A Celebrity Stylist’s Whimsical & Romantic California Wedding

Melissa Hammam
November 1, 2022
Categories: Fall, Real Weddings, Romantic, Seasonal Wedding Trend, The Blog, Whimsical

When a celebrity stylist gets married you know you’re in for endless inspiration. Our bride worked with Details Details to bring her whimsical wedding wishlist to life, and Eucharis Studio filled the fantastic day with wildly romantic florals. Jana Williams Photography was there to artfully capture every carefully curated detail in her elegant imagery, see the full gallery for a closer look.

From the bride… We met the old fashion way, in a bar in New York City at 4am. He told me I was beautiful, and I told him I liked his long hair. He was traveling for work and I was there for fashion week. We happened to live 5 blocks away from each other in Los Angeles. We were dating for 5 years before he proposed. However, we were engaged in December 2019. A much longer engagement than we had anticipated.

There is nothing I love more than pajamas and in a close second I love matching with the people closest to me. A few weeks before Christmas I was supposed to go out to dinner with friends, but they canceled. I have to say, I was hot on Colt’s trail about proposing. It felt suspicious my friends had canceled and conveniently my hair and makeup was done. Anyway, Colt asked if I wanted to open an early Christmas present, and of course I said yes. It was matching pajamas for Colt and I which is always exciting. He went into our bedroom to change and we have two dogs. They both proceed to come out of the bedroom in the same print pajamas. In my head it all clicked, I was like omg it is happening. Before he got out here I felt both of their little bodies thinking they were wearing the engagement ring, they certainly were not. I thought to myself, wow! What a missed opportunity. We turn the TV on and start looking for a movie for 10 minutes. Colt finally asks me to check one of the dogs pajamas because it seemed too tight, which it clearly wasn’t. I flipped him over to check and on the chest of his pajamas it said “Will you marry me” Colt then proceeded to pull out the box and it was all happening. Then he said I needed to put on a blind fold and we were going to a second location and to not change out of our pajamas. We ended up at one of my friend’s houses and there was a surprise party with our family and friends. Truly, one of the best nights ever.

We knew we wanted somewhere that was close to LA and had a hotel attached. That way it was like adult summer camp, the wedding weekend running into all of the people you love most. We only looked at Calamigos Ranch, once we saw that big tree with hanging lights, it was on. The venue is beyond whimsical which really lends itself to my overall aesthetic.

The aesthetic was whimsical, romantic, and fun with pops of color throughout. It really was all about the details. I knew I had to have black and white check dance floor, at each table we had golden animals that were hidden throughout the table with the tons of candles. Mixed with colored glass vintage dishware which every single piece was different. The search for “THE DRESS” was a unique one because I did not want to wear all white, but I wanted to still look like a bride. Monique Lhuillier has always had my heart, so going in to try on dresses was a surreal experience, and big love to Mary from Monique who made this so seamless for myself and my mother! I hate to say it, well maybe I love it but my vision from being 5 to 32 did not waiver. I always knew I wanted a dress so big that it would stand on its own with a traditional corset top. This was a hard ask seeing as this would typically fall under a traditional bridal dress. I fell in love with the pattern on Jardin dress but still felt like I was going to miss out on my tulle moment. Funny enough, I committed to my veil prior to picking out the gown, I loved the hand embroidery of the similar print on the Jardin Dress; it was everything I was looking for. On my second fitting with the ever so patient Mary, with a ray of shining light on it I see the dress, The Westwood. However, It has red, blue, pink, and black floral beading on it. I knew this was my silhouette and was told we could make it custom with the same embroidery from veil but in a smaller scale on the dress. The dress came in a few months later shockingly white with these gorgeous hand embroidered pieces to place all over the dress. Over the course of 3 fittings, multiple opinions, we perfectly hand placed every single piece you see on the dress. We created dimension by going on different layers throughout the dress. I couldn’t have been more happy with how this dress turned out. There was so much love and thoughtfulness poured into this dress. It is something I will cherish forever.

