Is that not the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen? And you know what…it isn’t the least bit surprising coming from a studio like Elysium. I had the sheer pleasure of seeing Julie and team in action at one of our dear friend’s wedding and when I say their work was amazing, I am hardly doing them justice.

We reached out to the photographer behind the event, Aaron Delesie…who also happens to be a friend of ours and a MAJOR style me pretty love…to share some of the pics with us. You can also click right here to see InStyle’s gallery of images and get more information about the affair.

Thank you so much to Elysium and to Aaron Delesie for sharing this ridiculously gorgeous wedding with us. It’s one of those weddings that just a dream, a purely gorgeous dream.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 30 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Elysium, Puerto Rico
Post categories: Cultural Beauty, Traditional Elegance

And for all of you vendors and entrepreneurs out there…I wrote a little post on Marketing Your Business Online over on Backstage. Pretty basic, but good info to keep in your pocket nonetheless.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Brooke Keegan, Southern California
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance

But today, I am ALL gush. I am trying very hard to restrain myself from saying every 16 year old phrase that pops into my head because this wedding turns me into butterflies and total mush. I love it. I love the simple, restrained style. The vintage, worn-down luxury. The effortless elegance. I love every bit of this wedding, mostly because of the ridiculously gorgeous styling that Sunny at White Lilac designed, but also because of the insanely gorgeous photographs that Aaron Delesie captured. So pretty that I am actually wondering if it’s weird to print out someone else’s wedding and hang the photographs on my walls. It’s just that gorgeous.

Here is a little bit more from Brooke Keegan, the fabulous planner and event coordinator behind the day…

Every detail was thought out; from the hand designed and calligraphy invitations, maps, escort card rocks and signage done by the Bride’s twin sister Amanda and little sister Colby, to the straw tags with “love” sayings and the Ring Bearer box that they had brought back from their travels in Madagascar. And by coincidence, her Melissa Sweet dress was appropriately named “Fern”. The guests enjoyed a delectable three-course meal and danced the night away under the stars. It was such a magical and unforgettable event. They even had an after party with the In N’ Out truck for late night snacks! I will have to say that it was also such a pleasure working with the Peck family on this wedding – they are the sweetest and most gracious people I know!

More coming up in just a bit! And I swear, I will calm down and start speak like a regular human being and not an irrational wedding stalker.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Brooke Keegan, Outdoor, Southern California, White Lilac
Post categories: Casual Elegance, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

And for a girl that looks at literally hundreds of weddings a week, that speaks volumes as to just how smitten I am with this affair.  Photographed by one of my favorite photographers, Aaron Delesie and planned by one of the most adorable up and comers, Brooke Keegan…it’s one of the only weddings that has honestly made me feel insanely jealous. The couple was going for an Organic, Garden Chic style and the result was completely and totally flawless.

Writing a blog that features such beautiful weddings day in and day out makes it very difficult to have a favorite wedding. Every one is beautiful in its own unique way, usually perfectly tailored to the couple behind the affair. But if I were to pin it down and really define my own personal style…this wedding would be it.  It’s organic elegance. Simple, luxurious style. A perfect, muted color palette. A timeless elegance with touches of modern charm. And you know what? It’s just going to keep getting better as the day progresses.

Brooke Keegan, the planner behind the day did an incredible job at pulling the entire affair together, at articulating the bride and groom’s vision in a way that is completely effortless. And Sunny Ravanbach over at White Lilac, the incredible florist behind the affair, is officially my new style guru. I love her subtle hand with the flowers, I love her organic and yet insanely beautiful execution of the couple’s style.

And Aaron’s photos. Well, I am yet again blown away by just how talented he and his incredibly lovely wife, Jenn, are…they are hands down two of the best photographers I know.

We have SO much more to come. And I promise, it’s SO worth the wait.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Brooke Keegan, Organic, Southern California, White Lilac
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance

Well, this one…is basically as beautiful as you can possibly imagine. Planned by Lisa Vorce, it’s completely delicious. Oh and the photographs…Aaron Delesie. GORGEOUS.

