see the rest of this pretty day here!

I felt so lucky on our wedding day because our families meshed so well. Between the two families, we had close to 50 grand kids! Can you believe it? There were kids everywhere, but that’s what made the event so fun. Part of what made our wedding special, is that my mom and Blake’s mom were best friends in college. They were even each others bridesmaids! Our moms were in heaven and it made the whole wedding feel so personal!

I always wanted an outdoor wedding, and lucky for us, the weather turned out to be perfect. We had delicious food, lights, an ice cream bar (I like ice cream better than cake), and a great band who played jazz and Frank Sinatra (because I think that style of music is so romantic)! Kids were dancing everywhere! As we left our reception all we could think about is how loved we felt. It was so fun to have all the people we cared most about all in the same place at the same time to celebrate with us!

Photography: Jonathan Canlas / Ceremony Venue: The Salt Lake Temple / Reception Venue: The Salt Lake Country Club / Wedding Dress and Belt: Alta Moda Bridal / Hair: Lanna Marie Waisath at Le Studio Salon / Floral Design: Carolyn May at Mayflowers / Cake: Raspberry Almond Cake from Pastry Arts Barrani / Make Up: Tilly Sine Southwick / Groom’s Suit: Calvin Klein from Nordstrom / Groom’s Bow Tie: Brooks Brothers / Music and Entertainment: Joe Muscolino Band / Favors: Ghiradelli Chocolates / Groomsmen Ties: Bloomingsales / Bridesmaid Outfits: J.Crew / Invitations: Bella Figura

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Alta Moda Bridal, Bella Figura, Bloomingdales, Brooks Brothers, J. Crew, Jonathan Canlas, Mayflowers, Nordstrom, Salt Lake City, Utah
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Real Weddings

{Click here to see the whole gorgeous capital wedding}

From the bride…

Ever since I was a little girl I had always dreamed of having a fairytale classy downtown wedding. Our wedding took place in my favorite season, fall. The fall season was brought to life through our wedding colors, our menu selections, and venues. The morning of our wedding began with a breakfast at my home with all of my bridesmaids. Our wedding ceremony took place at noon at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Washington DC Temple. After the ceremony, Susan Gage had prepared lunches for everyone. This delicious food was individual packaged into little boxes that had a picture of Craig and I on them and tied with cute ribbon in our wedding colors. We tried to incorporate the fall theme the most we could in small ways like including delicious pumpkin cupcakes in all of the individual lunch boxes.

Our photographer, Jonathan Canlas was an unbelievably inspired individual who was able to capture all the feelings and love during our wedding through a photograph. His work was beautiful and creative. After the temple ceremony and box lunches Craig and I went with Jonathan to down town DC to take pictures at the monuments. The photographs outside of the monuments are my very favorite.

Our reception was held that evening at the gorgeous National Women’s Museum of the Arts on New York Avenue in Washington DC. The colors I chose for our wedding were based on the burnt fall colors that I liked best. We went with copper ribbons on the invitations, which came from Creative Parties in Bethesda. Tracy Schwartz is the owner. She was great to work with and addressed all the invitations for us. We had the most wonderful florist who made the event spectacular! Her name is Barbara Hamilton at Ociana. The flowers were burnt oranges and sunset pinks. We mostly chose roses with fall berries.

We had pumpkins as a theme throughout the reception. We used White pumpkins in some of the table arrangements. An artist drew whimsical pumpkins on the numbers for the 30 tables and drew a fairy taleish map of the table arrangements. We had a seated dinner for 350 people.

There was a gathering reception held upstairs before the evening reception in one of the art galleries. Mock tails and hors d’hoeuvres were served. We had fall treats like pumpkin smoothies, apple martinis, crab cakes, goat cheese pizzas, and mini burger sliders. The wedding favors were Crispy crème donuts, hot chocolate and hot apple cider that the guests could take on their way out to send us off. We ran out to an amazing horse drawn carriage under a tunnel of sparklers. The carriage took us to the Renaissance Mayflower Marriott hotel.

It was a fairy tale wedding and I even married the handsome prince!

