The Goals: Victoria and Jeff’s goal was to have a wedding that was true to who they were, in design as well as in feeling. They chose Santa Barbara’s Rancho Dos Pueblos as their ceremony and reception site to lend its natural beauty to their theme of rustic elegance.
The Design: The ceremony was officiated by Victoria’s brother and Jeff’s sister, and took place on a bluff framed by hills and train tracks on one side and overlooking the ocean (wow!) on the other. They were hoping that a train would go through at some point during the ceremony to make it all the more real, and sure enough, it did! I love seeing the celebratory photos during the ceremony above as everyone cheered.
The reception was set up beneath towering, up lit, two hundred year old Morton Bay fig trees, and was filled with dark wood tables topped with delicate yellow silk runners, mercury glass vases and flower arrangements of calla lilies, hydrangea and orchid from Collage Floral Design. Each table was named after an unlikely romance – pig and tiger, elephant and dog, pigeon and monkey – for Victoria’s love of fairytale animal love stories.
An elegant wedding cake from Christine Dahl Pastries, delicate favors of French macaroons from Paulette Macarons and place cards with calligraphy by Laura Hooper Calligraphy lent elegant touches to the decor while organic and rustic feeling was brought out in their wedding color palette of green, brown and pale yellow, menus printed on velum and thin pieces of wood, and wedding invitations from Megan van den Bergh for Kelly Oshiro Paper that included drawings of Rancho’s fig trees.
The Look: Victoria fell in love with her Ian Stuart wedding dress and even after trying on many, many other she came back to it as “the one” time and time again. Her bridesmaids wore flowing full-length pale yellow dresses from the Vineyard Collection at Bella Bridesmaid. Jeff wore his own tuxedo and his groomsmen wore tuxes from Men’s Wearhouse.
The Moments: Victoria and Jeff loved seeing their beautiful outdoor reception all lit up, and listening to the heartfelt and hilarious speeches given by her dad and and his brother. Victoria has one hands-down favorite moment though, “The best moment of the entire event? When Jeff saw me for the first time. When I turned the corner and locked eyes with Jeff it was the most romantic moment of my life.” So sweet!
The Pros: There are many more talented wedding professionals who helped make this wedding day a reality. To learn about all of them please visit our Real Wedding section!
The Wedding: 10.3.09 – Beltane Ranch, Glen Ellen, CA
What three adjectives best describe your wedding? Fun, intimate, romantic
What inspired your personal wedding style, and how did you incorporate your personalities into your big day? Music was a huge inspiration. We spent weeks putting together set lists for the ceremony, dinner and dancing. We wanted to hear all of our favorite music throughout the day…not the traditional music an inexperienced DJ might play. No chicken dance for us. It was great! To go along with that musical theme, our friends helped us make our wedding favors, which were magnets that looked like show tickets. They had the wedding information on them, including the date, location and what table to sit at, and our tables were named after bands we’ve seen in concert together.
I also really wanted a classic bridal look, so I went with a birdcage veil and pearls, and wore my grandmother’s wedding ring. We had a nice mix of both classic and modern. We really wanted our day to be uniquely “us,” and it was.
Looking back, what are the moments, decisions or memories that you love the most about your wedding?One of the best decisions we made was choosing the Beltane Ranchas our wedding ceremony and reception location. It was so gorgeous! We rented out the whole B&B for the weekend, so were able to have our wedding party stay with us, which was so much fun.
Another great decision was choosing Jerry and Ingrid of Jerry Yoon Photographers. They are truly amazing! I can’t even express how excited we were to see our pictures – they are artistic and fun, which is exactly what we wanted.
One other thing we love is that we have the record for the shortest ceremony among our friends and family. We love that, and so did everyone else! We wanted to minimize boredom and maximize fun. And of course picking each song we wanted to hear from beginning to end turned out great…we danced all night!
Wedding Color Palette:Shades of gray and orange with red and pink accents.
