Little Black Book Blog

Engagement Shoot From Zoom Photography

February 8th. 2010 by Eddye | 5 comments

I’ve always said that the most romantic dinner EVER would be at an old diner with a cheeseburger, fries and a great bottle of champagne. So clearly, when I saw this e-session, I swooned. Sent to us by Lauri Levenfeld of Zoom Photography, this little photoshoot will most certainly make you smile! And the “love” hamburgers that say it all.

LL E-Session 3

LL E-Session 2

We met freshman year of college in English class at Washington University in Saint Louis. If we saw each other around campus or at parties, we would say hello but that was about the extent of our friendship. At the end of sophomore year we both decided to transfer to the art school and study Visual Communications. Our mutual friend told me this and I was excited. I always had a little crush on him.

The first day of our major we had to chose our seats for the year. I asked him if he wanted to share a cubicle with me and two of my friends. He agreed. Our class hours were long and we had to stay late several nights for projects. We became great friends over that year and were there for each other’s highs and lows. At the end of junior year we started dating.

The proposal came as quite a surprise. The morning he proposed he told me he wasn’t feeling well and took the day off from work. While he was home, preparing to propose, he found a ring that I had lost. This ring was very important to me and I was devastated that I couldn’t find it. At work, I got a message that he had discovered it, I was so excited to come home and get my ring back. I opened the door and there he was, apartment clean, beautiful flowers and him dressed very nicely. I walked in, looked around, and then asked him for the ring that I had lost. He showed it to me and put it on my finger. I thought to myself, that’s funny, it’s like a proposal. After that he looked at me and said that there was another ring he wanted to give me as well. Then he took a different box, opened it and proposed. I said yes!

Title Laurie Levenfeld Engagement Session

Since we are both designers, we want to have a strong hand in all of the design elements of the wedding. We designed and used the letterpress ourselves for the save the dates and plan to do the same for the invitations and all printed pieces for the ceremony and wedding. All though it will be a larger wedding, we want to incorporate a lot of hand made pieces so it feels more personal and intimate.

We are getting married in the Sheraton Grand in Sacramento. This building used to be the old farmers market in Sacramento so we would like to play up that theme in the graphics and elements.

We didn’t have very many expectations for the photo shoot. We just wanted it to be laid back and let our personalities shine through. I think that Lauri was able to capture that very well. We loved the results. Russ enjoyed it so much that he thinks we should do something like this every five years to document the different stages of our lives.

Zoom Photography is a member of our Little Black Book. For more information on how members are chosen, click here.

Michigan Wedding At The Townsend Hotel From Gourmet Invitations

February 5th. 2010 by Eddye | 12 comments

This is a tough one! Tifany at Gourmet Invitations sent us these beautiful images from the amazing photographers at The Shooting Gallery of Shannon and Aaron’s wedding, and it’s nearly impossible to rave about this wedding enough! Shannon’s to-die-for gown. The unbelievable art nouveau invitations. The edgy photography and gorgeous florals … well, you be the judge!

And from Tifany’s website …

According to Tifany, the invitation design was born from Shannon’s exquisite dress …

And from there … a fairytale dream come true celebration!

LOVE this shot … {Aaron is a chef}

LOTS more photos of Shannon and Aaron’s invitation suite on Gourmet Invitation’s blog!

Our THANKS to The Shooting Gallery for sharing these gorgeous images!

And here, from Shannon, their wedding “inspiration” …

I got my Lazaro gown at a trunk show at Macy’s State Street in Chicago. My Mom flew to Chicago for the weekend to attend the trunk show with me – Lazaro was there and drew a sketch of me in the dress … Super cool! I gave our floral designers at Blossoms a picture of my dress and that’s all. We knew whatever Norm & Dale did would be beautiful. Dale had suggested having a mini pocket on our place cards with the name of the guest on the outside- and a card on the inside with the table number and their entree choice. We met with Tifany and she made it happen! She also designed the custom menus (each guest’s name and their specific entree choice) ~ they were just perfect. The boxed invitations were beautiful and a result of us throwing around a few ideas- they morphed into the neatest invites I’ve ever seen. Aaron’s artistic side had the idea of using shadow boxes and mini stones to display the place cards.

