Real Wedding: Kelli + Toby's Vintage Parisian Wedding

The talented Brooke from Brookelyn Photography sent me this charming wedding to share with you guys today. The ceremony and reception took place at a beautiful location (just wait until you see the photos!) - Treehouse Point/Issaquah, in Washington. From Brooke, The event was a small party of the couple's family and friends. The wedding colors were light pink and gray. The couple wanted the event to have a simple,vintage, parisian feel. The venue was so beautiful without a lot of decor so the hints of light pink and gray were perfect accents. A lot of the items purchased for the wedding were either local or purchased from Etsy.





Love this beautiful ceremony site they created.









How amazing to have your reception in a treehouse??!! Love it.











How did you two meet? (from Brooke) Toby and Kelli met at a restaurant while Kelli was finishing her senior year at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. she was a server and he was working in the kitchen. Their first date was camping and a Bjork concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado! Kelli was accepted into the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California and Toby made the move with her. Following graduate school, the couple moved to the magnolia neighborhood of seattle, where they currently reside.

Vendors
Wedding Dress: Designed and made by Katie Nash, a local Seattle Designer
Suit: Prada from Mario's
Brides Shoes: LD Tuttle from Lambs Ear in Fremont
Bridesmaid Dresses: Made by Teresa Abrahamson, Mother of the bride
Flowers: Willow and Bloom
Macaroons: Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle
Mini Cupcakes: Trophy Cupcakes in Wallingford
Brides Rings: Engagement Ring: Jaimie Joseph from Essenza in Fremont/Wedding Band: Bloom Studios from Etsy
Grooms Ring: Zoe and Doyle from Etsy
Officiant: Lane Rosenberry, Friend of the couple

Thanks so much Brooke for sharing this beautiful wedding with us today! You can see more of this wedding on her blog.

Real Wedding: Emilie + Russell's San Francisco Wedding

I've been a fan of JL photografia for awhile now, so I'm excited to share some of their work on the site today. Janet and Lisa are the talented ladies behind JL photografia, and they sent me a beautiful wedding they photographed in San Francisco. The ceremony took place at the Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden and the reception was held at an amazingly chic urban setting, varnish. I love Emilie's pop of green on her dress and her amazing hair piece (made by a local designer). You can really see the love between Emilie + Russell in the portraits Janet and Lisa captured after the wedding. Thanks so much ladies for sending me these photos!







Emilie's dress is by chrissy wai-ching and Russell's suit is by dries van noten. I love the green fans all the girls are holding - what a unique alternative to flowers!



















Chef Stephanie provided the divine food and the scrumptious cupcakes were whipped up by cups and cakes bakery. The custom cake topper is by Bunny With a Toolbelt.



Check out their blog for even more photos.

Real Wedding: Debi + Dave's Beautiful Beach Wedding

I love the simplicity of this beach wedding. The beautiful bouquet, the bride's hair and gorgeous dress, the groom's attire (with flip flops!), the bridesmaid's dress, and the sign welcoming guests to the wedding - and to snuggle up with a blanket and beer! - um, perfect! This is totally my type of wedding. Nothing is over the top, just pure and simple beauty here. This wedding was photographed by the talented Allison C Photography and took place at the beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea with the reception following at the Carmel Valley Ranch. Wedding Planning by Couture Celebrations.













Thanks so much Allison for letting me share your beautiful photographs! Check out more of Allison's work on her blog.

Real Wedding: Marisa + Adam's Nature Inspired Wedding

Photographer Cameron Ingalls sent me a sneak peak of this wedding the day after the wedding thinking I might love it. Oh course I did and couldn't wait to see more photos from the day! With the perfect yummy light, the bride's dreamy style and the amazing location, this wedding is quite stunning!

From Cameron, Adam and Marisa’s love story was a cross between Braveheart and The Band. All except they met at Cal Poly in a landscape architecture class and didn’t ride their horse off into the sunset across Scotland. But who’s comparing?

Adam and Marisa are actually dear friend of mine that I have had the pleasure of watching their romance unfold from the beginning. Both Adam and Marisa have grown so much through their college years as has their love for one another. Those who know them well, know that they balance each other beautifully. It has been fun to hear their wedding plans and dreams over the months that preceded their event. Adam wanted for his groomsmen to look rough and rugged like The Band. Marisa wanted them to look a little on the sharper side, so a shave and haircut was in order.



Her dress, her hair, the flowers, the perfect shade of yellow bridesmaids dresses - everything is so dreamy!



