It’s easy to design a pretty wedding. A few beautiful flowers, a lovely white dress, maids dressed perfectly all in a row. The hard part is designing a pretty wedding that is also deeply personal and unique. The kind of wedding that guests remember for years and years to come.The kind of wedding that was built by a bride and groom who wanted their day to reflect their own unique vision and style. And yet those are just the kind of weddings that have us swooning here at SMP…and it just happens to be the kind of wedding that this next little number is. Perfectly beautiful and yet undeniably personal. Love, love, love. Click here to see even more.
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Jacob and I really wanted to have a wedding that was very personal, intimate and all about the joining of two families. The idea of a destination wedding where we could spend quality time with our friends and family for a whole weekend seemed just about perfect. With both our families from Oregon, and the fact that I own a wedding shop in Portland (which would have made choosing vendors nearly impossible), we decided to head south to Ojai, California and bring our friends and family with us.
Once we decided to have a destination wedding, Ojai, became the obvious choice. The town has special meaning to my family as my Great-grandma lived there for most of her life, and currently my Grandma lives in Ojai. The Ojai Valley Inn was the perfect backdrop for the ceremony, reception and the wedding weekend. We could not have been more excited to spend this amazing weekend in such a gorgeous location.
I am named after a bird and my brothers and sisters all have bird names as well, so it was no surprise that we went with a “love birds” theme. We wanted our wedding to be very “us”. We wanted our guests to think, that is so Petrel and Jacob! After deciding the look would be a love affair between Anthropologie and J.crew, where romance meets vintage, the colors became shades of gray, peach, pinks and ivory. I actually saw a blog post of a photo shoot on SMP and it all clicked – the photos were exactly what I was envisioning but had been having a hard time describing it! Once I realized that the florist, Lauryl Lane, from the photo shoot was from California (how lucky is that!?), I decided it was a match made in heaven and hoped she would be able to do the flowers for my wedding. Lucky for us, she was available, and the flowers and colors fell into place.
Making our wedding personal was really important to us so we decided to tackle quite a few projects. My mom decided to sew the flower girl dresses, the runners, the welcome bags, and pillows for the reception (my mom was amazing and probably went to the fabric store 25 times during our engagement to make all these projects). For the reception, we decided on one long family style table to make it more intimate, and we brought our family’s china to use at the reception for the chargers. Even though I think many people thought I was crazy to pack up and bring the china from Oregon to CA, it was an idea that just seemed too wonderful to pass up. We made the sign above the cake, our friends made the pottery cake stand, my bridesmaids (my sisters and girlfriends since first grade) helped put together the favors, and Jacob and I created our own playlists for the cocktail hour, dinner and dancing.
The stationery part was easy because I own a boutique in Portland called The Wedding Cottage, and we specialize in invitations and accessories! We were able to get our invitations, menus, placecards, napkins, and gifts from my store which made it even more special and personal. We designed a love birds themed letterpress invitation and a postcard RSVP, which was in mad-libs style! It was so much fun to read what everyone had written that we decided to frame everyone’s rsvp cards at our reception on a refurbished window frame.
For the ceremony we had Jacob’s brother officiate and we incorporated a poem that my dad had written to us into the ceremony. Jacob and I wrote our own vows, and then included the guests into the ceremony by giving them two hershey kisses inside of a paper maiched egg (my mom actually paper maiched each individual egg, she really was amazing!) One hershey kiss we all ate together right there at the ceremony to enjoy “the sweetness of the day”, the other kiss was actually made out of pewter (made by my parents who are pewtersmiths). We told our guests to hold onto the pewter kiss, and if there is ever a time in the future where Jacob and I started to forget how happy we were on this day, they should give us this kiss and it will remind us how in love we are.
With an amazing ceremony filled with laughter and tears, yummy cocktails and appetizers, a plated dinner under the stars, fantastic toasts by our sisters, and lots of dancing and cake, we couldn’t have asked for a more magical evening. We definitely had the love and energy of family and friends behind us, and couldn’t have done it without them. The best part of it all though, was that I got to marry Jacob!
Wedding Photography: Michael and Anna Costa Photography / Wedding Cinematography: Russell Fowler Studios / Florist: Lauryl Lane / Event Planning: Bella Vita Events / Wedding Ceremony & Reception Location: Ojai Valley Inn and Spa / Wedding Invitations: The Wedding Cottage / Calligraphy: Alesia Zorn / Hair and Makeup: TEAM Hair and Makeup / Bride’s Shoes: Seychelles / Wedding Dress: Melissa Sweet / Groom’s Attire: J.Crew / Bridesmaid Dresses: J.Crew / Ring Bearer’s Attire: J.Crew / Flower Girls’ Attire: Mother of the Bride / Veil and Hair Accessories: August Veils
Love the image of the kids! So cute! This is so pretty!! Love the tablescape.
