Simply Modern Weddings

When I was 10 years old, my mom went on a trip and brought back a beautiful snow globe for me that played the tune to “you light up my life”. Anytime I hear that song, I remember my mom singing the song to me as she turned the music key to the snow globe. Sadly, after all these years, I have no idea where that snow globe went. sorry mom!

What “lights up my life” now? Specialty lighting!!! Oh yes, nothing gets me going like up-lighting and pin-spotting, and all the little goodies to add warmth and depth to your venue and make your wedding truly stand out. One thing I have learned in this business is that lighting and linens can totally make your decor really pop. Nothing at all against floral, but I look at floral as the accessory to the little black dress (which is your linen and lighting). So they all work hand in hand to make this outfit (wedding design) spectacular! Oh…don’t you worry; we will talk about my obsession with linen in a later post!

Okay yes I am a cheater, because I didn’t even do lighting for my wedding. (I know, I know!) My ballroom was very unique as it had reddish, mahogany walls…and my wedding colors were white and aqua blue. So I hoped lighting could “fix” the wall color. I remember asking Preston Bailey about this dilemma when I met him at a bridal show…and he said “honey short of painting those walls, no amount of lighting will change that red color…now you could fabric drape the walls and then you can do lighting, but I don’t know if that’s in your budget.” So what is a cost-conscious girl to do? How do I pull of that same warmth that specialty lighting brings to the decor? Lots and lots of candles!!! Oh yes, I stocked up on almost 200 candles to decorate my 50 guest wedding. Trust me, if you can’t squeeze lighting in your budget…this is definitely the way to go!!

Below are some photos to give you an example of various lighting ideas:

Now here is some dreamy blue lighting from the knot

Look at the warmth of this wedding at the Ritz shot by super-cool Boutwell Studio!

This photo is courtesy of Rancho Las Lomas, the candlelighting gives such a glow to the room

Here is a cake shot from my own wedding shot by HyStudio! (notice those reddish walls)

We met Sammy and Nicole at our church about 2 years ago. Last year Sammy and Nicole had a beautiful garden setting wedding at Sherman Gardens in Corona Del Mar. Nicole had such a wonderful vision for her wedding day: it was all about beauty and elegance. One Sunday after church, we spent hours looking for that “perfect” location to fit this vision, only to pick the first location we went to: Sherman Gardens. The Pascal’s Catering staff did such a wonderful job with the food, and their service was amazing. Look at her beautiful linens provided by Wildflower Linens! (oh I am a sucker for linens!)

As guests arrived to the wedding, they were treated to champagne with strawberries. When the ceremony was over, the staff was ready with passed wine as guests entered into the cocktail reception. It was truly an elegant affair! Later on in the evening, guests were entertained with the music and dances of Eritrea, Sammy’s native country in Africa. The fun didn’t stop that night, Sammy’s parents hosted a traditional Eritrean wedding celebration at their home the following day. It was a wonderful weekend of love and 2 beautiful celebrations!

Happy Anniversary to you both and best wishes on your pregnancy, you both are going to make such wonderful parents!!!

A few weeks ago I blogged about Sarah & Alfonso’s beautiful Sunday wedding at Park Prive in Costa Mesa. Sarah and Alfonso were such a pleasure to work with…very sweet couple!

One of their good friends is an up and coming wedding photographer and she sent me these beautiful detail collages of images that she shot during their wedding. Her name is Kim with Kim Le Photography and I already know that she is going places with work like this!

I love how Sarah used the ivory, green, and chocolate colors to make her wedding “pop” but it was still very simple and chic at the same time. It was absolutely amazing! Of course the beautiful flowers are from Christine at The Spiraled Stem.

For more images from their “simple chic” wedding click here to see the slideshow created by Sarah and Alfonso’s wedding photographer Memories by Michael.

Congratulations Sarah and Alfonso!!

Last year Lucy and Russell had an absolutely beautiful September wedding. I still remember guests sipping drinks during the cocktail reception on the ocean terrace of Casa Romantica in San Clemente, raving about the beautiful wedding and location! The ceremony was at St. Edwards the Confessor in Dana Point and afterwards all the guests made their way over to Casa Romantica for the reception. Lisa Wagoner with Iva Lee’s Catering was an absolute doll to work with…and their food was amazing! (Make sure to check out their restaurant in San Clemente)

Lucy was another one of my super organized brides! She hired me on at the last minute when she realized that she needed someone to tackle all the details on her wedding day. I remember laughing at her as she met with me and handed my several lists and spreadsheets for her wedding. Lucy and Russ were such an easy going couple and I am so glad to have worked with them on their special day!