From Lisa…

We immediately locked in The Hacienda San Angel in Puerto Vallarta as the venue. It is a small boutique hotel and it is beyond romantic. It is one of my favorite places on the planet. Upon Kara and Ray’s arrival – we had a beautiful welcome gift waiting for them with traditional Mexican sweets and a gorgeous bottle of Tequila.  Xandra from XYZ Ink did all of calligraphy for the event including the gorgeous note in the welcome gift.

SWOON. So much more to come!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Elopement, Lisa Vorce, Oh How Charming
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

All my weddings hold a dear place in my heart — but this one is extra special!! I was working in my studio one day and received a phone call from a potential client named Kara. She told me that she and her fiance were going to elope. All she really wanted was for me to design a special “table for two” for her elopement. I got so excited about being involved in an elopement and the thought of designing one very special table — that I kind of went a little out of control. I wanted to design the entire wedding!

I knew of the perfect little romantic hacienda in Mexico for Kara and Ray — and knew my amazing team would be on board to rock out an elopement (and not just a table for two!). I told Kara my thoughts and she was delighted! From that moment on — she let me do my thing and said “I trust you”. (Music to my ears!)

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Elopement, Oh How Charming
Post categories: Cultural Beauty, Traditional Elegance

A bit more from Lisa…

As the sun went down — the trees began to sparkle with all of our hanging candlelight. The lighting was magical. It was fun to step back and watch the party. It truly was a unique and elegant old world garden party! Patricia and Austin (and the whole family!) were a dream to work with. As with all our clients… we miss them!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Lisa Vorce, Oh How Charming
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

From Lisa…

For our color story — we went with a combination of creams and taupes, and added accents of charcoal and black. For florals – the amazingly talented Mindy Rice paired gorgeous peonies, garden roses, maidenhair fern and mood moss, in aged charcoal clay vessels with more structured boxwood spheres.

For added drama and height, I had Barker Decor build Magnolia trees that “grew” out of the center of our square tables. I also had Barker create a custom taupe dance floor that matched our taupe glass chargers from Tabella. The dance floor served as the most beautiful “centerpiece” to our dinner reception.

La Tavola provided the perfect taupe linen underlays and chair cushions. The taupe cushions paired with our black chiavari chairs were beyond striking! Mindy and I had cream overlay linens sewn…and for a little twist, we added a fringe border to the overlays. It was the perfect little unexpected detail! For a little more quirkiness — we hung hand carved wood birds in the Magnolia trees. They were absolutely beautiful.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, La Tavola, Lisa Vorce, Mindy Rice, Oh How Charming, Tabella
Post categories: The Blog

From Lisa…

Patricia wanted a garden wedding with a twist! It was important to her that the decor fit the venue, and that it didn’t look too forced or overdone. She wanted a simple and elegant affair with just the right amount of quirkiness. At our first site visit, I was instantly inspired by Patricia’s venue selection — the beautiful Athenaeum in Pasadena. Gorgeous mature trees, beautiful columns, old world architecture, rich brick walkways.  I knew it was going to be a dream to design around it.

We have so much more to come from Lisa and Aaron!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Lisa Vorce, Oh How Charming
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

Lisa Vorce of Oh How Charming! is the voice behind the design and Aaron Delesie is the talent behind the photographs. And together, they are a match made in wedding heaven!

Here is a little teaser while I finish gathering the details…

So much more on the way!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Lisa Vorce, Oh How Charming
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

Obviously, there is something blissfully romantic about the thought of getting married in Italy. The food, the wine, the rolling vineyards. It’s just a little piece of heaven.

From Aaron…The pink building above is the Villa La Masa and it is one of the most beautiful Villas in Florence. It is where the bride got ready before we all headed out to the castle in the country. These photos are just here to inspire a feeling. I shot them awhile ago but they are close to my heart!

AMAZING. Feeling butterflies just thinking about what an incredible experience it would be to tie the knot in Italy. Such a beautiful story to tell your children. Thank you so very much to Aaron Delesie for taking the time to guest blog for us today. If you are new to SMP and aren’t familiar with Aaron’s work…it’s pure perfection. Take some time to look through his portfolio. You will be absolutely blown away.