Oh man, how beautiful?!
Oh my goodness! I absolutely love this wedding.
love the shoes with the ms gown...super cute! great shots of bridal party!
Okay, gorgeous venue! I wish all these lovely sites would up and relocate to Seattle! ;)
How pretty! I adore the Bride & Groom chair shot with the Groom's jacket & Bride's veil- so fun!!
Very cute!! Where are the tea cups from i have seen them a few times and really like them but cant find the tea cup.
the LOVE cups are from anthropologie
Really pretty! Just wondering where the "Just Married" sign is from? I've been looking for one (not shabby chic style!)
I can't believe how similiar the styling is to what I've been planning for my wedding this September. Love love LOVE every bit of it.
Love the colors & flowers! Is the grooms attire from JCREW the seersucker suit or fine stripe cotton?
Beautiful! Adore the colors and the parasols :)
Great detail shots. Love the blues.
Petie, your wedding was so lovely!!! I love the colors and your photographer was amazing!!
So soft and pretty. Love Michael and Anna's work.
Stunning shots and also a great combination of colours. The bouquet is great and just pulls the scheme together.
holy smokes....those florals are simply amazing and so romantical. Lauryl's a genius.
The Costas Are the best!
simply sweet and beautiful, love love love!
Thanks for all the wonderful comments!
Sharon- the "Just Married" sign is from etsy - the shop is called BackPorchShoppe - they have some reallu cute things, and the owner is really nice!
Carrie- the J.Crew suit was the Fine Stripe Cotton - really nice for hot weather :)
This wedding is adorable I found myself saying ah.
what a beautiful depiction of a wedding, truly very impressive.
So beautiful! Where did you get the umbrellas the bridesmaids are holding?
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March 23, 2011 at 7:27 am
Perfect wedding! Perfect details! Perfect photography! |
Love the long tablescape, soft colors and the "LOVE" cups!! Beautiful!
Who makes the stunning dress on the mother of the bride? It is so classy!!!
Beautiful understated wedding decor. The arrangement of the table creates real visual impact while the flowers soften the lines and add interest along the entire length of the table.
Love the attention to detail and the fantastic photography.
Such a beautiful wedding! I love the color palette, the beautiful flowers and succulents. Great images of the bridal party and their parasols!
It says you used your own china, how many place settings did you have? Are they all alike or different? The soft colors are just amazing!
Hi Jordan- My mom got her dress online from Monique Lhuillier - It ended up fitting her perfectly but she realized later that each dress is made to order so no returns! I thought she looked so gorgeous :)
Hi Rose- The parasols I actually bought off of craigslist from a girl who didn't end up using them for her wedding!
Hi Joycrcc- We had 50 place settings at the wedding, so we combined all of my parent's china and all of my husband's parent's china to get 50. We were a few plates short so I used small china plates for the kids. We never actually ate on them because I didn't want the venue to have to hand wash them - they were just for decor and to make the table look all set - In other words used them as chargers. Each one was different, which was what I was going for :)
Hope that helps, thanks for all the nice comments! Let me know if you have any other questions!
~ Petrel
LOVE this wedding, i love the pastels as its what im having for my own wedding, what a beautiful day it looks, im def taking some inspiration from this one!
What a beautiful wedding and a gorgeous couple!
I was wondering if your parents are open to selling the pewter kisses? I've been looking online and can't find any! Please let me know
Petrel,
I am thinking about Ojai for my wedding. What time of year did you have yours?
Your wedding is gorgeous and convincing me Ojai is the spot for us!
Thanks,
Vanessa
Hi Vanessa -
I just saw your post, thanks so much for your sweet comments! I got married in July in Ojai. Ojai is amazing, and if you are thinking about getting married there, I would completely recommend it! The mountains are gorgeous, and the town is really adorable. The Ojai Valley Inn was over the top and I can't recommend it enough! In July it is pretty hot though - I think it was over 100 the day we got married! While it was a little bit uncomfortable for taking pictures, it actually made the evening really great because once the sun went down it was perfect - not cold at all for eating outside. I hope that helps! Let me know if you need any other information! - Petrel
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