Vintage Chic

Lucky for us, Barb has one last real wedding inspiration for us!

With the Empire State Building as their backdrop and John Lennon’s “Grow Old With Me” in their hearts, it was a day I’m sure they’ll cherish forever…

Art and Laurel were such a cool couple. We paired Laurel’s love for vintage flair and Art’s love for the Beatles and created their dream wedding. Our favorite details were the matching Beatles album pins that we gave to Art wear in lieu of a boutonniere and we pinned on Laurels bouquet. Their wedding was held at The AVEnts Event Loft. Thanks so much to Chris Leary for capturing the day perfectly.

Thanks Hatch Creative Events for sharing these amazing inspirations with us!

I have had so many emails about the Stephanie James’ dresses that I posted about a few days back…seems like you guys love them as much as I do! So, when Ashley, one of our devoted readers, sent me pics from her recent wedding wearing a Stephanie James creation…I just had to share!

From Ashley…

We got married on May 17, 2008 in Rancho Santa Fe, California (outside of San Diego). I grew up in the area and although I have been living in Los Angeles for 10 years, I wanted to return to have our wedding at my favorite place in the world. The home of Eleanor “Bita” Dean, who is like my grandmother and was my nanny growing up. Her home was built in the 1930’s and is so elegant and filled with vintage class and flare. I spent much of my childhood at her home, from the age of 3 months! It was absolutely perfect for us and had the perfect mix of sentimentality, class and sass, just our style!

My dress was a Stephanie James which I had her put black polka dot tulle underneath because our wedding colors were black and white (and I love polka dots!), and our wedding had a clear vintage rockabilly theme throughout.

We were on a budget for the entire event, so I found a photographer through a friend of mine that was only $900! AMAZING! Her name is Pamela Marie and she has since relocated to Pennsylvania, but she was incredible to work with and I thought the photos were unbelievable. I did the invitations myself, and my mother did the flowers.

We wanted to infuse our personalities into the day as much as possible…so, I walked down the aisle to Jonny Cash! It’s a Scandinavian wedding tradition for a newly married couple to saw a log together so we did just that! I wanted our flower girls to have dresses that were fun and could be worn again, just like the bridesmaids. Their mother picked these out and they were perfect! And, I asked all my bridemaids to pick dresses that they loved and felt good in, as well as could be worn again.

More to come!!

I wanted to share a few more images and details from today’s featured wedding…

From Kacie…

My husband Brandon and I were married on July 12,2008 in the garden of my parents’ beautiful wine country home, standing right where they stood during their wedding ceremony 27 years ago, surrounded by 100 of our dearest friends and family. We wanted to create an intimate, hand-made, elegant, free-flowing, graceful, and vintage-inspired wedding…kind of like a modern-day Gatsby garden party. My childhood home, which is full of family history since my dad actually purchased it from my grandparents when I was a little girl, was the perfect setting.

Our wedding was a true handmade labor of love– every single detail was handmade by my mother and family, including the invitations, hanging lace-adorned votives, vintage hanky prayer flags, table coverings, chair pomanders, my garters, and the little doily favor bags of jordan almonds, most of which she crafted from vintage linens, ribbon, and lace.

My dad built an amazing dance floor from scratch, a family friend baked our cake, and my cousin and best friend played us down the aisle to the Beatles’ “I Will.” My maternal grandmother was not well enough to be with us, but she sent her entire silver julep cup collection to hold our flowers, and gifted me her mother’s wedding & engagement rings (family heirlooms). I took pictures with her grand piano, (she was a concert pianist) which still sits in our music room.

My parents grow pinot noir grapes, and we served their wine with local Sonoma County cheese and fruit at the wedding reception!

My husband and I are singers, (we met 8 years ago in the high school choir and have been together since!) so music played a huge part in everything–my sister sang a song she’d written for us during the wedding ceremony, we sang to each other, and later we brought in the incredible San Francisco swing band Stompy Jones to keep everyone dancing into the wee hours!

More to come!!

And now for the finishing touches on today’s featured weddings….the details. As cliche as it sounds, and as many times as I have said it on SMP, it’s the details that transform a pretty wedding into a spectacular wedding.

Here are some notes from Rebecca, the planner behind this gorgeous day…

Welcome - As guests entered the grass from the dusty gravel road, they were greeted with lavender garnished lemonade in mason jars. The property had a bunch of old paint chipped doors lying around, so we used those to make up the table tops anywhere we had an excuse to! The mason jars sat atop the wooden door (which was resting atop wine barrels) and we adorned the table with a scattering of bricks and an old crate tumbling with lemons.

Best Wishes - We used another old door table top to display Sarah and Mike’s wish table. Beautiful apothecary jars were used for guests to write notes for Sarah and Mike to open on their one-year anniversary as well as for them to take a pre-written wish that Sarah and Mike had made for their guests.

Right this Way - As a way to encourage guests to move from the welcome lawn to ceremony, I strung along an old fence a long line of twine and small clothes pins featuring dozens of photos of Sarah and Mike as babies, childhood, up until photos of them together as adults. Even the embarrassing glamour shots and awkward teenage phase photos made their debuts - guests were delighted.

Escort Cards - Juniper provided gorgeous terra cotta pots planted with herbs and lambs ear. I had guest names calligraphed on wood (tongue depressors!) and stamped table numbers in a fresh moss green.

Get Cozy - Wood boxes and baskets held slippers and pashminas encouraging women guests to kick off their heels and get cozy. The weather turned cool almost immediately after the ceremony so this touch was totally appreciated.

The Bar - I had Sarah and Mike come up with a few signature drinks that would be special to them- something they shared on a romantic vacation, their first date, a funny story, etc. We created a large chalkboard menu for them listing their signature drinks with funny and sweet descriptions of each drink and how it came to be.

The incredibly personlized touches that Rebecca infused into this wedding are just perfect. The end results seems like this magical evening, filled with intimate touches and understated elegance. Thank you so much to Rebecca of Duet Weddings and to Leigh Miller Photography for sharing this gorgeous wedding iwth us!