Victoria and Drew’s early summer wedding on Washington’s stunning Orcas Island, captured by talented Seattle-based photographer Jenny J, was a true Pacific Northwest celebration. Relaxed, rustic and outdoorsy, I am charmed by the country-feel of this sweet Real Wedding!
The Goals: For Victoria and Drew, the most important aspects of their wedding day were the location and the music. They wanted their big day to have a woodsy, vintage feel to it, so they chose the old-fashioned, quaint Victorian Valley Chapel for their ceremony, where every wedding is still lit by candlelight. The reception was held at Odd Fellows Hall, a historic dance hall with tall ceilings, an outdoor deck and a waterfront view of the Sound. It’s a location that is quintessentially Northwest in its design and style.
The Design: The emotional wedding ceremony was “short and sweet”, presided over by a Buddhist officiant who recited both a Celtic psalm and a poem written by William Blake.
Victoria chose a wedding color palette of gray, green and ivory, with a few bright pops of purple in the flower arrangements. Keeping with the rustic country feel of the wedding, flowers and centerpieces were kept casual and organic, in vintage wooden boxes. Guest’s place cards were made from distressed paper tags, tied with green ribbon, and table numbers were made from vintage playing cards. As evening set in, hanging lanterns and string lights lit up the room, along with twinkling tea-lights in mason jars.
Their raspberry-filled wedding cake was decorated with sprigs of ferns and pine needles and topped with a ceramic wedding topper found on Etsy. An image of a bride and groom with owl and antelope heads–the perfect choice for this couple’s woodsy Pacific Northwest theme!
The Style: Victoria’s bridal style was soft and feminine with bohemian-inspired touches. Above all, she wanted her look to blend with the beautiful natural elements on the island. Clad in a romantic and floaty Vera Wang dress, Victoria accented her look with a hair wreath by Patina Floral. Bridesmaids wore gray above-the-knee dresses from Nordstrom Bridal Boutique, accessorized with old-fashioned pearl necklaces to give their look a more vintage feel. The groom and his groomsmen were casual but stylish in their J.Crew suits.
The Moments: Victoria and Drew entered their reception to “Sweet Child of Mine” by Guns and Roses, a unique way to kick-start the party portion of the evening! They followed it up with a romantic first dance to “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young. Toasts from their wedding party throughout the night were “more emotional than we expected them to be…it was hard not to cry!”, says Victoria.
The couple spent the rest of the night dancing to great music and playing in the photo booth set up by Jenny J. It was filled with wacky props like mustaches, glasses and more–a big hit that everyone loved!
The Pros: To learn about all of the incredible wedding professionals who helped to make this wedding a reality, please visit ourReal Weddings section.
Thank you so much for sharing your charming Pacific Northwest wedding with us Victoria and Drew!
I love seeing new and imaginative ideas for wedding invitations and save-the-dates, and one fun trend that keeps catching my eye is wooden cards. Brilliant! Whether you’re planning a rustic themed wedding with lots of woodsy details, or a more classic affair that needs a natural touch, there are wooden cards being made by numerous designers for any kind of wedding style. Here are just a few of the artistic options we’ve run across…
Night Owl Paper Goods has dozens of wooden invitations, save-the-dates, reply cards and place cards, and all are fabulously eco-chic, made with sustainably harvested yellow birch. Choose a traditional monogram design, or go organic with an owl or flowering dogwood motif – there are plenty of bright and beautiful options in this sweetly modern collection!
The soft but sturdy hand-cut wood thank-you cards and stationery from Paloma’s Nest are a delightful way to send a thank-you to guests after the wedding, and a super unique gift for the bride and groom. Wouldn’t you just love to receive a card like this in the mail?
Last but not least, how great are these letterpress wood invitations from the team over at Bird and Banner? Made for a real couple’s rustic Jackson Hole, Wyoming wedding, they are perfectly suited to a cozy mountain-top celebration. So creative!
The Goals: Amanda says that “hands down”, the most important consideration was making sure their guests understood their own significance. “We made sure to connect the guests with one another and remind them time and time again, that this day was a function of bringing together the people that make up our hearts and our memories, all together in one location.”
After that, came the music. Amanda and Stephan needed a DJ who could effortlessly transition between German party music (the groom grew up in Frankfurt!), American club music, and country tunes – a very eclectic mix. Their choice was DJ Nitelife, who they fell in love with at an L.A. nightclub. Each song he chose fit who Amanda and Stephan were as a couple, one hundred percent.
Finally, the venue. Amanda and Stephan wanted a location that would stay open late into the evening and give them creative flexibility with their reception. [seven degrees] Art Gallery turned out to be the ideal space. The director of the gallery invested in their vision for the big day and gave the couple room to grow and experiment, to find their perfect fit.
The Design: The ceremony was held at sunset on the rooftop terrace and officiated by a close friend of the couple. Relatable and personal, the ceremony included advice on married-life from a book created by the women at Amanda’s bridal shower, and the German tradition of signing the marriage contract during the ceremony. When it was all said and done, Amanda and Stephan opted not to walk back down the aisle together, but had waiters bring out trays of champagne for each guest for a big group toast.
Amanda and Stephan wanted their reception to feel welcoming and sophisticated with a dash of a “party-animal” vibe. The color palette for the wedding combined aubergine and sage with silver accents like photo frames and chargers, creating a beautifully warm, rich backdrop for the festivities. Floral arrangements from French Buckets were styled with a modern blend of “bohemian, cool and architectural” details, and Amanda, who had studied world religions in college, brought in two Buddha statues, one in ivory and one in silver, for the head table.
In lieu of place cards, the couple placed framed photos of themselves with each of their guests, around the dinner tables, which served as favors and gave their event the personable, welcoming feel they were aiming for. The silver and crystal frames proved to be a real conversation starter around the tables. For the few guests, like significant others, that Amanda and Stephan had not yet met, their frames were filled with a personalized note saying how the couple looked forward to making memories with them that night.
The decadent wedding cake was the first of its kind, created by Linda Geffenney of The Confectionist. Christened Le Gateau Lavende, the French butter cake was filled with lavender whipped cream and fresh blackberries, and decorated with silver sugar pearls and a chocolate branch design. Topping the cake were branches, both chocolate and real, which were decorate with live cymbidium orchids in purple and green.
The Look: Amanda wanted a look for her wedding day that would stand the test of time. She wanted to feel classic with a little bit of a bohemian twist, and most of all, she wanted to feel like herself. Her ivory, hand-beaded, embroidered silk organza gown by Lazaro was accessorized with diamond drop earrings, a multi-strand pearl necklace and an heirloom blue crystal, pearl and silver bracelet. And let’s not forget the shoes – a pair of stunning gold lace slingbacks from Stuart Weitzman. When the reception arrived, the blushing bride changed into a dancing dress by Aidan Mattox and one-of-a-kind Boot Star white cowboy boots. The boots were an anniversary present from Stephan, who knew his future bride would want to wear white cowboy boots at her wedding, and had arranged for her to custom design a pair well in advance of even the proposal!
Stephan looked sophisticated and sharp in a black one-button tuxedo and silk ivory necktie by Hugo Boss, and a boutonniere of unbloomed ranunculus. The couple didn’t have a bridal party, but asked their brothers, both clad in black tuxedos, to serve as witnesses. The bride’s best friend, a classical singer, wore a floor-length aubergine gown while she sang during the ceremony.
Woven into the handle of the bride’s bouquet were several trinkets and meaningful pieces from family members, including a locket from the bride’s great-grandmother and namesake, a necklace and rosary from the bride’s grandmother, and a seashell fossil, which held a deep personal meaning to the bride herself.
The Moments: Dancing the night away was one of the most memorable parts of the day according to Amanda. “I’ve never experienced such unleashed joy with a group of people I have loved more. The slow, sweet dancing where it seemed like we were suddenly all alone, and the wild, jumping in unison, singing at the top of our lungs, in the biggest arm-over-shoulder circle of friends you could ever imagine, to Sweet Caroline. Even my mother danced with me. I promise you I have never seen my mother dance a day in her life!”
But far and away the most romantic moment of the day? Walking down the aisle. “I was so overwhelmed with joy that I bawled the entire way down the aisle, stopping to hug one friend, squeeze another friend’s hand, hug and kiss my grandpa, hug my mom, hug my mother-in-law. It was just sheer joy and emotion. I didn’t plan on hugging anyone, I just couldn’t help it – the place was exploding with love!“
In a surprise moment during the reception, Stephan’s parents presented the bride and groom with a German wedding tradition. Two friends were holding a giant white canvas painted with a red heart and the couple’s names and wedding date. Says Amanda, “this thing was enormous. It was taller than us and wider than the two of us standing next to each other with our arms extended!” The couple was handed teeny tiny nail scissors and had to cut the heart out from the canvas together, a moment that everyone found very entertaining!
The Pros: To learn about all of the incredible wedding professionals who helped to make this wedding a reality, please visit ourReal Weddings section.
Thank you so much for sharing your amazing wedding with us, Amanda and Stephan!
If you’re planning your own wedding in Southern California or Seattle, don’t miss our trusted Plan Your Wedding Hotlist!
Aleah and Nick Valley and their team at The Good Life Special Events sent over this world traveler style photoshoot they put together with a talented team of wedding pros, and we love the eclectic and vintage collection of details they used in their tablescape! Antique cameras, binoculars, suitcases, books and tropical flowers tell the story of such a romantic time gone by. What fun inspiration for a sunny afternoon wedding reception celebrating a true spirit of adventure!
From Aleah:
“Our vision for this world traveler-inspired wedding celebration was to take our bride and groom back to an era when traveling was truly seen as an incredibly romantic adventure. We wanted to showcase unique ideas for a wedding reception luncheon and also non-traditional wedding reception attire. Using Sail Bay in Mission Beach, San Diego as our backdrop, we utilized some magical old pieces from our grandfathers to create a true worldly feeling. Old binoculars, a great vintage camera, luggage, and a decades-old barometer really helped to emit a classic feeling of flying, cruising, and boating in true old-school fashion.
We kept the florals simple and streamlined and drew from tropical destinations. Using pincushions and breezy palms, we made them look like specimens in simple glass vessels, showcasing their true beauty. Gold rimmed low ball glasses were adorned with eclectic vintage spoons collected from travels; Hawaii, Norway, England, and Alaska. A gauzy overlay was draped atop khaki linens and lovely turquoise Tandoori-style napkins were cinched with wooden napkin rings. Momental Designs created our delicious looking menus and tied in our traveling motif with an old world map. The place cards were personalized from vintage Air Mail envelopes discovered at an antique shop. We tailored them with our bride and grooms favorite locales like Paris, London, Dubai, and Hong Kong.
Our brides vintage-inspired gold brocade dress was from Priscilla of Boston and the groom donned Tommy Bahama pants, shirt, hat, and a luxe leather weekender bag. After their sophisticated luncheon celebration they sailed off into the sunset on a sweet little sailboat to begin their next adventure together!”
Thanks to all the talented businesses who participated and shared their work!
What fun! This backyard barbecue wedding was submitted to us by the bride and groom and I can’t get enough of all their creative details, fabulous photos and the family involvement that brought the day to life!
Rachael and David were married in May in a traditional Catholic ceremony at the beautiful, historic San Buena Ventura Mission in Ventura, CA, and Heather Jagger of Jagger Photography was there to capture every special moment.
After the ceremony the couple threw a super stylish backyard barbecue themed reception at Rachael’s grandfather’s ranch. The property had been in major disrepair, so during the year leading up to the wedding, Rachael’s whole family pitched in to refurbish the house and grounds in time for the big celebration. Among many other things, they rebuilt the rock walls, hung a new tire swing, repainted the barn, built a corral, installed irrigation and planted 5000 square feet of grass. Wow! As Rachael called it, “big time family camaraderie”!
