Click here to see the entire gallery of images!

From Kate McElwee Photographer…Patty and Nate had a beautiful but very laid back wedding at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, MA.  Patty’s parents are Japanese and to honor her cultural heritage the couple chose some fun Japanese touches including Patty’s bouquet (Japanese style, and topped with two white orchids) and Nate’s boutonniere.  Their florist was a Japanese florist based in Boston. Another cultural touch were Patty’s red shoes and Nate’s red socks, symbolizing good luck in Japanese tradition.

Patty and Nate chose Old South Church because it is a very liberal, open and welcoming Christian church.  They know many gay couples and it was important to them that they marry at a church where their friends would also be allowed to marry.  They were keen to ensure that all of their vendors were also gay-friendly. Their beautiful invitation suite featured original drawings of Old South Church and Boston Public Garden (location for portraits, and seen from reception venue The Four Seasons). When they exited the church, coordinator Fiona of Pink Orchid Weddings had guests line up and wave “yay” “hooray” and “married” flags while cheering the couple.  Patty and Nate left for the reception in a white Jaguar, and guests traveled in trolleys.

Cocktail hour was held in the bar off the grand Four Seasons restaurant Aujourd’hui (site of the main reception) and guests were offered appetizers that included miniature bristol burgers, crab cakes, smoked salmon with corn griddle cakes, truffle parmesan fries served in bamboo cones.  The dinner entree choices were fillet mignon or herb-crusted halibut. Guest favors were photo frames that were personalized with Patty and Nate’s names and their wedding date. After dinner, there was much dancing in the main room (Aujourd’hui) and a photobooth in the bar area, complete with silly props such as mustaches and giant scissors (photos available on request!) The late-night dessert buffet was an impressive array of sweets that included triple chocolate brownies, mini fruit tarts, mini cheesecakes, lemon whoopie pies, vanilla creme brulee, chocolate raspberry almond tortes, and apricot shortcakes. In addition to this incredible dessert spread, the couple had a four tier lemon and raspberry wedding cake from Flour Bakery.

Wedding Photography: Kate McElwee Photographer / Coordinator: Pink Orchid Weddings / Ceremony Venue: Old South Church / Reception Venue: Four Seasons Hotel / Chair Rental: Tommy Wholesale / Floral Design: Hanaya Floral / Ceremony Musician: Harry Huff / Officiant: Reverend Doctor Ken Orth / Trolly: Supertours / Limousine: Excelsior Limousine / Hair: Jennifer Guerriero / Make-up: Veronica Shin / Wedding Cake: Flour Bakery / DJ: Beat Train Productions / Linens: Table Toppers / Wedding Dress: Augusta Jones / Bridesmaid Dresses: BCBG

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Post tags: Augusta Jones, BCBG, Beat Train Productions, Boston, Cultural Beauty, Excelsior Limousine, Flour Bakery, Four Seasons Hotel, Hanaya Floral, Harry Huff, Jennifer Guerriero, Kate McElwee Photographer, Massachusetts Weddings, Old South Church, Pink Orchid Weddings, Reverand Doctor Ken Orth, Table Toppers, Tommy Wholesale, Veronica Shin
Post categories: Boston Weddings, Massachusetts Weddings, Traditional Elegance

Mmm… more in the gallery!

Terry proposed to me when we were in Oahu attending a friend’s wedding. He insisted on me going swimming with him at the beach.  It was cold so I decided not to go.  But later on, I got a bit concerned so I joined him; when he saw me approaching him, he kneeled under a tree and asked me if I would marry him. It was a complete surprise to me -and I, of course, said yes!

We had been searching for a venue from northern Los Angeles to San Diego.  Terry and I are very different… he loves nature and I love the city.  When we found that the Four Season in Westlake Village boasts the combination that appeals to both us, we knew we had found our venue.  The waterfall and the pagoda are like a little retreat inside a very modern space.

