Central Coast Wedding by Ahlin Photography
There is nothing like an explosion of color to wake the senses and get your mind ready for a fun-filled weekend. Are you ready? This Central Coast wedding is not only color endowed but full of hand-made charm all caught on film by Ahlin Photography. And the florals crafted by April Flowers are beyond words. Seriously this celebration is full of life, love and sure to put a big old happy smile on your pretty faces. Hop on over to the gallery for the FULL day.
see the rest of this shindig here!
Although I’m originally from southern California, Matt and I were living in NY and DC respectively while planning our wedding. On a whirlwind scouting mission, we fell in love with the rolling, verdant hills and lakeside setting of Spanish Oaks Ranch along California’s Central Coast. The Ranch offered a rustic setting yet also a refined indoor space (which differed from many of the barns we visited) and did not proscribe vendors, allowing us to choose freely those we wanted to hire for our wedding day. As none of our family or friends lived near the site, we knew that everyone would be traveling there and reveled in the opportunity to spend an entire weekend with those we love. We rented Flying Caballos, a San Luis Obispo property (that also serves as a fabulous wedding venue), in which to hold a welcome dinner and allowed all of the wedding party to stay together — SO much fun. I’ll just say it: it’s a challenge to plan a wedding from 3,000 miles away while working full-time and living in a different city than your partner! Thankfully, Matt and I divvied up our planning tasks and we stayed on top of it via shared GoogleDocs. (We had a tab for just about every aspect of our wedding weekend.) I also maintained a blog which allowed me to post DIY projects I hoped to take on, as well as inspiring photos and ideas culled from my daily wedding blog review (Style Me Pretty was undoubtedly in my RSS feed 
to share with my mom & friends. Our friends were instrumental in putting it all together. When my friend, Sarah, learned that I wanted to incorporate the Japanese tradition of senbazuru (folding one thousand paper cranes for happiness) she confided that she had been folding cranes since she was in second grade and would love to help. She ended up leading that project, and single-handedly folded hundreds of origami cranes (well, with two hands actually), which we threaded with monofilament to serve as a ceremony backdrop.
Because Matt and I fell in love with the majestic oak trees on the Ranch and planned to wed beneath them, we decided to carry the oak tree motif throughout our wedding. The amazingly talented Dutch Door Press came up with a beautiful design that we used on our letterpress invitation suite and then carried throughout: we created a rubber stamp (that we used on cocktail napkins & to emboss our programs); a friend created an oak tree version of the mini buttons available in her Etsy shop (and it warmed my heart to see people sporting them all weekend); Sarah screenprinted canvas welcome bags; and we ordered playing card favors for our guests to honor our love of card games. Another bridesmaid created cake plates (using antique plates, vintage glass vases, & epoxy) on which the array of tasty desserts sat. My maid of honor saved the day by cutting napkins with pinking shears from various fabric I’d collected over the past year — and she did this the day before our wedding because I sadly ran out of time! I plan to now incorporate those fabric squares into a wedding quilt. I’m an archivist and feel very connected to things from the past, particularly vintage fabric and ephemera. As I travel often for work, I made it my goal to amass an array of vintage doilies, handkerchiefs, tin cans, salt & pepper shakers, and books from antique stores and estate sales from around the country. Each table setting included a mismatched fabric napkin, unique China plate, as well as a personalized menu place card. I embroidered table numbers, a fun project that I saw on Inspired Bride. We eschewed the traditional selection of two “wedding colors” and instead went for a muted autumnal palette that featured gold, terra cotta, rust, sage green, taupe, champagne, persimmon, and goldenrod, and April Flowers did an extraordinary job translating those ideas and the overall feel into the most beautiful bouquets and arrangements.
Some friends, who happen to be professional photographers, whipped up a fabulous photo booth and my bridesmaids all brought along fun & zany accessories — hats, boas, Hilary Clinton mask, you know… — which made the photo booth a serious hit with guests of all ages. Matt and I met one another while traveling independently in Rio de Janeiro in 2005, so we decided to honor our Brazil connection by serving a signature cocktail. To make the “maracuja” come to life, our friends squeezed hundreds of limes, and procured passionfruit nectar from a Bay Area specialty store. It was via Style Me Pretty that I connected with another bride who was married at our venue last year and inquired about her awesome outdoor lighting. She ended up letting us rent the lights (thanks again, Amber!) and the amazing beaus of my bridesmaids hung them. Matt and I edited a video featuring each of us and our families (and allowed us to feature a ton of home movies that I had recently preserved) that we screened at our reception. Crafting a ceremony that reflected us as individuals took time. We each wrote our own vows weeks before the ceremony and pored over potential readings before selecting two simple, yet beautiful poems. Most guests were quite moved by the ceremony, coming up to us throughout the night to tell us how beautiful it was.
