And if you simply can’t wait to pick up your copy of MSW, you can check out the sneak peeks on Green Wedding Shoes, 100 Layer Cake, Jose’s blog, Joel’s blog and Elizabeth’s blog. Here is just one of the jaw droopingly beautiful images that made us go a little wedding crazy. A leather bound, hand calligraphed napkin wrap dreamed up by who else? Lisa Vorce. Wedding magician, Beauty Inventor and all around great girl.

Location: Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse / Event Design & Production: Lisa Vorce of Oh, How Charming! / Event Design and Flowers: Mindy Rice Floral Design / Catering: New West Catering / Stationery: Tiny Pine Press; and Papel Paper & Press / Calligraphy: Anne Jones / Cake: Sweet & Saucy Shop / Lighting: Bella Vista Design / Photography: Elizabeth Messina / Cinematography: Joe Simon Films / Ceremony & Cocktail Music: Bolero Soul / Reception Music: Michael Antonia of Flashdance / Rentals: Classic Party Rentals / Specialty Decor: Barker Decor Service

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Anne Jones, Barker Decor Service, Bella Vista Design, Bolero Soul, Classic Party Rentals, Elizabeth Messina, Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse, Joe Simon Wedding Films, Joel Serrato, Jose Villa, Lisa Vorce, Mindy Rice Floral Design, New West Catering, Oh How Charming, Papel Paper and Press, Sweet & Saucy Shop, The FlashDance, Tiny Pine Press
Post categories: Casual Elegance, The Blog

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From Lisa at Oh How Charming!…We fell in love with Kim on our first phone call with her. She’s hysterical. We basically had 3 months (my favorite!) to plan Kim & CJ’s wedding — and Kim knew exactly what she wanted. The entire color palette for their wedding was inspired by a fabulous necklace Kim purchased for her sweet dog “Blu”. The color way consisted of Cobalt Blue, Turquoise, Fuchsia, Mustard, and “Stone”.

Kim & CJ’s wedding was one of the first events on San Ysidro Ranch’s upper estate lawn. So fabulous! We had a little bit of a cloudy day, so Kim’s vibrant color palette was a welcome burst of color to the cloudy skies (and not to mention a lovely burst of color to the regular neutral color palettes in my portfolio!).

For the ceremony – we paired fruitwood chiavari chairs with mustard cushions. The fabulous team at R. Jack Balthazar did a gorgeous residential installation for the ceremony “altar” and the flower girls and ring bearers sat on mustard bean bags which was a sweet addition to the ceremony decor. You can see the influence of Blu’s necklace all the way down to the bridesmaid dress selections which were beyond extraordinary. R. Jack created beautiful hot pink peony bouquets for all the bridesmaids to carry which looked so amazing next to their vibrant dresses.

For dinner –  we paired stone colored Irish linen with white hemstitch runners on our long tables, and then beautiful white linens with organdy overlays on our round tables. All chairs had mustard cushions on them for continuity.  On the tables, we had silver rimmed glass chargers, silver rimmed glassware, vintage silver spoon napkin rings, vintage flatware, and vintage silver salt cellars. R. Jack created gorgeous floral tablescapes complete with grapes, peonies, white majolica, maidenhair fern and then paired them with turquoise votives and “collected” silver pieces, and crystal decanters filled with table wine.

The wedding was just beautiful and the weather held up for a gorgeous, gorgeous evening. Thank you to Kim and CJ for letting us be a part of their grand affair, and thank you to Blu for all the inspiration!

Wedding Photography: Aaron Delesie Photographer /  Event Production + Design: Lisa Vorce of Oh How Charming! / Venue: San Ysidro Ranch / Florals & Decor: R. Jack Balthazar / DJ: Red Shoe LA / Rentals: Classic Party Rentals / Linens: La Tavola Linen / Lighting: Lighten Up / Stationery: Mélangerie Inc. / Hair: Marilee Albin / Make-up: Fiore Beauty / Celebrant: Jon Ireland / Ceremony Music: Friends of the Groom / Cocktail Music: Supernova / Wedding Cinematography: Paper Tape Films

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Post tags: Aaron Delesie Photographer, California Weddings, Classic Party Rentals, Fiore Beauty, Jon Ireland, Lighten Up, Marilee Albin, Melangerie, Oh How Charming, Paper Tape Films, R. Jack Balthazar, Red Shoe LA, San Ysidro Ranch, Supernova
Post categories: Casual Elegance, The Blog

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From Lisa Vorce… Bailey and Pete wanted a “Willy-Wonka-meets-Alice-in-Wonderland” vibe. How’s that for a theme? A blast for us! Barker Decor put in almost 2000 square feet of high gloss white flooring and built two 12 foot candy walls. We flew in 3000 bedazzled bonbons, an entire van small truck full of candy, and over 1500 macaroons. Pure heaven. Behind the main bar we had a 12′ high gloss lime manzanita tree that Mindy treated with oversized colorful florals. Mindy also created playful “forest” vignettes throughout the room with oversized colorful mushrooms, grass squirrel topiaries, and flats of grass. The entire tent was draped in a vibrant apple green color, and then we color blocked the 4 corners of the tent, so each corner had its own color themed lounge.

We truly had a blast on this event, and adore Bailey and Pete (and their amazing families!). We’re looking forward to creating an extraordinary vow renewal party for them in a a few years…(hint, hint…Bailey and Pete!).

Wedding Photography: Aaron Delesie / Event Production & Design: Lisa Vorce – Oh, How Charming! / Floral & Event Design: Mindy Rice / Event Lighting + Set Design + Flooring + Furniture + Specialty Dance Floors + Draping: Barker Decor Service / Catering: The Little Nell / Wedding Cake: d’Elissious / Event Rentals: Event Rents / Wedding Cinematography: Paper Tape / Welcome Reception Music: The Spazmatics / Ceremony & Cocktail Music: Supernova / Dinner Reception Music: Impulse / After Party Music: DJ Ig of RedShoe LA / Photobooth: Colorado Photo Booth / Celebrant: Reverend Bruce McNab / Makeup: Fiore Beauty / Hair: Marilee Albin / Wedding Dress: Amsale / Bridesmaid Dresses: Amsale / Wedding Venue: Private Residence / Paper: Papel Paper & Press and Yellow Owl Workshop

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 34 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, After Party, Alice in Wonderland, Amsale, Aspen, Barker Decor Service, Candy Walls, Colorado, Colorado Photo Booth, d'Elissious, DJ Ig, Event Rents, Fiore Beauty, Green, Impulse, Lisa Vorce, Lounge, Marilee Albin, Mindy Rice, Oh How Charming, Orange, Paper Tape, Pink, Red, RedShoe LA, Reverend Bruce McNab, Supernova, Tent, The Little Nell, The Spazmatics, Willy Wonka, Yellow
Post categories: Real Parties

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From the Bride… From the beginning we had a pretty clear view of what we wanted for our wedding day. We knew we wanted to get married outdoors in the fall by the pond at my family’s place in Aspen. We knew we wanted the event to feel natural- but not necessarily rustic. We aren’t exactly woodspeople so we wanted more of a refined, natural vibe that would enhance the incredible surroundings without competing with it. I wanted our wedding day to feel reverent but not overly stuffy or formal. My wedding dress was a custom Amsale, who I chose because I felt like all of the sample dresses I tried on of theirs really fit and she understood my body. Like the decor I didn’t want it to feel overly fussed about- and the antique lace bottom and swiss dot top came together perfectly.

After working with Lisa for nearly 20 months planning the wedding it is hard to know where my ideas stopped and hers began. I think that is part of what makes Lisa such an incredible wedding planner – she doesn’t try to impose her vision or agenda on your wedding. She really listens and sort of adopts your taste and perspective so that even all of her amazing ideas feel like they could have been your own. Which is also a huge ego boost because who doesn’t want to feel like they created something so beautiful!

