Thank you, thank you, thank you to Ashley and April Smith for sharing this with us. We have never featured a wedding over a span of two days, so that should speak volumes as to just how much we love yours.

And lastly, here is a fun DIY that Ashley designed…hanging votives!

Materials:

Heavy Gauge Wire, pre-greased (found at Lowe’s)
Wire Cutters
Votive Candle Holders, different sizes and shapes
Round Nose Pliers
Pencil

Instructions:

1. Depending on the size of the votive, use wire cutters and cut sections anywhere from 18-21 inches. 18″ for the smallest votives and 21″ for the medium and larger votives.  You can use 21″ for all if you want, you’ll just have a little extra when you close the sides.

2. Cut your desired length of wire with a wire cutter.

3. Fold the wire in half and crimp just below the fold with round-nose pliers.

4. To form a hook, wrap crimped end over a pencil. Hold the base of the hook tightly with pliers, separate the two lengths of wire, then twist tightly around each other three times.

5. To form a loop, while still holding the wire with your pliers, take the “legs” of the wire in your other hand and twist one to two times.

6. To form the cuff that will hold the votive, use pliers to make a 90-degree bend, 4 1/4 inches from the hook base, on each length of wire. Situate the bends on opposite sides of the votive, about two-thirds of the way from the bottom of the glass.

7. Bring each cut end around to meet the opposite bend. With the tip of the pliers, make a tiny loop at each cut end. Hook the loops to the bends; use pliers to close loops tightly. Insert votive into the circle formed.

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Post tags: April Smith Photography, California Weddings, Chateau Felice, Hanging Votives, Healdsburg
Post categories: DIY Projects, DIY Wedding Decor, Traditional Elegance

All photographs were taken by April Smith Photography. The bridesmaids dresses were designed by After Six and the bridal gown was by Augusta Jones (style Tiffany). The bride, Ashley, made quite a few changes to the dress…removing the ruffle at the bottom, adding a foot more to the train, removing the beading down the front, adding buttons down the back and adding additional rhinestones to the remaining beading pattern. Her shoes were Pelle Moda, style Romance, found at Zappos. The junior bridesmaid dress was designed by Little Flowers by Odyssey. Hair and Make-Up was done by Trisha O’Connor in Santa Rosa.

More to come based on your own questions!

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Post tags: After Six, April Smith Photography, Augusta Jones, California Weddings, Chateau Felice, Healdsburg, Little Flowers by Oddyssey, Trisha O'Connor, Zappos
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

A few last words from Ashley, the lovely bride…

So, aside from the special things that happened in our ceremony, I think what made our wedding special was the love.  We had so much love on that day. Not just between Chris and I, but with our families and with our friends.  You can see it and feel it in our pictures.  Everyone worked so hard to put together this wedding.  My mom and her girlfriends with their master creative minds and their abilties to execute everything to a T, the bridesmaids wrapping ribbons around their bouquets before the ceremony.  Everyone came together to help and to celebrate our marriage and it made Chris and I feel so loved and so honored to have family and friends like we do.  It honestly felt magical and the only regret I have is that the night had to end!

I have way more photos than I actually put on the blog, so if there is anything that you’d like to see more of, let me know and I’ll get them up tomorrow!

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Post tags: April Smith Photography, California Weddings, Chateau Felice, Healdsburg, vineyard, Winery
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

I have a last look, as well as a few more details from Ashley on the way!

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Post tags: April Smith Photography, California Weddings, Chateau Felice, Healdsburg, vineyard, Winery
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

photographs by the ever talented April Smith

From Ashley…

My mom and I really tried to keep a shoestring budget for our wedding since Chris and I paid for everything ourselves.  We handwired every votive (the votives of which we scoured Dollar Stores and Big Lots!), I made my own Save the Dates, Rehearsal Invitations, Favor tags, my mom sewed every table topper, made every centerpiece, hung every crystal (you have to love the $1 bins at Michaels!), made every arrangement for the ceremony.  All the flowers were done by my mom and her two girlfriends (my mom went to the SF flower mart the day before).  All the drapery was made and put up by my mom and her girlfriends, all votives were hung by them, all lumianaries were cut and set up by them, you get the idea.

More to come!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: April Smith Photography, California Weddings, Chateau Felice, Healdsburg, vineyard, Winery
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

photographs by April Smith

Every detail was thought of, every inch of this wedding was lovingly designed. And, there were a few surprises that even the bride didn’t know about!

From Ashley…

Also, my Aunt and my cousin (who was one of my bridesmaids) surprised us both by having a butterfly release.  They released 4 butterflies, each representing someone very special to either Chris or myself.  This was really meaningful to us.  Especially in my family, the butterfly has long symbolized my grandmother who passed from cancer.  The butterfly has since come to also symbolize my grandfather and a dear family friend who I considered my “dad” who both also passed from cancer.  I didn’t see it, but I was told that a couple of the butterflies landed on my veil and dress and just hung out there for a while.

More to come!

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Post tags: April Smith Photography, California Weddings, Chateau Felice, Healdsburg, vineyard, Winery
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

photos by the lovely and oh-so-talented April Smith

From Ashley…

For the ceremony, my mom walked me down the aisle, which is fitting since it has always been me and her.  We really wanted everyone to be involved in our ceremony since each person we had asked to be there was special to us.  To do this, we asked our parents to stand and pledge their support to strengthen our marriage by upholding us with their love, concern, counsel and prayers.  To involve everyone there, we had a wedding blessing where our officiant asked all of the guests to offer their blessing to us and pledge their support and protect our relationship.  Everyone said, we do.

We also had a family medallion ceremony.  Chris has an 11 year old daughter and we wanted to involve her in the ceremony.  So, the officiant asked Mackenzie to join us. We then gave her a gold bracelet with a charm that had three overlapping circles, which symbolized our love and support.  Chris was a little too teary to put the bracelet on her, so I did.

So much more to come!

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Post tags: April Smith Photography, California Weddings, Chateau Felice, Healdsburg, vineyard, Winery
Post categories: Traditional Elegance

More to come!

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Post tags: April Smith Photography, California Weddings, Chateau Felice, Healdsburg, vineyard, Winery
Post categories: Traditional Elegance