Elegantly Cool Santa Barbara Wedding

Michelle Hoover
June 12, 2015
Categories: Real Weddings, Traditional Elegance

When it comes to California sunshine paired with casually cool couples, this next Santa Barbara affair knocks it out of the park. A home run on many levels, these ballpark sweethearts wed surrounded by TEAM Hair & Makeup beauty and La Tavola Linens. It’s a day overflowing with casual elegance and B. Schwartz Photography has it all for you here!

Colors

Seasons

Spring Weddings

Settings

Hotels + Resorts Weddings

Styles

Modern

From the beautiful Bride… Naturally, being the sports fanatics we are (I played college basketball at the University of Notre Dame and Collin was a standout football and basketball player in high school), our first date took place at one of the most romantic places in South Bend, Indiana…the ballpark of the (formerly) South Bend Silverhawks. From the moment we met each other, we both knew that we had found someone special as the conversation easily flowed, there was a mutual attraction, and we felt as though we had known each other forever. The huge success of our first date led to our second date the following week where we met for dinner and shut the restaurant down four hours later, without even knowing it! We were so engrossed with each other that we didn’t even realize the restaurant was closing until we were asked to leave. The rest is history…

Collin and I currently live in South Bend, Indiana. Once we got engaged on our one year anniversary on July 3, 2014, we instantly started throwing ideas out as to when and where we would say “I Do”. We knew we wanted a fairly short engagement which would mean a winter wedding and while we love our life in the Midwest, the idea of a wedding in a blizzard and sub-zero temps was totally out of the question. Our next thought was to get married where I grew up in Southern California. I had always dreamt of a wedding near my hometown of Ventura, CA and Santa Barbara was the first place that came to mind. Plus, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to give our Midwest family and friends a great excuse to leave the frozen tundra and spend the week in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Once we narrowed down the location, the fun really started. We went to work with our amazingly talented wedding coordinator, Amber Weir, and set up a time to visit venues all over Santa Barbara. Once we set foot on the grounds of the El Encanto, we instantly knew we had found our perfect spot to become husband and wife. We fell in love with the stunning ocean views and quaint and intimate feel of the newly renovated hotel (it has been closed for a 7 year renovation and just opened up the year prior). The process easily flowed from that point on as Amber joined together with her talented counterparts and put on a dream wedding for us. From the romantic ceremony backdrop outside in the Arbor & Lily Pond garden, followed by a cocktail hour in the Channel Islands Room and Terrace overlooking the scenic Santa Barbara coastline, and ending with dinner and dancing in the Riviera Ballroom, it truly was a day to remember.

Our wedding was casual elegance with a mix of modern and feminine. I really wanted it to be timeless with a cool, casual California vibe. While working with our wedding coordinator, Amber Weir, we came up with a color palette of cream, gold, and black. We didn’t want to take away from the gorgeous grounds of the El Encanto so we kept it simple and elegant and let the hotel set the tone for the entire day.

I absolutely loved our first look. It was such a special and intimate moment and although it wasn’t something we initially planned on doing, I’m so glad we broke tradition and saw each other. It was so calming to spend that time with Collin before the craziness of the day took place and I found such a sense of calm being with him for those precious moments before we came husband and wife.