How We Planned Our Wedding: We really and truly planned the wedding 100% together. We chose all of our vendors with the ‘coffee test’- if we met them and wanted to go have coffee with them- they were the one!

Congratulations on a positively stunning wedding!!

Credits: Photographer-The Shooting Gallery Photography; Stationery-Gourmet Invitations; Event Planner-Bells & Bliss; Venue-The Townsend Hotel; Bridal Gown: Lazaro, Macy’s, State Street, Chicago; Hair & Makeup-Posh Brides; Music-Panache Entertainment; Forals-Blossoms; Cake-The Townsend Bakery

Gourmet Invitations is a member of our Little Black Book. For more information on how members are chosen, click here.

Wine Country Wedding From Elle Jae Photography

February 3rd. 2010 by Eddye | 23 comments

We seem to be going from coast to coast a lot lately! California … Texas … California … Texas … honestly, it’s not intentional! When we get a pretty, pretty wedding … we post it!! So, today, it’s back to the wine country ~ with Amy & Adam’s wedding from Elle Jae Photography …

They met in college and were BFF’s from the start. After they graduated, that’s when things heated up and … voilá!

Here’s a bit of their story, straight from Amy, the beautiful bride …

Adam and I met on the first day of college at the University of Kansas. We lived on the same dorm floor and quickly became close friends. Throughout the years at college, I set Adam up on dates with my sorority sisters and even auctioned him off at a sorority auction! After college, I moved to Chicago, while Adam moved to San Francisco. Both single, Adam and I planned for me to visit him in San Francisco in early 2007. The rest is history. We dated long distance for a year and then I moved to San Francisco in 2008, where I happily accepted a position with Paula LeDuc Fine Catering.

Adam proposed to me the day after Thanksgiving 2008 at the Campanile bell tower in the heart of the University of Kansas’ campus. This is the exact same location his father proposed to his mother 36 years prior to our engagement!

BR Cohn Winery was the perfect location for our ceremony (at Fox Hill), as we wanted to get married under an old tree ~ a beautiful wine country setting.

As soon as we were engaged, Adam and I had no problem selecting colors or finding inspiration. I love all things nautical, so I went with navy, soft (dandelion) yellow, and papaya/coral. Our wedding colors complemented the gorgeous colors of the fall season. We incorporated stripes into our save the date, invitation, program, escort cards (Hello Lucky), centerpieces, groomsmen’s ties, and cake (Fleur de Lisa). The look was fairly preppy. We also used a lot of white to keep the look simple and allow for the colors to pop (floral/event design by Kathleen Deery Design).

Cake by Little Black Book member, Fleur de Lisa.

Floral Design~Kathleen Deery Design, Catering~Paula LeDuc Fine Catering.

Wedding invitations and other paper finery from LBB member, Hello Lucky.

It is obvious that the celebration was about Adam and me coming together. But even more than it being about us, it was about our family and friends. We wanted to show our Midwestern family and friends how wonderful Sonoma at harvest can be. We incorporated lovely Californian cuisine into the hors d‘oeuvres and certainly into our family style dinner.

Title Adam & Amy

Photography by Elle Jae Weddings

Escort Cards

Title Adam & Amy

Photography by Elle Jae Weddings

Food and Drink

As the evening grew colder, I put on a yellow cardigan embroidered with my new initials while the bridesmaid put on J-Crew navy cardigans. The guests were encouraged to choose a navy, yellow or papaya wrap (which I picked up in China Town for $6.50 a piece!). As the evening grew darker, the stunning lighting became more apparent to guests. Beautiful white linen lampshades were scattered throughout the Olive Grove. Got Light? lighting specialists also incorporated lots of yellow/orange/amber in the tree and architecture washes. The lighting made ALL of the difference. We capped the night off with warmed cider and petit candied apples!

Our wedding wouldn’t have come together without Jenna Ball, Event Manager, from Paula LeDuc Fine Catering. She was on site all morning getting us set up to perfection (not to mention the hours she spent with me before the celebration). All of our vendors were absolutely outstanding.