Modern, simple and elegance are what I love.  Our color scheme was blue and white.  I have to admit there is a part of me that’s very nostalgic of childhood and storytime, and I couldn’t resist to make that a part of my wedding.  My all time favorite character is Miffy, created by a Dutch artist, Dick Bruna.  I purchased two Miffy Dolls (a bride and a groom) and displayed them in my bridal room, and I had Miffy dolls as the cake top.

I also loved the cute and crowd pleasing “bee hive” cake created by the Four Seasons.  My guests were fascinated by the animated looking bees that buzzed around the cake.  The candy buffet created by Lumiani was another show stopper.  The whole set up was very dreamy, with cotton clouds hanging above the display.  And of course, the candies were just irresistible.

Photography: Desi Baytan Photography / Venue: Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village / Event Coordination and Candy Buffet: Lumiani / Flowers: Square Root Designs / Makeup & Hair: TH Makeup Design / Videographer: Whsy Entertainment / Officiant: JPR Weddings / Entertainment & Lighting: EV Entertainment / Dance Floor: Hayden Dance Floors / Lounge Furniture Rental: Plush Lounge Furniture Rental / Photo Booth: DG Event / Harpist: Elaine Litster / Wedding Gown: Vera Wang / Bride’s Shoes: Christian Louboutin / Stationery: Paper Talk Press

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Post tags: California, Candy Buffet, Christian Louboutin, Color Palette Blue White, Cultural Beauty, Desi Baytan Photography, DG Event, EV Entertainment, Four Seasons Hotel, Hayden Dance Floors, JPR Weddings, Lumiani, Macaron, Oriental Inspired, Paper Talk Press, Plush Lounge Furniture Rental, Square Root Designs, Summer Wedding, TH Makeup Design, Traditional Elegance, Vera Wang, Wedding Photography, Whsy Entertainment
Post categories: Little Black Book Blog

from Christina …

Todd and I met in Houston, Texas, at a restaurant. On our first date (the next night) I looked at Todd and said, “I think I will marry you!”…not a great first date line, but exactly a year later he was my husband!

Though we live in New York City, we have roots in Texas so we wanted to be married there. I had seen pictures of weddings at the Four Seasons in Austin and thought it would be a beautiful destination wedding.

Our wedding colors were inspired by a gray suit Todd spotted in December before we were engaged. I wanted to incorporate my favorite color, pink, in a way that was respectful to a man’s taste. We made gray the basic color and pink the accent: suits and dresses gray, accessories and flowers pink. The bridesmaids wore beautiful silver and stone bracelets and long pearl necklaces made by one of the bridesmaids.

Wendee from Petal Pushers pulled everything together with flower design: chandeliers of peonies, lanterns, mirrored boxes of arrangements, crystals, and twinkling votive candles. Mint julep glasses in the floral arrangements complemented our signature drink. And the bouquets… HOLY PEONIES, they were beyond beautiful!

We wanted our guests to experience the greatest in food and drink. The Four Seasons did not disappoint anyone! We feasted at several stations: sushi to Mexican to beef tenderloin. Late night snacks included cookies, tomato basil soup, and grilled cheese sandwiches.

We celebrated Todd’s parents’ 40th anniversary that night with a special cake and an anniversary dance. Also, instead of throwing the bouquet to my already married girlfriends, I gave it to my mother.

I cherish every memory and thank Stella and Leon Alesi for capturing our special weekend on film to remember for a lifetime.

See all of Christina and Todd’s photos in their SMP Gallery

Photography: stella alesi/photography ~ SMP Portfolio
Flowers: Petal Pushers ~ SMP Portfolio
Event Planning: Aimee Villa of Lizze Belle Events
Ceremony & Reception: Four Seasons Austin - Lawn
Dress: Monique Lhuillier ~ SMP Portfolio

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Austin, Four Seasons Hotel, Lizze Belle Event Management, Monique Lhuillier, Petal Pushers, Texas Weddings
Post categories: Bouquets, Centerpieces, Destination, Little Black Book Blog, Traditional Elegance, Wedding Flowers, Wedding Photography

Granted, not all Vegas weddings are destination weddings, but since the vast majority of them are, it’s critical that you find an expert like Tracey who specializes in making your wedding weekend stress-free … one that you and your guests will never forget!