Vendor Credits: Photography: Jonathan Canlas / Reception Venue: National Women’s Museum of the Arts / Catering: Susan Gage / Dress: Audrey, Vera Wang from Saks Jandel / Bride’s Shoes: Dior / Bridesmaid Dresses: Vera Wang /  Hair: Rick Perez / Invitations: Creative Parties / Florist: Barbara Hamilton at Ociana / Cake: Marilyn Mueller, Terracocoa / Band: Doctor’s Orders /  Videography: Joe Newstedt at Creative Productions /

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Post tags: Christian Dior, Classic Fall Colors, Creative Parties, Fall, Fall Wedding, Jonathan Canlas, National Women's Museum of Arts, Ociana, Susan Gage, Terracocoa, Vera Wang, Washington DC
Post categories: All Real Weddings, Real Weddings, Traditional Elegance

photography by Jonathan Canlas and select details by Shannon Renee

We tried to bring the outdoors inside the Rehearsal Hall for a rustic, woodsy look, which we accomplished by using natural materials, live herbs, trees, & leaves, and by making many of the decorations and details by hand. I made the invitations and programs, Joel and I made the CD favors, and my amazing aunt was the florist and handcrafted all of the table designs (boxes with herbs & flowers, wooden sconces and twig wreaths filled with flowers and moss, leaf and bark-wrapped candles, etc). We hired Kellie from Artisan Bloom to design & implement the perimeter of the Rehearsal Hall and to bring in the barn & carriage lanterns hung at various heights with candles inside. My mother & I worked together to come up with a vision of how we wanted it to look, and then she surprised us by taking that vision further than we could have imagined–walking into that spectacular room after the ceremony, with all the candlelight, illuminated trees, herbs, and all of our loved ones was one of the most amazing moments of the day.

I loved how the details made each table different and how they really gave the sense of the outdoors being brought in. The lanterns were beautiful, as was everything down to the herbs in the napkins! Kellie made this amazing monogram out of bound willows for the stone fireplace…We also loved the fire pits and benches outside, and of course the photo booth (which my my mom surprised us with).

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Jonathan Canlas, Shannon Renee, Sundance, Utah
Post categories: Casual Elegance

Oh and Jonathan. Well, he blew it out of the park with images that are simple, crystal clear and so vivid that you might actually believe you are right there with the couple. Love that.

We knew we wanted our wedding to be an outdoors, nature-oriented experience, which Sundance lends itself to so well. For the ceremony we needed little more than the mountains and a few flowers. I had originally wanted an outdoor, picnic table reception, but the weather in October makes that more or less impossible–when we saw the barn-like Rehearsal Hall, though, with the stream and woods outside, we loved it.

The day was was composed of special contributions from so many people. We loved that the ceremony was completely unique and created by us and our loved ones; we loved that nature was so central to it all. Surprising everyone with our musical number on the guitars was one of our favorite moments.

And if you are loving the details…Jonathan actually held a 1 on 1 photography workshop with Shannon Renee and Shannon is the talent behind some of the absolutely darling little details. More in just a bit!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Jonathan Canlas, Shannon Renee, Sundance, Utah
Post categories: Casual Elegance

Lots more coming up today!!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bountiful, Bountiful LDS Temple, Jonathan Canlas, Utah
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance

That cake is a star wars x-wing cake that some of their close friends made for them (adorable) if you can believe it. It’s touches like this one that totally make me smile…to see personality infused all over the place. LOVE.

More on the way!!

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Post tags: Bountiful, Bountiful LDS Temple, Jonathan Canlas, Utah
Post categories: Casual Elegance, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

Jonathan always sends us the best weddings, but this one…well, it takes the cake!

I also really love that the bride and groom included snapshots of themselves to give their guests a little window into their relationship. Sometimes weddings can get so impersonal and this is such a lovely way to bring warmth and personality into your day. So super cute.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bountiful, Bountiful LDS Temple, Jonathan Canlas, Utah
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance

I mean, seriously! How cute is this!? here are a few details from Jonathan Canlas, the ridiculously talented photographer behind the event…

Becca & Issac were married this past July at the Bountiful LDS Temple in Bountiful UT.

The reception had ice cream sundae stations for all the guests.  The groom’s cake, a star wars x-wing cake, was made by a family friend (CRAZY!).  The bride’s maids had killer, killer style with a throw back to the swing look.
Issac & Becca met through their church choir.  The saxophonist was a 93 yr old man who had appeared in one of Issac’s documentaries about Odgen UT.  Issac is a film maker and has had a couple of his documentaries on PBS.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bountiful, Bountiful LDS Temple, Jonathan Canlas, Utah
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance