There are few things in life better than a beautiful wedding. I’m talking weddings so pretty you have to pinch yourself, and “I dos” so incredible, it nearly takes your breath away. And while these kind of affairs seem reserved for far away fairytales, we have proof it’s entirely possible with creatives like Jill La Fleur and Flowerwild by your side. With the idea of “Hacienda chic” in mind, they transformed the San Ysidro Ranch into a complete and total vision. With so much pretty there’s simply no way we could put it all in one post, but thankfully we’ve got an entire gallery of Amanda K Photography’s stunning photos sitting right here.
From the Bride…After being together for 8 years, you would have thought we would of had every detail of our wedding planned out in our minds, but there really were only a handful of things we knew for sure. We wanted a small intimate wedding – if neither of us have met you in our 8 years together, our wedding was not the place to start, we wanted a cocktail style reception, the wedding to take place in California somewhere and in the month of October. Oh and most importantly, our dog Alvin (who we got after our first year of dating) was going to be our ring bearer. We also wanted to keep our wedding unique, although having some traditional accents, we wanted it to be different then most. Not as easy as you would think.
After much thought we decided on a hacienda chic, romantic vibe for our wedding which then was kept in mind throughout all of our planning. Our next task was just to find the perfect spot and San Ysidro Ranch was everything we had envisioned. Our vision to incorporate a hacienda chic, romantic style to our wedding, lead us to neutral color tones (nude, blush, grey, gold and cream) with my dress being blush pink and Bob’s suit light grey. Since we were having a small intimate wedding, we decided on just having a maid of honor and best man standing with us during the ceremony. We had my sister Molly wear a white dress and Bob’s brother Shane a grey suit as well, but a shade darker than Bob’s. I have many other siblings so we had my brothers wear darker grey suits and I wanted the un-uniformed look for my other sisters, so they wore cocktail style dresses, one in silver and one in gold.
For design we knew full flowers were a must and clay pots and lots of votive style candles. To round out the theme we had acoustic music playing throughout the ceremony and cocktail hour. Another must were signature cocktails; the Hot Marlo, Bobby’s Bourbon & Sour Alvin – all the drinks and names reflected our personalities so it fit in quite well. With health being a huge part of our life and my families, we chose and even created some of the appetizers served during our reception (most all gluten/dairy-free) all ingredients used were from the ranch’s beautiful gardens. Our wedding cake recipe was also gluten/dairy free and we used coconut sugar to make our cake ‘sugar-free.’ Instead of a guest book we decided on having our guests write a note – either a memory, advice, well wishes, etc on pink heart paper to put in a keepsake box that we will open on our 1 year anniversary. We incorporated many different signs through the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception to add an even more personal flair. One of our favorite signs made, was a wooden pallet with the stenciled words ‘Best Day Ever 10-11-12’. Another huge accent to our hacienda chic vibe, was the custom made bar back that our furniture company made. It was beautiful and really set the tone for the reception. To end the night sparklers were always a vision of ours and we rode off to our suite in a golf cart with a sign ‘just married’ on the back. Although it was a great end to the night, we wish it could have gone on forever.
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Wedding Photography: Amanda K Photography | Wedding Venue: San Ysidro Ranch Santa Barbara, CA | Wedding Planning: Jill La Fleur | Wedding Design: Classic Party Rentals | Floral Design: Kate Sapienza of Flowerwild | Wedding Cinematography: Diane Isaacs | Lighting: Geoff Mognis of Ambient Event Design | Wedding Dress: Monique Lhuillier | Bride’s Shoes: Manolo Blahnik