, relishes, candies and treats to take home to our guys (so they can understand why we don’t stop talking and talking and talking about it!) It’s a shopping experience that warms your heart and makes you appreciate the good things in life in a way that shopping at a mega-store simply cannot touch. Thank you Mindy, for bringing us all a new classic. We can’t wait to go back for more!

Junebug’s week in LA was jam-packed and so much fun, I hardly know where to begin to tell you about it! Luckily, being the photographers we are, we had cameras in hand every step of the way. We stayed in a beautiful house on Newport Beach and although we were running from appointment to appointment we did manage to catch a few stunning sunsets and we loved watching the surfers who were in the water from morning ’til night. (Yes, that’s us in the photo below, on our patio directly next to the boardwalk and the sand! Heaven!)

On one of my favorite afternoons we had some time to kill between meetings in Beverly Hills so we had a delicious lunch on the patio at Le Pain Quotidien, peeked inside the Helen Ficalora shop next door (I wear one of her gold “C” monogrammed pendants nearly every day) and then loaded up on cupcakes across the street at Sprinkles. Yum! Could it be any cuter in there?

(images above by Junebug, Le Pain Quotidien and Helen Ficalora)

We met up with our dear friend and super talented wedding consultant Stacy Kvam of SK Wedding and Event Design at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna, where we fell in love with the spectacular views and gorgeous floral arrangements. I can’t wait to go back and stay there, and to see a wedding take place in any of their multiple event spaces!

We drove south to scope out the Del Mar Racetrack where we’ll be shooting an upcoming Fashion Report and got unbelievably excited about all the visual possibilities.

And while we were down that direction we checked out some beautiful reception sites including the fun and beachy Powerhouse Park…

…and the relaxing and luxurious L’Auberge Del Mar.

Throughout the week we were also lucky enough to spend some quality time with one of our new favorite people, Wedding Consultant Cassandra Santor. Cassandra is everything you would want in a coordinator and a friend: smart, savvy, sweet, creative and genuinely passionate about you and your wedding dreams. She’s worked for Martha Stewart and Mindy Weiss and is an absolute wealth of wedding knowledge. We were honored to finally meet her in person, and are now so grateful to call her our friend!

We’ve got lots more to share, so stay tuned all week for more of our LA adventures, including Lehr and Black Invitations, Robin Layton Photography, Wildflower Linens, Raj Tents and Owen’s Market by Mindy Weiss. Oh the inspiration!