Title Adam & Amy

Photography by Elle Jae Weddings

Credits: Photography-Elle Jae; Cake-Fleur de Lisa; Paper Design/Invitations-Hello Lucky; Venues-BR Cohn Winery; Rentals-Classic Party Rental; Catering-Paula LeDuc Fine Catering; Hair & MakeUp-It’s A Date; Dress-Priscilla of Boston; Floral/Design-Kathleen Deery Design; Band-All Star Jukebox; Lighting/Audio-Got Light?; Transportation-Pure Luxury; Ceremony Musicians-Bella Rosa String Quartet

* * *

Our thanks to Lisa & James for sharing their beautiful images of the day!

Elle Jae Weddings, Hello Lucky! and Fleur De Lisa are members of our Little Black Book. For more information on how members are chosen, click here.

Nautical Wedding Color Palette ~ Blue and White + Green

February 2nd. 2010 by Eddye | 22 comments

Lauren & Dan only had a couple of requests when it came to their wedding … that it be by the water and that it be nautically-inspired. Little Black Book favorites, Elizabeth & Karrie, at Posh Paperie took their thoughts and ran with it!

Add Lauren’s talented mother and Merilee at Ever After Events … and … they ended up with an elegantly designed wedding celebration that was simply fantastic!

(photos courtesy of Garrett Photography)

(cake topper from Kate Miller Events)

Lots and lots of pretty … but my favorite thing? Hand-painted lanterns! (I could totally do that!)

Another fun thing? Lauren’s sister (and a friend) created chandeliers out of wine and champagne glasses. Pretty cool!

Now THIS is a sensational getaway!!

Our thanks to Merilee at Ever After Events and Garrett Photography for sharing this lovely nautical wedding with us! Congratulations to Lauren & Dan and once again … hats off to the moms behind so many of our very special weddings!!

You can see the rest of Lauren & Daniel’s gorgeous wedding invitation suite plus lots more of Posh Paperie’s beautiful invitations and all the other paper pieces that adorn their weddings on their website and blog!

Credits:
Ceremony Venue: San Diego Presbyterian Church, Reception Venue: Coronado Marriott, Photography: Garrett Photography, Florist: Annette Gomez, Cake: Crumbs of Paris, Videography: Modern 8 Films, Hair: Wendy McGill, Make Up: Sheila Verespe; Cake Topper: Kate Miller Events

posh paperie is a member of our Little Black Book. For more information on how members are chosen, click here.

Simply Sparkling Events ~ San Francisco Wedding At The De Young Museum

January 29th. 2010 by Eddye | 5 comments

We gave you a quick preview this morning of Karen & Jay’s wedding, but now for the whole shebang! This might possibly be the most vibrant, spirited and wonderfully witty wedding we’ve featured on The Little Black Book Blog! Sent to us by the lovely ladies at Simply Sparkling Events ~ it is a sheer pleasure to share with you today …

Karen & Jay were married in the Sculptural Garden at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Jay is a cartoonist and artist at heart. He and Karen incorporated their artistic talents into their wedding day in so many ways. Jay created a character logo ~ a different spin on a monogram! We used it on their invitations, programs, and menus and even as a label on the bottled water.

Simply Sparkling Events San Francisco de Young Museum

San Francisco Lilia Photography Simply Sparkling Events

Their ceremony took place on the lush green Sculpture Garden behind the De Young Museum Café adorned with one of a kind metal sculptures. GrandiFlora, LLC (another LLB member!) set the stage with two gorgeous flower arrangements. Our color palette was bold and modern~ orange, silver and fuchsia with black accents. Karen with GrandiFlora, took the vision and brought it to life in the most incredible way!

de Young Museum San Francisco Liia Photography

all images courtesy of Lilia Photography

Photography by Lilia San Francisco Simply Sparkling Events

Karen and Jay’s guests enjoyed a photobooth, a scrapbook table and photographs of every single guest that we had turned into escort cards!

Simply Sparkling Events Photography Lilia San Francisco

The cupcake display was a definite jaw-dropper! When guests caught sight of the giant cupcake at the top ~ they could barely contain themselves!

Brightly colored center pieces in long rectangular vases to set a modern classy vibe. Table numbers were from Karen & Jay’s engagement session (Lilia Photography).