When I met with Lisa I had a binder full of ideas on specific aesthetic details I had been saving for years. She really took that direction into account but i think what we came up with was still entirely its own unique thing. One of the details that stands out to me still 6 months later is the music and readings we chose for our ceremony. We knew from the beginning that I would walk down the aisle to Til Kingdom Comes by Coldplay- a bonus track they originally wrote for Johnny Cash. Lisa reccomended the most incredible string quartet who played at the ceremony and cocktail hour and that was really special. We also spent a lot of time making our ceremony personal while still working within the traditional Christian marriage rite. Our readings, from a childrens book called I Like You and from the Bible about the importance of sacred space really reflected what we wanted our ceremony to be about- and our priest completed that with an amazing lesson on the importance of a childlike joy in love- which would really come into play at the reception and after party. My vision for the reception tent was that it feel like you were dining in the woods on a magical moonlit night. I wanted it to feel like you were under a tree canopy with the moon flickering through the leaves.  I think Lisa took that idea and made it a hair less cheesy, and a bit more modern and sophisticated.

The whole night was full of special moments. I loved the way my bridesmaids and house party looked. Each one picked their style of dress from Amsale’s bridesmaid line and their color, and the flowers Mindy did for their hair were incredible. Truly everyone never looked better. I loved seeing how the tent came togethet, and we actually had a blast dancing to Ray LaMontagne You Are The Best Thing for our first dance. I mean- the dancing in general was hilarious and out of control. The band was on our flight out the next day and even they said they had never seen people boogie like our people boogied. Word.

By far the most incredible part of the night was the after party tent. I told Lisa I wanted a Willy Wonka/Alice In Wonderland, main tent magical forest on acid and for the love of Britney Spears, did we ever get one. But really everything was incredible- I still cant believe we pulled it off, and we are so blessed that we got to start off our marriage with such a lovefest- because that is really what the whole weekend felt like!

Wedding Photography: Aaron Delesie / Event Production & Design: Lisa Vorce – Oh, How Charming! / Floral & Event Design: Mindy Rice / Event Lighting + Set Design + Flooring + Furniture + Specialty Dance Floors + Draping: Barker Decor Service / Catering: The Little Nell / Wedding Cake: d’Elissious / Event Rentals: Event Rents / Wedding Cinematography: Paper Tape / Welcome Reception Music: The Spazmatics / Ceremony & Cocktail Music: Supernova / Dinner Reception Music: Impulse / After Party Music: DJ Ig of RedShoe LA / Photobooth: Colorado Photo Booth / Celebrant: Reverend Bruce McNab / Makeup: Fiore Beauty / Hair: Marilee Albin / Wedding Dress: Amsale / Bridesmaid Dresses: Amsale / Wedding Venue: Private Residence / Paper: Papel Paper & Press and Yellow Owl Workshop

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Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Amsale, Aspen, Barker Decor Service, Colorado, Colorado Photo Booth, d'Elissious, DJ Ig, Event Rents, Fiore Beauty, Forest Inspired Wedding, Impulse, Lisa Vorce, Marilee Albin, Midsummer Night's Dream, Mindy Rice, Moss, Oh How Charming, Orange, owls, Paper Tape, Red, RedShoe LA, Reverend Bruce McNab, Supernova, Tabletop Trees, The Little Nell, The Spazmatics
Post categories: Whimsical

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From Lisa Vorce… Our Aspen event wins the prize for THE most fun event ever! Bailey and Pete were the most fantastically sweet and trusting clients…and by far the funniest. There was not one email from Bailey that didn’t have the entire office laughing out loud. She writes exactly as she speaks and she is full of life. You must read her blog (Peppermint Bliss) and you’ll see what I mean….

When Bailey came to us, she definitely had a clear vision for her wedding. She allowed us however, to take her vision and put our spin on it which was pure delight for us. For the welcome reception — it was cowboy kitsch at its best! Highlights included Barker Decor’s stunning high gloss red dance floor, Mindy’s amazing tablescapes of cotton centerpieces, charcoal glazed pottery and red ranunculus,  and my personal favorite…our high gloss red cardboard “taxidermy” that we hung throughout the room…complete with thought bubbles. Mindy created two gigantic cowboy hat chandeliers, and an escort card wall that displayed cowboy hats with table numbers on them. An adorable, interactive, and thematic escort card wall all in one. It was incredible.

Wedding Photography: Aaron Delesie / Event Production & Design: Lisa Vorce – Oh, How Charming! / Floral & Event Design: Mindy Rice / Event Lighting + Set Design + Flooring + Furniture + Specialty Dance Floors + Draping: Barker Decor Service / Catering: The Little Nell / Wedding Cake: d’Elissious / Event Rentals: Event Rents / Wedding Cinematography: Paper Tape / Welcome Reception Music: The Spazmatics / Ceremony & Cocktail Music: Supernova / Dinner Reception Music: Impulse / After Party Music: DJ Ig of RedShoe LA / Photobooth: Colorado Photo Booth / Celebrant: Reverend Bruce McNab / Makeup: Fiore Beauty / Hair: Marilee Albin / Wedding Dress: Amsale / Bridesmaid Dresses: Amsale / Wedding Venue: Private Residence / Paper: Papel Paper & Press and Tiny Pine Press

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Amsale, Aspen, Barker Decor Service, Colorado, Colorado Photo Booth, Cotton, Cowboy Hats, d'Elissious, DJ Ig, Event Rents, Fiore, Impulse, Lisa Vorce, Mindy Rice, Natural, Oh How Charming, Paper Tape, Red, RedShoe LA, Reverend Bruce McNab, Rustic, Supernova, The Little Nell, The Spazmatics, Welcome Party, White
Post categories: Real Parties

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After a magical ceremony performed by the fabulous JP Reynolds — Carey and Brian were summoned to their candlelight dinner reception. We had a tiered ruffled linen sewn for the dinner table with oversized ruffled napkins to match. Barker Decor draped the main dining room for us in the coordinating blue fabric which helped soften the room. Mindy did extraordinary floral arrangements which included peonies, ranunculus, anemones, and dusty miller. She incorporated cast metal branches into the arrangements for an unpredictable twist. So gorgeous! Daniel Rautman created an incredible four course menu for Carey and Brian that was to die for.

Lisa Holtzman calligraphed individual “Mr” and “Mrs” menus and we mounted them on velvet backers created by Papel Paper and Press. We partnered with Melody at Sweet and Saucy for the dessert extravaganza. We sent Melody photos of Carey’s china, and she created little works of dessert art to complement our over all design. Delicious and visually stunning!

All was captured perfectly by Aaron & Jen Delesie, and by Curtis of Living Cinema! Carey and Brian were a delight to work with and the whole day was exactly what we had hoped for them… private, romantic, memorable!

Event Design: Lisa Vorce, Oh How Charming / Photography: Aaron Delesie / Venue: Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse / Floral: Mindy Rice / Officiant: JP Reynolds / Draping: Barker Decor / Calligraphy: Lisa Holtzman / Velvet Menu Backers: Papel Paper and Press / Desserts & Cake: Sweet and Saucy / Cinematography: Curtis Heyne, Living Cinema

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 42 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Barker Decor, Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse, JP Reynolds, Lisa Holtzman, Living Cinema, Mindy Rice, Oh How Charming, Papel Paper and Press, private wedding, Sweet and Saucy, wedding for two 0
Post categories: California Weddings, Casual Elegance, Santa Barbara Weddings, Traditional Elegance

When Aaron called me to tell me about Brian and Carey’s “wedding for two”, I was delighted! Planning and designing private weddings has become a bit of an obsession for us. Nothing more romantic than a private celebration for two! A little bit different than elopements in that these private celebrations have all the core components of a wedding (i.e. cake cutting, etc) — only difference is there are no guests! So intimate, so special, so incredible.