Given the pandemic and all the date changes I found myself waiting for each new collection at Galia Lahav for my reception dress. I knew this would always be my party. I ended up choosing the Mel gown which embodied pure romance. I knew it was my dress from the moment I laid eyes on it. Funny enough, the sample was not even in stores yet and I ordered it based on the photos. Thankfully, I got the dress and it was even more gorgeous in person. I knew I wanted my after party dress to be romantic with a touch of sexy. The skirt was sheer with a bodysuit underneath to give it a slightly more revealing look. The off the shoulder puff sleeves make any girl feel like a princess, especially on your wedding day. I am a huge fan of vintage and estate pieces. My engagement ring is from Victor Barbone Jewelry and is from the 1930’s with a gorgeous old mine cut diamond surrounded by emeralds. My wedding gift from Colt was a gorgeous estate ring from the 1950’s with these insane baguettes that we got at Platt Boutique. Given how sparkly my fingers already were, I opted for a classic gold band as my wedding band which is inscribed with a note and our wedding date. Being a stylist picking jewelry is always the icing on the cake, thankfully my mother has an incredible collection of jewelry as did both of my Grandmothers. I knew I wanted something classic and elegant in my ears that had just enough sparkle without being distracting, so I wore her big pearl and diamond wreath earrings which were perfect. I also wore a piece of jewelry from both of my grandmothers, who are no longer with us which was really important to me to have them represented and with me on my wedding day. I had a vintage diamond watch and vintage diamond cuff which completed the look. I really just trusted my team for the day to execute whatever vision they had for this gown while still looking like myself. No one does a blowout like Dave Stanwell, for years I watched him create gorgeous hair on my clients that I knew I didn’t need to tell him a thing. The only brief I had to give him was that I wanted to add length, which length is what we had. He is such a visionary that seeing the dress he just came up with the look. Which was a gorgeous blow out with a bit of a bend. He tucked the hair behind both ears and we were done. The same goes for Alexis Oakley I said I just wanted to look like an elevated version of myself. We stuck to peachy bronze tones which turned out gorgeous. Let me tell you my hair and makeup was intact through the next morning. I am beyond thankful for these two on my wedding day.

I always knew I wanted something non traditional for the ceremony. Colt entered to “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve. I walked down the aisle with my Dad to “Sussudio” by Phil Collins. I wanted to start the vibe of the wedding off strong and I knew Phil would do the job as it was the soundtrack to my childhood. We did not have any of our bridal party walk down the aisle, but we had all of our nieces and nephews grace the aisle with their presence. My 3 month old niece was pushed down the aisle in a vintage 1950’s bunny stroller that I found on charish. It was darling! My incredible friend and healer Iris Tanz was our officiant, we knew we wanted it quick, sweet, and very us. Iris did an incredible job at really tailoring the ceremony to what we wanted. We really wanted to incorporate something we would be able to keep forever and show our kids that’s when Iris came up with us doing a “Handfasting” which is is an ancient Celtic ritual in which the hands are tied together to symbolize the binding of two lives. We have a gorgeous rope that we are currently having framed in an acrylic box that we will hang in our house.

The guests found their seats by walking up to a wall covered in a Monique Lhuillier printed Duvet (that matched the hand embroidery I had added to my dress ) to find Maraca’s with their names on them to direct them to their seats. Again, I knew we wanted something non traditional and to maximize the dancing. We had an incredible 12 piece band, West Coast Music – Midnight Special. When Colt and I walked in we had them play a classic, “Everybody” Backstreet Boys to which we invited everyone up to dance for about 30 minutes before any food was served. It was beyond fun and really kept the energy up. We served a grilled little gem caesar salad, Yuzu Seabass or Filet, with a late night treat of happy meals that included original beanie baby toys from the 90’s. Our wedding cake was 5 layers and piped with buttercream, I always admired my parents’ wedding cake growing up, so we recreated it!

Colt’s Best Friend flew in to surprise him from Australia and gave his best man speech. My two older brothers are my best friends, so they did the honors too. I loved sitting at our table looking around and being surrounded by the people we loved most, it is such a special moment that is rarely replicated. I loved walking in to see our vision being executed perfectly. But overall I think the dancing between courses with the live band really kept the momentum up and it truly felt like a big party!