And now, from  Tracey and Elizabeth (today’s beautiful bride)…

images courtesy of altF photography

Our wedding ended up being a destination wedding… sort of!  Las Vegas is our “home town” at present, but almost all of our family and friends would be journeying to our wedding from all over the US and Europe. We realized we were getting married in the quickie drive-through wedding capital of the world, but we absolutely wanted a sophisticated, modern wedding that was full of unique details and reflected our personalities. We also wanted our out of town guests to know how honored we were that they made the trip, and so it was very important to us to throw a super fun and unforgettable wedding that would be the highlight of their Las Vegas experience. With those ideas in mind, we set about assembling our “Dream Team” of wedding professionals.

WEDDING VENUE
The Four Seasons Hotel was the best of all possible worlds for us—it’s an intimate non-gaming, non-smoking property at the southern end of The Strip (which appealed to us), but it’s within walking distance of several big resort casinos (which we knew would appeal to our guests). The Fountain Terrace itself is like an oasis of calm and beauty in the midst of vibrant non-stop Las Vegas. It features a picturesque waterfall, lush landscaping and seasonal flowers, and dramatic up-lit statues. What Andy and I loved about it was that being on the Terrace, you could almost forget you were in the middle of noisy non-stop, Las Vegas, until you looked up and saw the golden tower of neighboring Mandalay Bay Resort stretching to the sky. We felt like the juxtaposition perfectly captured exactly what we wanted for our un-Vegas Vegas wedding!

FLORAL DESIGN
We told Randi Garrett of Naakiti Floral Design that we didn’t want a single rose anywhere in any of our wedding flowers, and that we liked materials like reeds, moss, rocks, grasses, Lucite and stainless steel. She didn’t bat an eyelash! She created our chuppah as a modern, geometric structure with black wrought iron columns and sheer white silk panels with white pillar candles glowing from behind. The result was a soft yet modern silhouette. The rest of the ceremony design included a custom white runner lined in our lime color flanked by alternating arrangements of high horsetails with moss beds and low black lacquer trays of floating green and white orchids. Flowers for the cocktail hour and reception followed in this vein, with lots of bamboo, wheat grass, orchids, and votive candles. One of the most important design elements of our wedding ended up being our reception linen choice: a crinkled white taffeta with a thick black floral design winding through. We carried this theme everywhere!

OUR INVITATIONS
First, we had custom invitations designed by Tifany, the genius of Gourmet Invitations. Tifany created all the paper products for our wedding using variations on this black and white floral graphic accented with lime green: a seating chart with our dinner menu, table numbers, postage stamps, bar menus, and thank you cards. The reception linen inspired graphic even made its way on to our cake and on to the pages our wedding album!

invitation images courtesy of Gourmet Invitations

OUR CAKE
Our cake was truly a work of art. It was a square, three tiered confection of alternating layers of vanilla sponge cake and mango mousse and chocolate sponge cake with milk chocolate hazelnut praline filling. It was white featuring our signature floral graphic done in black fondant, and was topped with a custom topper of our “miniature family”: a four-inch tall recreation of me, my husband, and our two pugs Grover and Petunia! Not only was our wedding attire correctly depicted on the figurines, but the pugs’ blue dog tags were too. {Cake topper from Nicole W Clark)

OUR CELEBRATION
Throughout the evening, Andy and I tried to incorporate as many details as possible that were uniquely “us”. Our ketubah {from Micah Parker Artworks) was a nod to Roy Lichtenstein (a fun comic book rendition of a groom’s foot stomping on a glass, and a comic book style voice bubble crying “Mazeltov!” in the background).  We used “green” as more than just one of our colors, and purchased our recycled platinum and diamond wedding bands from eco-friendly jeweler Brilliant Earth.