Tomorrow, we have Viola at Chewing the Cud blogging for us and Wednesday, Lisa Hoffman (who is with me here in the Cayman Islands!) is stopping by to share some tips from her own affair. It’s a good week on SMP!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Ceci NY, Chewing The Cud, Italy, Lisa Hoffman, Tuscany
Post categories: Wedding Photography

I will have lots to report on my trip in a bit, but for now, back to the stunning wedding that Aaron is sharing with us!

* * *

From Aaron...another great touch with this wedding was the table in the villa with 4 generations of family photos in antique frames. Then at the end there is always an element of fun at the end when those who have been drinking get to play with fireworks!

SWOON. I am in love and so thrilled that Aaron chose this wedding to feature today. He is going to be back in a flash with another ridiculously lovely wedding and so many bits of eye candy to inspire your own affair!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Southern California, Tuscany
Post categories: Casual Elegance

* * *

The bride, Leila, is a very talented artist and has an incredible eye.  She was at Art Center in Pasadena at the same time I was years ago and is a really amazing artist!

I think my favorite thing about the wedding was the table numbers, well in this case the table names. Leila personally hand-painted a canvas for each table with an herb.  Leila’s idea was that after the wedding she would hang these paintings in her kitchen.  A nice reminder of her wedding and incredible decor for her walls!  So guests were seated at  “Basil”,  “Sage”, etc… and this went well with the fact that outside of personals, there were no flowers to be found at the event .

Back in a bit with even more incredible details!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Southern California, Tuscany
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

With that said, I’ve enlisted a few of my very favorite vendors to help us with the week’s posts. Aaron Delesie is kicking off the week with the most amazing weddings you’ve ever seen in your life. No need to blab on and on because Aaron has done such an incredible job introducing the affairs!

* * *

First off let me start by saying how excited and flattered I am that Abby asked me to guest blog today on SMP today and to share these two weddings inspired by the beauty of Tuscany!  Everyone that knows me has heard me go on about how I am going to retire in Italy. I love everything about the country… the history, the art, the architecture, the people, the food and of course the wine!

I have two unique weddings to show you.  One that took place in Tuscany in an 11th century castle  and another wedding that took place at a Villa in  Southern California.  While the So Cal location was nestled in the hills outside Los Angeles,  once on the property you would swear you were at a Villa in Tuscany!  In fact the Villa is a replica, at 1/4 scale, of the Villa Collazzi outside of Florence. It widely believed, though never proven, that the Villa Collazzi was the only Villa ever designed by Michelangelo.   So we’ll start with Leila and Jiwon and their Southern California, Villa Collazzi, Tuscan- inspired wedding…

There were so many things about this wedding to love.  I  loved that Leila brought in herbs and topiaries and hedging instead of flowers for the decor. It really suited this venue and kept it very Tuscan. The event had a real organic, natural feel.

While everything was well done, it didn’t feel overdone.  Kim Bradford and Nice from Enchanted Florist helped accomplish this feat. The other touches I enjoyed were the antique typewriter and old mail drop box the couple found  online. They told me they went through multiple typewriters until they found one that worked! This allowed guests to type messages for the couple on “Telegram” cards designed by the bride.

* * *

So much more to come from Aaron Delesie!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Guest Blog, Southern California
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

So, when they sent me today’s rehearsal…which is actually the rehearsal dinner for one of my favorite weddings on SMP…I jumped at the chance to put it up. And, the brilliantly talented Curtis Heyne has put together a video of the day, which made me even happier.

Plus, I am totally convinced that this rehearsal would make for a pretty awesome wedding. At least one that I would kill to attend! So laid back, so festive. And really, really beautiful. The food alone made me a little jealous!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Aaron for sending this my way! I am totally convinced that this is the best rehearsal I have ever seen. It’s making this dreary day in Boston so much brighter. Oh, and don’t fret readers, it isn’t over yet. Curtis Heyne of Living Cinema is up next with the most beautiful video of the day…it’s absolutely spectacular.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Curtis Heyne, day and max, Lisa Vorce, Living Cinema, Mexican, Rehearsal Dinner
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Wedding Photography, Wedding Planners & Designers