San Diego Wedding with French Charm
This wedding is exploding with gorgeous vignettes full of little details and we seriously can’t stop staring. The bride’s french family traditions were infused everywhere and we are going gaga over the cute-to-boot eye candy. From the unstructured florals to the glamorous chandeliers hanging from the trees, this wedding has french garden chic written all over it. Check out more prettiness in the gallery. XO, Tori & Myka
See more details in the gallery.
From the bride…Chris and I have known each other since middle school, became friends in high school, and ended up in neighboring dormitories in college. On their one year anniversary of dating, Chris proposed to me on the beach on an island where my French family lives. It was sunset, summer, and perfect.
It was important to me to have a classy wedding with notes of rustic European elements of home and a French countryside ambiance. The wedding evolved over a period of one year into a charming, romantic, vintage, unstructured and glowing work of many talented minds and hands. I wanted to mimic the feel of many childhood Summers in the countryside with lots of unstructured flowers; including English garden roses, hydrangeas, sweet peas, dusty miller, feverfew, dahlias, lavender, vining foliage in creams, shades of yellow, soft pinks, and other colors with aqua and grey accents.
Chris and I had a unique unity ceremony to incorporate each generation of our families, which was lovingly referred to as “Love Grows.” Our fathers laid the foundation of healthy soil, the last surviving grandparents (of the bride) planted a seed of life, and the mothers watered it with encouragement and strength to grow. Vintage keys and chandelier strands hung with ripped fabric from aqua mason jars (collected from Etsy) containing romantic flower bouquets on the aisle chairs. Handmade by the Chris’s father sat wooden, stained flower boxes on grass that contained petals for the recessional. The mirror was reflective during the ceremony in that it looked into the past and showed their future together.
The recurring home-y feel bled into the cocktail hour, where white cotton vignettes of furniture sprinkled the lawn for guests to relax and talk. The sign in table was a unique album with various envelopes handmade from colorful paper with the purpose to enclose notecards that read, “for a happy home…”, “for a healthy heart…”, “for a lasting love”….and “for a marriage made in heaven…” and guests could write their advise and experience for us. Signature drinks were the “French Kiss” (Chambard, champagne and a raspberry kiss ) and the Mint for Each Other” (my favorite mojito!). The next area of interest was the reception that was located on another lawn. Guests were greeted with two vintage and rustic aqua and yellow doors. They were tasked with finding their table number by way of antique skeleton key, chandelier crystal, and name on a tag that read “love is the key to my heart” that hung from individual hooks. All elements were found at second hand stores and handcrafted for personalization. When guests arrived at their banquet tables, they found a personalized CD with a photo from our engagement and a playlist hand picked by the Chris. They also had a kiss from the bride, in the form of lemon and vanilla macarons overnighted from Beverly Hills, a most special and favorite French bon bon.
Leading out of the candlelit dinner lawn and indoors to the “after party”, a white baby grand piano, aqua lighting, a white dance floor, and tufted leather white vignettes of furniture invited the guests to dance the night away to live music. The adjacent lawn to the dance party had more surprise fun for the guests, including a homemade damask wall papered photo booth, lovingly made by the Chris’s father, complete with a chandelier decal and a full assortment of costumes. A cigar bar was set up at 10:00 pm, as well as an old world style espresso machine to keep the party alive. Late night snacks were a must, a very non french, traditional american snack of mini kobe beef sliders and shots of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry milkshakes. The band and party went until past 2:30 am!
Thanks to Chris and Caroline for sharing their gorgeous wedding!
XO, Tori & Myka of sittinginatree
Though we legitimately love them, Concepts Event Design is an advertiser on Style Me Pretty.
28 Comments about “San Diego Wedding with French Charm”
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I love this! Everything about this wedding looks fabulous, from the lounge to the cigar bar, to the vintage car...everyone did a great job!!!
Gorgeous wedding ~ love the details and color scheme. The yellow shoes are my absolute fave!!!
So beautiful!! Love the navy and the BM flowers and the table set-up!! I'd love to have been a guest at this wedding- awesome.
I love the furniture. I think the chandelier was my favorite.
definitely charming
Ooh...that is just exquisite. I love the couches and chairs, and the photo frames...all the "French" touches. Ooh la la!
By the way...the style of the roofing of the house that peeks from behind the shrubbery looked VERY familiar...then I realized this wedding took place just an hour and a half south of me. :)
favorsbyserendipity.com
So perfect! I'm loving the trend of bringing indoor stuff to the outdoors -- couches and pillows on the grass, chandeliers in the trees, etc. This is amazing! Thanks for another gorgeous spread!
OMG....LOVE LOVE LOVE the "alter" w/ the chandelier, mirror, and fabulous details!! Beyond beautiful! xoxo
Where did you get the MENU chalkboard???
Just gorgeous wedding, and everyone looks happy. The colors in the wedding was radiant, and just made the wedding more elegant. The decorating was out of this world. I loved looking at all the pictures and it brought a smile on my face just how happy the couple was. I wish them all the love and happiness in the world.
Gorgeous wedding ~ love the details and color scheme
love it all
I love the moss detailing on the chairs and tables! Cute and unique!
What a beautiful celebration! I love weddings that avoid themes and gimmicks, but whose elements still manage to look totally cohesive. One note to the stationer: next time you design signs in a foreign tongue, be sure to check them with a fluent speaker! I imagine the bride's French relatives had a chuckle over "petit gâteaux." As my mother would say, the flaw makes the whole perfect!
Wow these flowers are gorgeous! And the set up with the mirror, chandelier is gorgeous!
Love these photos, flowers look amazing. Love the idea of bottling your own drinks, so original. Favourite picture is the vintage mirror hanging outside with the silk material wrapped around the tree - fifth from bottom. Lighting is great in this shot.
Gorgeous! I really love the shot in a car and the one with the old mirror and drapings - live a vintage dressing room, only outdoors!
This is a fabulous blog! I love the personalised bottles and the Cigar Bar!
Fab pictures
Hot diggity I am in LOVE with all of these details!!!
Great details! Gorgeous.
great color scheme..very close to the one I would pick. Really like the outdoor chandelier and mirror setting, it looks perfect.
Where did you get the custom matchbooks made?
oooo la la! I love this. So many great details (mirrors, chandelier, what more can a girl ask for!) ma chérie what a beautiful wedding! All the best to the bride and groom.
Cie and Chris, the photos are beautiful! So happy to see the way they captured our living room altar area, it's my fav! I really enjoyed the opportunity to design your flowers--it was really a lot of fun and helped that you were truly enjoyable and inspiring to work with! I wish you all the best!--Robin
oh my gosh, perfect from start to finish. just beautiful.
Today I feel lucky, commenting primary on wedding blogs. This is just beautiful. The idea with the bottles stamp is good.