Hair & Makeup courtesy of It’s A Date at The Powder Room.

My vision for our wedding day was fun and travel. Tommy and I have been to over nine countries and one US road trip together. We love adventure, exploring, culture, food, music and the kindness of strangers all over the globe. I wanted the idea of us concurring and exploring this world together to come across at our wedding. Traveling is something that excites us, intrigues us, scares us and brings us closer together.

One of the main flowers that I wanted to incorporate throughout the day was sunflowers. I have loved sunflowers for as long as I could remember. They are so bright and cheerful and always make me smile. They fascinate me too because they are always reaching for the sun. If you put them in a window the sunflowers will actually turn and face the sun. I have always tried to be a positive, bright and a happy person much like a sunflower!

The venue was a no brainer the moment when I walked through the gates of that magical, secret garden. I only saw the venue one time in the dead of winter. No flowers, puddles of mud, repairs needed but I just knew it was the place where we were supposed to get married. It had a vintage feel to it, and it also made us feel like we had traveled somewhere else! It was the perfect venue for the most perfect day ever!

Instead of a traditional wedding cake, we decided to have donuts! Donuts and dancing were there to show off our fun side. Cake is good but who doesn’t LOVE donuts? I wanted our guests to feel our playful, different and adventurous side – and dance! For years Tommy and I have loved to dance not only with each other but just in general. Our DJ really made that party happen with all the lighting and high energy music. All in all, our wedding was a fabulous representation of our love! Romantic, bright, playful, joyful, exciting and full of love. It was hands down the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!

Photography: Liz Lovi Photography / Venue: The Garden Pavilion / Wedding Dress: Wine Country Bride / Brides Shoes: TOMS Shoes / Groom’s Suit: Men’s Wearhouse / Groom’s Shoes: Converse / DJ: DJ Jon Moore / Florist: Divine Creations Floral Design / Caterer: Taste of Perfection Catering / Donuts: Harvey’s Gourmet Mini Donuts / Coordinator: Delia Nieto, delia@delianieto.com / Officiant: Jimmy Donaghy, jdonaghy@gmail.com / Hair & Makeup: It’s A Date at The Powder Room / DIY: Table ‘numbers’ picture signs, paper airplanes, seating chart, picture frame pictures for sign-in scrapbook / Travel passport holders: handmade from a friend

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Post tags: beauty, Books, California, Casual Elegance, Color Palette Blue Yellow, Converse, Divine Creations Floral Design, DIY Projects, DJ Jon Moore, Do-It-Yourself Inspired, Donuts, Doughnuts, Globes, Harvey's Gourmet Mini Donuts, It's a Date at the Powder Room, Library, Liz Lovi Photography, Maps, Mason Jars, Men's Wearhouse, Mismatched Bridesmaids, Outdoor Ceremonies, Outdoor Weddings, Polaroids, Sonoma, Sunflowers, Taste of Perfection Catering, The Garden Pavilion, TOMS Shoes, travel, Travel Theme, Vintage Chic, Wine Country Bride
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Little Black Book Blog

Craig and I are both travel buffs and had literally been around the world together in the past year before deciding to take a last-minute trip to Paris after Christmas. We spent our days exploring the Louvre, discovering yet another fantastic French bistro for lunch, visiting Notre Dame Cathedral, and finding cobblestone streets filled with all sorts of intriguing shops. Our nights were spent walking down the twinkling Champs Elysees after dinner, taking a romantic candlelight dinner cruise down the Seine river, and enjoying the glittering Eiffel tower from Paris rooftops. It was amazing! On the last night (which was also New Year’s Eve), we managed to get tickets to a ballet held in Paris’s famous opera house, the Palais Garnier. It was on these steps after the performance that Craig bent down on one knee and asked for my hand in marriage. It was so sweet, so romantic, and I wish I could do it all over again!

We chose to get married in Aspen during the summer because it is just so beautiful and it’s one of our favorite places to ski in the winter. We wanted a small, intimate wedding weekend with activities for everyone leading up to our special day, and that’s exactly what we got! Our wedding coordinator and event planner, Kara Delay, was absolutely amazing and I knew the first time we spoke several months previously, that she and I shared the same vision of a rustic and romantic mountain wedding. When I arrived at the site on our wedding day, I was absolutely blown away at what Kara had been able to create. It was my vision but times 10! Throughout the entire process, I felt so at ease planning a destination wedding knowing Kara was there to help me manage the details. She went above and beyond anything I could’ve imaged and I’m so grateful that she was able to help us create such a special day for us.

