Click here to see the entire gallery of images!

From Punam Bean Photography…Emotions were brimming, just beneath the surface. Friends and family traveled from all over the world to be here, in this beautiful place, with these two beautiful people. Every detail, every word spoken, every catch of eyes across rooms unfolded with the utmost sincerity and love. It was two families, proud of and loving of their children who found each other. Coming together. Mick is impossibly charming, and Icy is disarmingly heartfelt. They truly put together a dream team of people who made this amazing day a resounding success, and an unforgettable night.

Wedding Photography: Punam Bean Photography / Wedding Planning: Napa Valley Celebrations, Traci Steuteville / Location: Private Estate / Wedding Cake: Fleur de Lisa Cakes / Wedding Videography: Bliss Video Productions / Flowers: Kathy Hoffman / Hair + Make-up: Sherrie Long

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bliss Video Production, California Weddings, Fleur De Lisa Cakes, Kathy Hoffman, Napa Valley Celebrations, Napa Valley Weddings, Punam Bean Photography, Rustic Chic, Sherrie Long
Post categories: Casual Elegance, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

Check out the full wedding gallery for even more goodness from Greece!

Michael and I decided to get married in Santorini, Greece because we’d never been there before and wanted to honeymoon there. Santorini with a group of 50 of our closest friends and family seemed the perfect compromise between elopement and a traditional wedding celebration. My parents flew in from Taiwan, his family flew in from Austria and Germany. We wanted an intimate celebration so friends and family could really spend quality time together. We basically wanted an unforgettable party. The whole wedding was planned online, with a total of two phone calls. We’re pretty proud about that!

We found our amazing hotel, the outdoor chapel, the rehearsal and reception restaurants, everything online and then cross referenced with Trip Advisor. All arrangements were done via email with individual vendors. I was more than a little nervous prior to arrival since I’d never seen these places before, but everything turned out better than I could have hoped for.

We wanted the wedding theme to be simple and focus around the beautiful location, so decorations were kept to a minimum and stayed with a very “natural” vibe. We shipped two large boxes full of supplies from Save-on-Crafts where you can find just about anything you’d need to decorate a  giant ballroom, provided you are willing to put a little creative energy into it. Because we shipped our own decorations, we had to keep things light, literally. So we used vintage looking wooden crates as the centerpiece and filled it with Sola wood flowers (very light) and olive leaves. I made the table cards myself from blank Birch cards purchased from Etsy. The theme of olive leaves was heavy throughout the wedding not only for its symbolism of peace and love, not only because we were in Greece, but because it was practical, economical and environmentally friendly! Santorini is a volcanic island, so water is scarce and so are flowers. We found a woman on a neighboring island called Sifnos who owned an olive tree orchard and pressed their own oil. She ferried over a box of freshly clipped olive branches along with 50 small bottles of olive oil that came from those trees. We used these bottles of oil as favors for the guests. The olive leaves not only looked great, they provided a lovely story and the oil tasted divine.

The day before the wedding we rented a boat down at the Old Port from a company called Dakoutros Travel. The boat cruise lasted all day and took us to a nearby island called Thirassia where we stopped for freshly grilled seafood lunch. We also went to the hot springs and a hike up to the volcano. This is a typical itinerary for boat cruises around Santorini and  was an excellent way to start the wedding weekend, giving the guests a chance to get to know each other as many came from different states, and different countries and were meeting for the first time.

One very important thing I learned from planning a destination wedding: make friends with the locals, particularly your hotel concierge. Our hotel, Aria Suites, was absolutely incredible. They helped us arrange transportation, helped us locate restaurants (Michael and I rented a car for logistical reasons, but the island does not have street names or addresses!), they basically helped us with anything we hadn’t anticipated.
Our friend officiated the ceremony. It was quick and beautiful, with an appropriate reading from Dr. Seuss’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” Michael and I have wonderful memories of the wedding weekend, we wouldn’t do anything different. As for the 244 buttons I sewed onto the back of my dress, I’d do that again, too.

Wedding Photography: Punam Bean Photography / Ceremony Venue: Saint Irene Chapel at Villa Irini / Reception Venue: Pyrgos Restaurant / Bride’s Shoes: Aldo / Wedding Dress: David’s Bridal and BCBG

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 33 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Destination, Do-It-Yourself Inspired, Greece, Punam Bean Photography, Santorini
Post categories: Destination, Destination Weddings, Do-It-Yourself Inspired

We never thought a reception without flowers could be so pretty, but Denise totally pulled it off with a sense of style and budget friendly design that I knew you guys would love. Here’s what she had to say about it…

October rain could not dampen the mood for this amazing couple. Carrie and Adam came to me requesting no flowers for their wedding! Imagine, me a flower designer hearing those words. But I was eager to translate their design desires for all greens, succulents and interesting seed pods and the like. It was a dreamy green affair.