Below are some of their beautiful photos taken by Troy and Marjorie over at Imagery Concepts.

This weekend I am headed out to Pasadena to do the wedding of our dear friends Candice and Gentry.

Candice is also a wedding planner and she works in wedding sales at a golf course in Long Beach. So you know her wedding is going to ROCK! Candice and I first met years ago (before we were engaged), while we were interning with another wedding planner, so I am so excited that her day has finally arrived! I feel so honored to be there for her special day, and so very excited to see all the special details come together!

Stay tuned for some amazing photos from this Southern Soiree! Below is their engagement photo shot by Sean Masterson.

This weekend I am headed out to Pasadena to do the wedding of our dear friends Candice and Gentry.

Candice is also a wedding planner and she works in wedding sales at a golf course in Long Beach. So you know her wedding is going to ROCK! Candice and I first met years ago (before we were engaged), while we were interning with another wedding planner, so I am so excited that her day has finally arrived! I feel so honored to be there for her special day, and so very excited to see all the special details come together!

Stay tuned for some amazing photos from this Southern Soiree! Below is their engagement photo shot by Sean Masterson.

A big trend lately have been the day-after photo sessions (aka trash the dress) where the bride and groom will take fun/crazy photos after the wedding day. There are a couple great reasons to consider doing a day-after session with your photographer. 1) It eases the stress of having to get as many photos of the both of you on the wedding day. 2) Great way to get some totally fun, artistic photos of you and your hubby in a unique location other than your wedding venue.

My husband and I decided to take day after photos after being inspired by the fab Jessica Claire’s “We Did” photos! I emailed my photographer to get his thoughts on it and he was very excited to try something different. We ended up taking our photos at Ocean Beach, Chrissy Field, and Embarcadero area in San Francisco. It was cool because we were able to get the beach look, the Golden Gate area, and the city shots….all a completely different look from our wedding venue. It was sooo fun to dress back up in our wedding attire and go romping around SF to take photos, without the constraints of time or worrying if my dress would get dirty. (hence the term Trash the Dress!)

So does your dress actually get trashed? I guess that depends on how wild you get! My dress was a bit dirty…but nothing that a little cleaning didn’t solve. After you get your dress cleaned, you can store it in your closet or donate it to a charity like Brides Against Breast Cancer.

Inspired yet? Below is a photo from my day-after shoot with HyStudio!

it is really nice wrapping paper! So imagine my delight when I read about Whimsy Press from the Hostess with the Mostess blog. Ooooh so many different themes to choose from: weddings, holidays, kids wrap, and even wrapping paper for the boys!

They also have other hot items to match your paper: ribbon, notecards, stickers, and notebooks. Oh, a girl could go crazy on their website. Soooo, why not find a local retailer that carries the Whismy Press line and go crazy in the store. I know that I plan to! Here are a few of my favs:

Wedding wrap (and it’s blue!)

Tis the Season….

Can’t forget the video game guys….

Okay….yes I am officially OBSESSED with this color!

Some of you may know that my wedding was in Northern CA this past July 14th. My totally AWESOME photographer HyStudio blogged our wedding photos today! I am sooo excited because we had our engagement photos done with Hy and we love-love-love his work…so I have been dying to see our wedding photos. (now I am just antsy for our day-after photos we took in SF!) You can check out HyStudio blog by clicking here.

Below is one of my favorites:

Both Lisa and Matt are serious wine lovers. When Lisa first interviewed me, we ended up getting getting off topic of the wedding details and decided to just chat about our love of wine the rest of the time. (I think it ended up being well over a 2 hour meeting!) From that moment, I had a place for her in my heart…I mean come on, she loves wine!

Staying true to their love of wine, Lisa and Matt wanted to encorporate these details into their wedding at the Fullerton Arboretum. Once again, I got to work with “amazing Allison” from Flower Allie. The following photos are from Christine Marie Photography.