While the whole thing was spectacular but if I had to single out one favorite moment, it would be the ceremony. It was a very powerful moment spiritually, and everyone felt God’s presence right there in the meadow. It was as if His hand were on us, sealing the commitment we made to one another to have and to hold, through better or worse, from this day forward. We read letters that we had written to each other, which made it that much more personal. I still tear up thinking about it!

Floral & Event Design: Kara Delay, Love This Day Events / Wedding Planning & Coordination: Love This Day Events / Venue: T Lazy 7 Ranch / Photographer: Jared Wilson Photography / Dress: Pronovias / Belt: Romona Keveza / Bridesmaids Dresses: Alfred Angelo / Ring: Romance Diamond

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Post tags: Alfred Angelo, Aspen, Bouquets, Casual Elegance, Centerpieces, Color Palette Pink, Colorado, Colorado Rockies, Flower girls, Globes, Jared Wilson Photography, Love This Day Events, Mountain Weddings, mountains, Outdoor Ceremony, Outdoor Wedding, pies, Pronovias, Ranch Weddings, Ring Bearers, Rocky Mountains, Romance Diamond, Romona Keveza, T Lazy 7, Tented Reception, travel, Travel Themed, Vintage Cake Stands, Wedding Flowers, Wedding Photography, Wedding Planners & Designers
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Little Black Book Blog

I met Jack Memorial Day weekend, in Austin, TX 2002. His fraternity has an annual convention and that year his university had hosted.  I never thought that two years later, we would meet again in San Francisco at the same annual event.  What began with long distance phone calls (from San Francisco to Dallas) and a first date meeting half way (in Las Vegas), turned into visiting each other once a month for two years.  Luckily Jack moved to Los Angeles and the traveling became easier.

In 2006, I started occupational therapy graduate school and was finally in the same city as him.  One lazy Sunday morning while watching a movie in bed, I started asking questions.  “Have you thought about getting married?” “It’s been 7 years…” “What are we planning on doing?”  He was very tight-lipped and giving me a hard time.  I honestly thought we were never going to get married, and then suddenly he turned and had the box. I was speechless.  It turned out he had been planning a proposal for months; I ironically pushed the surprise early.

Since all my family and friends are in San Francisco and Korea, and all his family and friends are in Houston, New York, China and Japan, we decided that we would make our wedding a destination wedding for everyone else.  We choose the weekend we met, Memorial day weekend, and wanted to treat everyone to a sunny California vacation.

Jack and I fell in love with the Resort at Pelican Hill from the time we walked through their lobby, it was a no brainer.  While I scoured wedding magazines and changed wedding colors every other day, I couldn’t pin down any ideas.  Michelle Weita at Details Details event planning was a blessing.   I wanted it to feel like a romantic travel experience and she found every perfect vendor to make it happen.  Joie Studio in Pasadena created vintage inspired train ticket invitations.  Sunny at White Lilac crafted gorgeous and romantic bouquets and the most amazing vintage inspired luggage escort table.  Everything on the wedding day was perfect.  Dancing was non-stop, hilarious speeches given by family, and even a late night In & Out truck.  Simply a dream come true.

Wedding photography: Victor Sizemore Photography / Event Coordination: Details Details / Flowers & Event Design: White Lilac Inc. / Hair: Jessica Blair / Makeup: Salon Eleven / Ceremony + Reception: The Resort at Pelican Hill / Wedding Dress: Custom at Shin Bu Bridal / Bride’s Shoes: Badgley Mischka / Bridesmaids Dresses: Amsale / Groom Tux: Hugo Boss / Stationary: Joie Studio & Nida’s Boutique Invitations / Band: Powerpoint, De Bois Entertainment / DJ: Cerritos All Stars / Wedding Cake & Groom Cake: Filigree Cakes

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Post tags: Amsale, Badgley Mischka, California, Cerritos All Stars, Color Palette Pink Silver, Custom Gown, De Bois Entertainment, Details Details, Filigree Cakes, Hugo Boss, Jessica Blair, Joie Studio, Lace, Nida's Boutique Invitations, Pelican Hill, Powerpoint, Romance, romantic, Salon Eleven, Shin By Bridal, The Resort at Pelican Hill, Traditional Elegance, travel, Travel Theme, Victor Sizemore Photography, Wedding Planners & Designers, White Lilac Inc.
Post categories: Little Black Book Blog, Traditional Elegance

Talented designers, Jeremy and Kathleen, have some great travel-inspired options but I especially love this suite designed for a couple who want to display their passion for travel and Wes Anderson movies!