Aaron put Carey and I in touch and I fell in love with her during our first phone call. She is a no nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is woman! We honed in on some of her favorite “likes” (ruffles and feathers!) and her first assignment from me was to find china that spoke to her. She found the most fabulous Marchesa china and everything was designed from there.

Our color story included soft blues, muted pinks, sage greens, and a peppering of gold. Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse provided the perfectly private and romantic backdrop for Carey and Brian’s celebration (and….also happens to offer some of THE most magical natural lighting I’ve ever seen). For the ceremony, Mindy draped the ceremony structure in a soft blue velvet fabric (which draped beautifully!) and we had guinea feather trim sewn along the edges for a stunning accent (an ode to Carey’s love of feathers!). For the aisle runner, we used hundreds of guinea feathers to create one of the most interesting runners we’ve done to date! It was so wonderfully Bohemian — and so unexpected.

Event Design: Lisa Vorce, Oh How Charming / Photography: Aaron Delesie / Venue: Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse / Floral: Mindy Rice / Officiant: JP Reynolds / Draping: Barker Decor / Calligraphy: Lisa Holtzman / Velvet Menu Backers: Papel Paper and Press / Desserts & Cake: Sweet and Saucy / Cinematography: Curtis Heyne, Living Cinema

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 73 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Barker Decor, Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse, JP Reynolds, Lisa Holtzman, Living Cinema, Mindy Rice, Oh How Charming, Papel Paper and Press, private wedding, Sweet and Saucy, wedding for two
Post categories: California Weddings, Casual Elegance, Santa Barbara Weddings, Traditional Elegance

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From Lisa Vorce, of Oh How Charming!…

This was a 30th anniversary party for the parents of one of the bridesmaids of a former client. We had such a blast with her at the wedding, and were delighted to be called to produce the anniversary party for her parents. Tracy and her brother Teddy wanted to throw a “travel themed” soiree for their parents. We set the tone with an airline ticket inspired invitation by Tiny Pine Press where we asked the guests to “escape” for an evening of great food and great friends.

I ordered vintage luggage tags from eBay and used them to create the escort cards, table numbers, and details for our wraps for the evening. The menu was a global 9 course extravaganza created by Tracy, Teddy, and Jerry from The Food Matters. It was one of the most extraordinary menus I’ve seen!

For the decor — we paired La Tavola’s natural linens with some custom skirted linens I had sewn. I love the femininity of the skirted linens. They hang so beautifully. On the tables, we used vintage silver spoon napkin rings, hand painted stand-up menus from Yellow Owl Workshop, and mother of pearl flatware. R. Jack Balthazar did an amazing job of pairing fluffly white peonies with maiden hair fern, mercury glass, and grapewood. Was such a stunning combination. I asked them to do a “statement” piece on the center table of the dinner party, and they did the most amazing display of clear glass, mercury glass, and candlelight. It was so gorgeous! R. Jack also did stunning lounge set-ups for me complete with transfer ware vessels that had a magical glow. Barker Decor finished off the details by providing ambient lighting that mimicked a gorgeous candlelight glow. As guests dined under the stars, Supernova rocked contemporary tunes on their strings. It was a perfect evening!

Event Design: Lisa Vorce of Oh How Charming! / Photography: Aaron Delesie / Rentals: Barker Decor / Invitations: Tiny Pine Press / Florals and Design: R. Jack Balthazar /Menus: Yellow Owl Workshop / Linens: La Tavola’s / Catering: The Food Matters

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aaron Delesie, Anniversary, Backyard, Barker Decor, Elegant, La Tavola, Lisa Vorce, Oh How Charming, The Food Matters, Tiny Pine Press, travel, Travel Theme, Yellow Owl Workshop
Post categories: Real Parties