For the reception, Rachael worked with wedding coordinator Heather Ham and used her own skills as an interior designer to come up with loads of sweet details in a navy blue and emerald green color palette. She chose graphic patterns on the table runners and place cards, block monogram letters as centerpieces, white flowers from Floral Designs by Roni and gave brightly colored sandals, pashminas and candy away as favors. I love the mixture of all those modern prints!
Thank you so much for sharing your wedding with us Rachael and David! It was absolutely beautiful!
To see more from this wedding and many, many others, be sure to check out our Real Weddings library.
Today’s Real Wedding is sure to warm your heart and wow your eyes! It’s an intimate family celebration full of incredible opulence and sweet, sweet sentiment, and we just couldn’t love it any more!
The beautiful bride is Grace, mother of Southern California event planner Angel Swanson of Events of Love and Splendor. When Grace and Raj were planning their big day, their goal was to really treasure a luxurious, joy-filled night with their families and very best friends, and to make each guest feel pampered and well-appreciated. Grace turned the planning over to her her daughter Angel and let her run with all of their ideas. “I trusted her completely with the plans and it obviously paid off. I told her to surprise me with some things, so I felt like I was truly a guest at my own wedding.” The wedding was photographed by the talented Trista Lerit, filmed by Elysium Productions, and took place at Santa Barbara’s famed Bacara Resort and Spa, where it was a leisurely and relaxed day from the beginning to the end. Grace treated herself to some time at the spa the morning of the wedding, and even had acupuncture performed in her room before she began getting ready.
Grace and Raj chose to have a traditional Christian wedding ceremony outside on the lawn overlooking the ocean, and they added some special readings as well – personal vows, a sonnet read by one of Grace’s daughters, and love letters that they had written to each other specifically for that day read by their officiant. “Raj is a complete romantic, and hearing his heartfelt words read aloud was so moving.” The color palette for the ceremony was pure white, to contrast beautifully with the deep blue sky. I love the happy little tags on each of the white Chiavari chairs, and the amazing pink and purple dresses worn by Grace’s daughters. How perfect that they walked her down the aisle!
At the reception they kicked up the excitement with a color palette of rich jewel tones like eggplant, raspberry, plum, and gold, and stunning floral arrangements by Camilla Svensson-Burns. “We used an incredible amount of fuschia Phalaenopsis orchids in our table scape… I wanted a lot of drama in the room. Even with the small guest count and single dining table, I wanted the look to be very over-the-top and impressive.” The guests all sat at one large table, family style, and the wedding favors at each place setting were boxes of Paulette Macaroons tied with antique brass lockets saying “Merci” inside. The menus were hand calligraphed by Crystal Kluge and mounted on dupioni silk-wrapped plaques, and the place cards were set inside collected wine corks. At one point during dinner, one of their dear friends stood up and sang them a song, and the rest of the guests joined in a capella. For Grace and Raj it was one of the most sentimental and romantic moments of the night.
Thank you for sharing this spectacular event with us Grace and Raj! We are honored to be able to feature it on our site. For more information about this wedding and the professionals who helped make it happen, please visit our Real Weddings section… and enjoy!
Cari and Stephen live in Chicago, but they planned a destination wedding in Southern California to give their friends and family a taste of the Pacific Coast. Their wedding was held at the Montage – Laguna Beach, a stunning oceanfront resort and spa (and one of our new Southern California member businesses)! The grounds at Montage are beautiful all on their own so Cari and Stephen chose a spring color palette of celery green and aqua blue to compliment the season and the ocean view. Wedding coordinator Jeannie Savage and her team at Details Details Wedding and Event Planning made the event look straight out of a storybook, and photographer extraordinaire Ira Lippke captured every delightful moment.
The ceremony lawn was decorated with flowering trees and the color palette was brought in with blue and green pashminas hanging on the backs of the chairs and flowing fabric on the huppah. The ceremony itself was what Cari calls “modern Jewish” incorporating traditional elements with personal extras that felt a bit more contemporary, like vows they wrote themselves and spoke to each other for the first time during the ceremony.