Another adorable save-the-date from Hello Tenfold!  If you have guests traveling from all different parts of the country this is a fun way to document their journeys to the wedding.

Maps are such a fun element to incorporate into a travel-inspired or destination wedding.  I love this simple and modern take on a map save-the-date from Minted.

Vintage stamps don’t need to just be for your envelope.  Plus hunting down ALL those stamps can be time-consuming and expensive.  Incorporate the cute look to document your romantic journey with vintage stamp invites from Wedding Paper Divas.

I absolutely adore this last invite that I found on Invitation Crush.  The colors are so fun and playful!  And the modern planes, trains and automobile travel graphics are super cute.

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Post tags: Destination, Hello Tenfold, Invitation Crush, Invitations, Jeremy and Kathleen, Minted, travel, Wedding Divas
Post categories: Destination Weddings, The Blog

Inspired by all things vintage, Milessa and Jed are planning their fall wedding as we speak! Their awesome wedding planner, Victoria Canada was quick to put them in touch with Stephanie Fay Photography when it came time to get their engagement shoot set up. If you’re a regular on Style Me Pretty, you’ll know that we repeat, over and over and over again, to find ways to personalize your wedding. Well, that’s NOT the first place to start. Your E*Shoot is the FIRST place to infuse the spirit and vibe your guests will be seeing more of, come the big W-Day!

Milessa and Jed have endured a long distance relationship and are planning their wedding from a distance, so it seemed only fitting they would carry this travel inspiration thru to their engagement shoot. Milessa is wearing Jed’s great-grandmother’s blue outfit at the train station and a her fur coat at the plane location! Do enjoy!

See the entire adorable gallery here!

Our thanks to Stephanie Fay and Victoria Canada for sharing!

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Post tags: Airplane, Stephanie Fay Photography, travel, Victoria Canada Weddings & Events, Vintage
Post categories: engagement session, Little Black Book Blog, Wedding Planners & Designers

see every last pretty detail in the gallery!

From the Bride:

David and I met and fell in love at Simon Fraser University in Canada as graduate students completing our master’s degrees. He was from Portland, Oregon, but with a huge contingent of family in Canon City, Colorado, so much fun was had visiting relatives and friends in the U.S. over our two year courtship. We’ve been fortunate enough to be able travel quite a bit over the last couple of years, including Oregon, Colorado, California and Illinois, as well as farther afield to the U.K., France and Thailand. In March of 2009, David took me shopping and bought me a pretty dress, and then took me out to a delicious dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, where he popped the question. And so began our somewhat protracted wedding celebration…This Vancouver wedding was actually our second ceremony, as we had, the previous year, gone to Thailand to have a traditional Buddhist ceremony (my mother is from Thailand). We wanted to have a ceremony so that my 94-year-old grandmother could be there. We held it on May 29th, my grandmother’s birthday, and she was able to attend and actually perform some of the ceremony.

We both knew we didn’t want a huge wedding—something sweet and intimate, perhaps around 80 people. Anyone who knows me will know that I’m a somewhat obsessive planner and researcher, particularly for things involving travel, so I knew I would be taking the reins with regards to planning the wedding. It was one crazy year, as both David and I wrote and defended our MA theses leading up to the big day, but it was all worth it in the end. David and I established what was particularly important to us: food (we are food fiends), photography, location and my dress. I’m not sure if we just knew what we wanted when we saw it, or if I’d done enough eliminating via research on the internet, but most of our vendors were the first ones we saw. Our photographers, the fabulous Sakura Photography, had a beautiful and fun portfolio, and were easygoing people who we felt would be comfortable to work with. We only saw one venue for the ceremony, the Celebration Pavilion in Queen Elizabeth Park. We loved the intimate space, as well as its proximity to beautiful gardens and some pretty spectacular views of the city. Our reception space was also the first place we went to, Monk McQueen’s restaurant. The upstairs would be all to ourselves, with windows on all sides looking out onto downtown Vancouver. We liked that they were personable and helpful, and didn’t have a ton of restrictions and extra fees, and that everything could be handled in house (food, table settings, etc.). Even my dress, from the Bridal Gallery, was the first one I tried on—I did attempt to try a bunch of other dresses, but in the end, I had to go back to the first one. When you know, you know! The beauty stuff was fairly simple. My hairdresser that I’d had for over 7 years did the hair for me, my bridesmaids, my mother and my sister. I had gone to make-up school before I started university, so I did our make-up on the day. It was good to actually have a task to do the morning of—kept me busy!