Vendors: Photography by Punam Beam Photography / Flowers and Event Design by Denise Fasanello Floral Design / Ceremony + Reception Location: New Leaf Cafe

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bronx, Denise Fasanello Floral Design, New Leaf Cafe, New York Weddings, Punam Bean Photography
Post categories: Casual Elegance

photography by Punam Bean Photography

I have to say, this is one of the prettiest weddings I have ever seen…with or without a budget. I love the sweet, understated details of the day and the intimate feeling of having just close friends and family as guests. You really get a sense of just how special this couple is.

And, I was totally floored by the incredible journal that Nole wrote both during the planning phase and after the big day. You can see her planning documented right here on her Knot Bio…it includes inspiration boards, fun DIY projects and other really interesting tidbits. Her post wedding re-cap can be read right here and is filled with vendor reviews and ideas that are so helpful to any bride planning her wedding. Thank you so much, Nole, for sharing this with us!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Nole and Andrew, Punam Bean Photography, Washington DC
Post categories: All Real Weddings, Budget Beautiful, Real Weddings

More details from Nole…

In order to stay in our budget, we kept our guest list to only our closest family and friends (around 50 people) and prioritized some wedding elements (such as food and photography) over others (such as floral arrangements). We also tried to do as many DIY projects as we could.

We made most of the big decisions pretty early on, including our color palette, flower choices (but not a florist, which came much later), caterer, bakery, and photographer. For the flowers, I knew that I wanted a bouquet of lilacs and sweet peas, ever since I’d seen a similar bouquet in Martha Stewart Weddings a couple of years ago. For the reception, I wanted a mix of spring flowers — peonies, ranunculus, anemonies, etc. — in shades of purple and white.

For our caterer, my husband and I are both big foodies, so having great food at our wedding was a big priority. We also knew that we wanted a global-inspired tapas meal service for the reception, and worked with our caterer to develop a menu that included Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Latin dishes with enough choices to satisfy all of our guests. For the cake, we used three 9″ cakes from a famous DC bakery called CakeLove, which makes just the most amazing cakes and cupcakes. Our families are big coffee and tea drinkers, so we also bought heart-shaped sugar cubes and sugar swizzle sticks from Sur La Table to use as sweeteners when the coffee and tea was served with dessert.

For photography, it was important to us that we have a photojournalist-style photographer that would document the entire day, particularly as we had some important family members (my grandmother) who were not able to travel for our wedding. We found our photographer, the amazing Punam Bean, via Weddingbee, and instantly fell in love with her work and documentary-style approach to wedding photography.

Throughout the planning, we looked for ways to save that wouldn’t affect the overall look and feel of the day…we saved a lot by having a friend play the music for the ceremony and using our iPod to provide the music during the reception, both which probably saved us thousands of dollars. We only served wine (which we purchased directly) rather than having an open bar at the reception. And we find a lot of our decorations on ebay, including the mason jars used to hold the floral arrangements and moroccan lanterns which lined the entrance path to the venue.

We ultimately spent around $13,000 on the wedding, so we didn’t do too bad – particularly since we live in one of the most expensive cities in the country!

We have MANY more pictures to come, so stay tuned!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Nole and Andrew, Punam Bean Photography, Washington DC
Post categories: All Real Weddings, Budget Beautiful, Real Weddings

One of our readers, Nole, emailed me back in January with questions about her upcoming wedding. It turns out that Nole’s wedding went off without a hitch and she has generously offered to share some pictures and details with us!

photography by Punam Bean Photography

Details from Nole…

My husband and I met in grad school while working on our M.A. degrees in international affairs (me) and security policy (him). Given our mutual background in international affairs, as well as my love of all things vintage and my husband’s love of history (he was a history major in undergrad), we knew that we wanted a wedding that was inspired by both vintage and global elements. I’ve always wanted a Spring wedding just because of the flower choices in the spring, and we both knew that we wanted to have an outdoor wedding if at all possible. We also wanted a really informal and intimate wedding — essentially a fun dinner party with all of our family and friends. We chose our venue, Woodlawn Manor, because it had the perfect historic feel (it was part of the underground railroad in the 1800s) as well as beautiful outdoor lawns for outdoor ceremony and reception.

And thus, we set out with the goal of pulling off our perfect wedding with an initial budget of $10,000….

We have so much more from Nole coming, so stay tuned!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Nole and Andrew, Punam Bean Photography, Spring Wedding, Washington DC, Woodlawn Manor
Post categories: All Real Weddings, Budget Beautiful, Real Weddings