Music was another top priority for us. We didn’t want a DJ spinning the same ubiquitous songs that we’ve all heard a million times. We loved the idea of live music, but also recognized its limitations when playing more contemporary songs our younger guests would appreciate. Our compromise? We got a band AND a DJ! The Steve Beyer Band provided all musical entertainment for the evening. It was a perfect blend and a real chance to showcase our musical personalities. We relied solely on the DJ for our ceremony music. As our guests were arriving, they were serenaded by classical string arrangements of all our favorite contemporary pop songs. It was great to hear guests were asking each other “Is this Nirvana?” or “I’m pretty sure this is a U2 song”. For the processional, it was all covers of favorite pop tunes—my husband entered with his parents to the Eagles of Death Metal’s version of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love”, and I walked down the aisle to a remix of Pete Townshend’s “Let My Love Open the Door”. Our guests spent the cocktail hour following the ceremony on the winding path adjacent to the Fountain Terrace, where they listened to the sounds of the band’s jazz guitarist.

In keeping with our wedding colors, I’d made a slight costume change and added a thick black satin sash and black patent Manolo Blahniks to my romantic lace Monique L’Huillier strapless gown from Couture Bride Salon. Andy and I made our grand entrance to the band playing “Walking on Sunshine”, and in lieu of our first dance (which we had midway through the reception), we transitioned directly into a rousing Horah. Getting lifted up on those chairs was fun but scary!

We had two signature cocktails: the Meddling Moms Martini (in honor of our mothers, who set us up), and the Parisian Picnic (in honor of Paris, the site of our engagement). When cocktail hour was finished, the guests made their way back into the Fountain Terrace, which had been transformed into all its reception glory.

Our final surprise of the evening happened around 11 PM, when servers began passing trays of frozen Eskimo Pies and spiked Root Beer floats, and the fresh, hot doughnut station opened! As if that wasn’t enough food, we also had a savory snack of French Fries and Tater Tots in paper cones for those with a salty tooth.

We truly had the wedding of our dreams. We kept it very small, so each and every guest was a beloved friend or family member. We infused our modern-looking wedding with sentimental touches like using the Kiddush cup and tallis from Andy’s Bar Mitzvah during our ceremony.

OUR WEDDING PLANNER

When Tracey showed us a three inch binder containing all the planning notes, vendor contracts and important documents from a wedding she had just coordinated, we knew she was the one for us! Her expertise and professional connections got us off to a great start and kept us on track up until the band played the last song at our reception.

In a city that can be lovingly synonymous with all thing Elvis and kitsch, we had an elegant, sophisticated wedding that we felt was really “out of the box” in all the best possible ways. Our wedding was everything we had hoped and imagined it would be. And best of all? It was all just icing on the wedding cake, since we were finally married to each other!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: altf photography, Brillian Earth, Cake Topper, Chuppah, Couture Bridal Salon, Desserts, Four Seasons Hotel, Gourmet Invitations, Jewish, Ketubah, Las Vegas, Micah Parker Artworks, Monique Lhuillier, Naakiti Floral Design, Nevada, Nicole W Clark, Steve Beyer Band, Your Las Vegas Concierge
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Contemporary, Destination, Little Black Book Blog, Traditional Elegance, Wedding Invitations & Stationery, Wedding Planners & Designers

And if you’re fortunate enough to book Fiore Films, you will be forever blessed with a masterpiece! Because Sharrone is a master … a master at creating intensely romantic, edgy, cinematic-style wedding films.  Her dramatic style pulls you to the edge of your chair, waiting to see what happens next! True, passionate storytelling at its best.

We have a trailer from Andree and Bryan’s stunning spring wedding at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia to prove our point. See for yourself …

See what we mean? Fiore Films is phenomenal!

ps … just as a follow-up on a previous feature {Sivanne & Omar’s Save The Date}, their Engagement “Hot Shot” is super-steamy {see it here}

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fiore Films, Four Seasons Hotel, New Jersey, New York Weddings, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Post categories: Little Black Book Blog, Real Weddings, Traditional Elegance, Wedding Cinematography