A cocktail hour followed the ceremony, and Cari’s mom had arranged for an image of Cari’s beloved dog Linus (who couldn’t make the cross country trip!) to be carved into an ice sculpture as a fun surprise. How cute! After cocktails everyone moved inside to the ballroom which had also been decorated with blossoming trees, and lush flower arrangements from Fiori Fresco Special Events. Creative blue and green lighting lit up the room and pewter accents on the tabletops, menus and place cards added an elegant touch. The band, West Coast Music, got everybody in the celebratory spirit which the happy couple was thrilled about. “They were better than any wedding band I could ever imagine!” Since this was a weekend long destination wedding, Cari and Stephen had already greeted most of their guests as they arrived the night before, so at their reception they weren’t worried about missing anyone. Instead they were able to relax, eat, dance and enjoy every minute of the party!
Thank you Cari and Stephen for sharing your wedding with us! Be sure to check out our Real Weddings section to learn about all the vendors who helped create this dream event!
Today’s Real Wedding couple is so beautiful, and their traditional Indian wedding was so full of richly colored details and meaningful traditions I just can’t stop looking at all the photos. What a delight!
Ritu and Rishi were married in July in a traditional Hindu wedding that was made up of a number of joyus celebrations over multiple days. First off was the Mehndi party where Ritu was surrounded by the women she loves and her hands and feet were decorated with intricate designs for the wedding. Watching a Mehndi artist at work is a stunning sight to witness and the results simply couldn’t be any more beautiful. They say the darker the Mehndi turns out, the more your mother-in-law will love you! What an amazing way to begin the wedding festivities.
The Sangeet, another pre-wedding celebration, was thrown by Rishi’s family at The Woodmark Hotel, and was all about singing, dancing, drumming, laughing and celebrating the upcoming wedding. According to Ritu, “It was almost like a mini reception, 250 people attended as opposed to the 375-400 at the wedding!” There were dance performances, traditional songs, creative food stations and a color theme that included lots of bright colors like fuchsia, purple and turquoise.
On the day of the wedding ceremony, Ritu and Rishi got ready with their families and then met up to take fun photos all around downtown Seattle with Angie and Ashley of One Thousand Words Photography, which was one of Rishi’s very favorite parts of the day. When it came time for the ceremony to begin, Rishi rode on horseback through the city, dressed in spectacular traditional Indian clothing, and was surrounded by his family and friends as they sang and danced him to his waiting bride and her family at the Seattle Sheraton. Their ceremony was traditionally Hindu until the very end when they were officially announced as husband and wife, and Rishi was asked to “kiss the bride”.
It was important to Ritu and Rishi to make their wedding truly unique and to combine the formal with the fun so everyone had a good time. At the reception they had a special entrance for the groomsmen and bridesmaids to get the party started. They had a fake band dress up first as the Beastie Boys and then as AC/DC and the bridesmaids entered the party to Girls, girls, girls and the groomsmen walked in to Men in Black. There was a formal sit-down dinner as well as lots of dancing to Indian music, and the most sentimental moments came when their fathers gave their speeches. “Rishis Dad shared a great story about how each time Rishi’s Mom got pregnant, they had a name picked out in case they had a girl. It was to be Ritu, but they ended up having two boys. However, now Ive come into their lives and they have their Ritu.” How sweet! Ritu’s Dad got so emotional that her Mom had to go stand by his side as he spoke. “It was just so sweet to see my parents that way.” To brighten up the large Sheraton ballroom and bring summer indoors, they chose a color palette of turquoise, orange, gold and off-white, beautiful Indian inspired invitations, programs and place cards from Paper Moxie, and richly colored flowers from the talented Loves Me Flowers.
Thank you for telling us all about your incredible wedding Ritu and Rishi! We are smitten! To see the rest of the details and wedding professional involved in this wedding and many, many others, be sure to visit our Real Weddings section!
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