Venue: Spanish Oaks Ranch / Florist: April Flowers / Photography: Ahlin Photography / Videography: Fig Leaf Productions / Caterer: Pacific Harvest Events / Cakes: Christine’s Cake Creations / Day-of Coordinator: Sealed With a Kiss Events / Wedding Dress: Saja / Bridesmaid Dresses: Amsale / Custom Ties & Bowties: Tux & Tulle / Hair & Make-Up: Jessi Skipton of Bluebird Salon / Hair Fastener: Lo Boheme / Transportation: Central Coast Trolley / Invitation Suite: Dutch Door Press / Officiant: Rabbi Jayne Simon / Welcome Dinner: Flying Caballos
Amsale, Lo Boheme and Saja are members of our Look Book. For more information on how members are chosen, click here.
Though we legitimately love them, Ahlin Photography is an advertiser on Style Me Pretty.
31 Comments about “Central Coast Wedding by Ahlin Photography”
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I love everything about this wedding!
The tins are amazing...the colors are so vibrant...the paper cranes! I die.
Where is the flower girl's dress from? It's so cute!
Love the colorful cranes. It looks great in the back drop. Just Lovely!
LOVE the florals! Especially her bouquet and the vases on the side of the ceremony chairs! And those are probably the best table numbers I have ever seen!
The floral is amazing!!
Hi, I've awarded you the stylish blogger award! Visit my blog for more details :)
Love the brown-stone engagement ring - where's it from?
I love the cranes! I will be folding cranes for my wedding (although I will not be making 1000, but will make a crane for each person at the wedding for the table setting). Congrats!! :)
Love the handmade table numbers & color palette!
Great colors. Love those folded paper birds hanging from the tree!
Thanks for sharing the pictures.
I love this!!! The vintage cans are an awesome touch. It sounds like a labor of love all around that you pulled off beautifully.
Always a lovely honor to have a feature on SMP. Thanks to the fabulous bride, Kim, for having such a fantastic vision! I had a blast creating the blooms for this fete and Kim goes down in my book as one of the very sweetest. xo
I love, love the colorful cranes a beautiful-unique backdrop and focal point.
the bride's hair style and eye make-up is just heaven! stitched table numbers too? oh my goodness!
Help me out. Can't find yellow flower girls dresses anywhere. Where did you get yours?
I absolutely MUST have those tree buttons that adorned the menus. Where can I get them? If you still have them, I would love to purchase them from you at a second-hand cost if you are interested!
Oh! Also, I'd be interested in purchasing that oak tree stamp as well! :)
i would LOVE to know the designer of this engagement ring - is that information available?
thank you for sharing!!
I have been hunting for antique tins for our wedding in June for months! These are lovely! Would you be willing to sell the tins? Or, do you have any tips for someone who's still hunting?
Beautiful wedding, truly.
Those rings are just beautiful and we love all of the colorful details throughout!
Thank you all so much for the kind words about our wedding! Such sweet notes. I was a faithful SMP reader throughout the planning process, so it's delightful to see our day featured here.
To answer some of the questions above...
Amelia and Kelli: Lots of searching online and I ultimately found the yellow chiffon dress from Flower Girl Princess (http://flowergirlprincess.com/product_info.php?products_id=1134 ). It was a lot less expensive than many of the big name stores (J Crew, etc.) and our flower girl simply beamed in it.
Magdalen and Elizabeth: We worked with Kate Szabone to custom design the champagne diamond engagement ring and wedding band (http://www.etsy.com/shop/kateszabone ).
As for the buttons, they're available through my friend's Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/people/MontclairDesigns
Scouring vintage and antique stores, as well as estate sales, is the best way to source tins and the like. It's time-consuming but it feels great when you come across something you love! Etsy now also has an array of vintage products, but of course you'll be paying a premium for the convenience.
Please contact me via email at kimmattwed [at] gmail [dot] com if you'd like to inquire about vintage items for sale.
beautiful wedding!!!!!
i LOVE that robe you wore when you got your make up/hair done. can you let me know where you bought it? thanks!!!!!
I love every detail of this wedding. So cool and personal - and gorgeous to boot. Thanks for sharing!
thanks, Caroline! it's actually from Anthropologie (Eloise brand), but I got it a few years back so I'm not sure if they're still around...
I love her use of handkerchiefs (wink wink) and the embroidery. I'm partial to that. Very cool wedding!
KIm,
I have been on a tin hunt all over New Jersey. I wondered how you procured your collection? Any interest in letting me rent them/buy them?
Love your color scheme
beautiful and inspiring - thank you so much for sharing the lovely photos!
I am looking for any bit of info about the men's wedding band. I like the dark (but warmer than black) color and that it does not match the bride's band and engagement ring - looking for something similar. Even just the type of material would help me narrow things down. thanks again :-)