Overall, we just wanted everyone to have fun and feel like there was a sense of thoughtfulness and time put into planning the event. On the day, other than a bit of rain during the ceremony, everything went wonderfully. After the ceremony, we went and caught a little ferry boat near Monk McQueens to take us to Granville Island to take our pictures. The ferry ride back made for a fun entrance, as the guests lined the restaurant deck and waved to us. In the end, we were all so happy with how everything turned out, and the friends and family who came (many from out-of-town) made all the work worthwhile.

Photography: Sakura Photography / Ceremony Location: Celebration Pavilion at Queen Elizabeth Park / Reception Location: Monk McQueens Fresh Seafood & Oyster Bar / Flowers & linens: Bridal Beginnings

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Post tags: Bridal Beginnings, Canada, Celebration Pavilion, Monk McQueens, Queen Elizabeth Park, Sakura Photography, travel, Vancouver, Vintage
Post categories: All Real Weddings, Real Weddings, The Blog, Vintage Chic

To see the full gallery of images, click right here!

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

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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

Photographed by Erin and Courtney of Erin Hearts Court, this wedding is total perfection.

From Holly…

All the little details are things I brainstormed for ten months — I had a notebook of ideas! — and then gradually set into motion, with a LOT of help from Sean, and from my lovely brother and sister, Luke and Susie, who were 19 and home for the summer and bored out of their minds, so really willing to help! I made the sign for the vintage hankies, which we put outside the church (I collected the hankies from the Alameda Flea Market and from ebay for a few weeks), and the Wedding sign myself. Sean and I made all the programs, which had six small maps on the front, each one with a date and a place — a sort of visual timeline of our courtship.

My brother Tom (who still lives in Singapore) brought over a whole bunch of pashminas in varying colors, which my maid of honor and I rolled up, tied with a shipping label which I wrote on, and put in a vintage suitcase, with instructions for people to take one if they got cold. My mum really wanted to do this and I was kind of lukewarm about it, but it ended up being a HUGE hit — the night wasn’t even chilly at all, but they were all gone so quickly! The silhouettes on the backs of our chairs I found for $8 at the Alameda Flea Market (it’s a real treasure trove!), along with the old Coke crate, which had glass bottles of Coke in it.

It was definitely a family affair, which was really important to me — and also appropriate, since the reception took place at my parents’ house! I didn’t realize this at the time, but our wedding date was actually my paternal grandfather’s birthday — he would have been 96!

The organist in the church played for the entrance of the bridal party and the mothers, but when it was time for me and my dad to walk down the aisle, my little brother Luke played Canon in D on his acoustic guitar, which was so beautiful. My dad and my brother also played the song for the first dance — God Only Knows, by the Beach Boys. It was one of my favorite moments of the wedding, dancing with my new husband under the stars in my parents’ backyard with everyone I loved in the world watching, while my dad and my brother played their guitars and sang (and Luke also played the tambourine with his foot!)

Also, as you came in, we had an old steamer trunk belonging to my parents, with tons of old wedding photos from both sides of the family on it, going back a few generations. Continuing the “everyone from the family pitches in and helps!” motif, my mother actually made the wedding cake herself (I know!) and it was incredible — three layers: one was chocolate and Baileys buttercream, one was carrot and cream cheese, and one was vanilla and raspberry. The wedding topper was from 1947 (the same year my maternal grandparents got married).

Oh I made the Just Married sign from little heart-shaped doilies I found!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Backyard Wedding, California Weddings, Erin Heart's Court, Nothing but Bonfires, San Diego, St. Michael's By-The-Sea, travel, Vintage
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance