All Real Weddings

Without question, my favorite days on Style Me Pretty are those where readers send in Real Weddings based on inspiration boards that we’ve featured in the past. So, when Kacie sent me pictures of her own recent wedding and the board that started it all, I changed the direction of today’s post!!

Kacie designed an inspiration board for on of our contests a while back. Here it is…

And here is how her insanely gorgeous wedding turned out…

photographs are all taken by Kacie’s childhood friend, Dawn Heumann, and her sister in law Lisa Dick

I am impressed by how beautifully the inspiration board translated into a real wedding. The vintage chic charm is just so lovely…it seems like every detail was tended to.

Stay tuned, we have more details and photos from Kacie’s wedding!!

Earlier today we featured a wedding that was ALL about the details…Amy Nichols designed the gorgeous touches and Lisa Lefkowitz photographed the entire affair. Although we have more wedding photos coming, Lisa just sent me some amazing images from the rehearsal dinner that I wanted to share with you, as they are sure to inspire…

Here are a few more images and details from Nole’s wonderful little wedding…

More details from Nole…

In order to stay in our budget, we kept our guest list to only our closest family and friends (around 50 people) and prioritized some wedding elements (such as food and photography) over others (such as floral arrangements). We also tried to do as many DIY projects as we could.

We made most of the big decisions pretty early on, including our color palette, flower choices (but not a florist, which came much later), caterer, bakery, and photographer. For the flowers, I knew that I wanted a bouquet of lilacs and sweet peas, ever since I’d seen a similar bouquet in Martha Stewart Weddings a couple of years ago. For the reception, I wanted a mix of spring flowers — peonies, ranunculus, anemonies, etc. — in shades of purple and white.

For our caterer, my husband and I are both big foodies, so having great food at our wedding was a big priority. We also knew that we wanted a global-inspired tapas meal service for the reception, and worked with our caterer to develop a menu that included Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Latin dishes with enough choices to satisfy all of our guests. For the cake, we used three 9″ cakes from a famous DC bakery called CakeLove, which makes just the most amazing cakes and cupcakes. Our families are big coffee and tea drinkers, so we also bought heart-shaped sugar cubes and sugar swizzle sticks from Sur La Table to use as sweeteners when the coffee and tea was served with dessert.

For photography, it was important to us that we have a photojournalist-style photographer that would document the entire day, particularly as we had some important family members (my grandmother) who were not able to travel for our wedding. We found our photographer, the amazing Punam Bean, via Weddingbee, and instantly fell in love with her work and documentary-style approach to wedding photography.

Throughout the planning, we looked for ways to save that wouldn’t affect the overall look and feel of the day…we saved a lot by having a friend play the music for the ceremony and using our iPod to provide the music during the reception, both which probably saved us thousands of dollars. We only served wine (which we purchased directly) rather than having an open bar at the reception. And we find a lot of our decorations on ebay, including the mason jars used to hold the floral arrangements and moroccan lanterns which lined the entrance path to the venue.

We ultimately spent around $13,000 on the wedding, so we didn’t do too bad - particularly since we live in one of the most expensive cities in the country!

We have MANY more pictures to come, so stay tuned!

This next same sex wedding came to me from the oh-so-talented Alison of Alison Events in San Francisco…

all of these amazing photos were taken by Adi Nevo

I am not usually a fan of purple…but WOW. This wedding is so super chic, so super elegant. I absolutely love it. With the raspberry and natural green accents paired against the stark white linens, the grass and the pristine blue pool…it’s just so smart.

A few more details from Alison…

Joe and Lallo got married in Sonoma County at a private estate located on a lavender farm. They exchanged vows under a tree lined grassy field and enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres as a Brazilian singer performed some of their favorite Bebel Gilberto songs. Being Brazilian, Joe and Lallo had many guests who traveled far to come and support them in their union.

The menu was fresh and local organic Californian cuisine. They served local fish, flank steak and chicken right from the grill and a variety of green salads for dinner family style. And of course caipirinhas were flowing all night long. They had several different flavored cakes with an adorable cake topper of two grooms which Alison gave them as a wedding present.

The tables lined both sides of the pool and were dressed with a slate grey floor length linen and the white linen napkins were then tied with lavender ribbon and a lavender sprig was placed inside. The flowers were designed and created by the couple and placed in beautiful white ceramic containers.

Their dogs who walked down the aisle and they were their ring bearers….and their officiant was there homestay mother from when they both came to the US to study abroad. The invites were designed by Lallo.