Sunnie Brook styled both Adam and Marisa’s hair. Because they love hiking and camping so much Holland Ranch was just the perfect setting for their nature-themed wedding. Marisa’s dress was from Claire Pettibone in Beverly Hills. She bought her headpiece from which goose on etsy. A good friend Lindsey Hume triple-featured as a bridesmaid, guitar player/singer and the florist. DJ Malik Miko kept the sweet tunes flowing well into the night.



How amazing is this ceremony location? Love the setting and the beautiful heart made of vines. Their dog even joined them for this important day!





Marisa really wanted some photos with the horses, so just before dinner I loaded the couple in my wagon and drove across the ranch to where the horses were grazing to see if they would let Marisa join for a few images. They were more than willing and Marisa and I were so happy!







The invitations were designed by Marisa and Adam and then they had them printed at Paper Sky, a paper store in downtown San Luis Obispo.





What a beautiful dreamy wedding! Thanks so much Cameron for letting me share this beautiful day with everyone and congrats to Marisa + Adam! Check out Cameron's blog for more beautiful portrait photos and their engagement photos.

Real Wedding: Quyen + Jon's Vintage-Inspired Wedding

Carlie and Gabriel are the talented husband and wife team behind Gabriel Ryan Photography. Their photos are always beautiful and perfectly capture the details and emotions of the day. Carlie thought this wedding would be perfect to share and I couldn't agree more!

From Gabriel, Quyen & Jon's wedding was a delight to photograph. They had obviously taken a lot of time to think through many of the details of their big day to make sure it went off without a hitch and by planning the ceremony and reception in the same location (the muckenthaler mansion and cultural center in fullerton, ca), the day seemed to flow effortlessly. As a professional wedding photographer, I appreciate detail & simplicity, which can often be difficult to mix properly, but Jon & Quyen found the perfect combination.

Quyen describes her wedding inspiration as 1920-1930's era, antique flea market.



What a gorgeous bride! Love the long veil and beautiful Pronovias dress. The bridesmaids dresses are custom made Calvin Hiep from HYP Design.







Any do it yourself projects? LOTS! invitations were made from ordering from paperandmore.com and PSA Essential personalized monogrammed stamp which we used on our stationary and throughout the wedding with that monogram on our shot glasses that were given away as party favors along with the recipe of our favorite shot; all vases, tins, antique typewriters were hand picked and selected at thrift shops all throughout CA by myself and nicole (one of my bridesmaids).









Other Vendors:
bride's hair: lisa venanzi (email: LisaBird121@yahoo.com)
bride's makeup: tiffany patton
flowers: Megan Grey from Rainbows Flower (Long Beach, CA)
coordinator: Marcy Guevara
catering and cake: Collette's Catering
car: Vern & Melinda Moen's 1965 Plymouth Barracuda

Thanks Carlie and Gabriel for sharing this beautiful wedding with us today! Be sure to check their blog for more beautiful photos from this wedding!

Real Wedding: Jim + Sharon's Wedding with a Bike

When Sharon first sent me some photos from her wedding, I really loved how her husband and her incorporated so many details about themselves into their day. That really is what it's about - making the day about you as a couple! Their ceremony was at Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook in Culver City and then they had their reception at the Smog Shoppe (one of my most favorite locations!) All the wonderful photos are by Walter Pieringer. Sharon was sweet enough to send some details about their day also. Thanks so much for sharing your day with us Sharon and Jim!

We had an amazing time! We made everything from the centerpieces, to the photo booth to the candy bags and candy display to handmade buttons for all the guest and so much more. We had a video loop playing during our reception that our friend created, which was us riding bikes thru various scenes.





When Sharon first sent me photos, I loved all the photos with the bikes and had to know what the story was! From Sharon, The bike was very significant to us, especially to Jim. He is an Art Director at OdysseyBMX. He has been riding bmx bikes since he was a young boy back in Long Island. We met in LA through some mutual friends at an Action Sporting event in Pomona. It was very casual, and it was more like "Hi", "Bye". Then two years later we met again, and have never been separated (that was 3 years ago). Some of Jim's pro athletes compete in the X Games, so it's another reason that we were able to meet up again, and why we have some common interest.

So we were riding a custom made Hercules/Sunday Frame bmx sidehack with Odyssey parts. Orange version was painted and decaled by Jim. Our ordained minister, Mike Ardelean, is also a pro bmx athlete. One of our closest and dearest friends.











How awesome is this photo booth?? So creative and fun. It was made by Jim and his friend Jeff.



Our friends surprised us and made shirts for all our wedding guest. The day before the wedding, we had a Beach Volleyball Day for all the guest to hang out, catch up, and get to know one another little more before the Big Day. So our bridal party made T-shirts for everyone. What great friends!



I love these invites! Jim designed them and had them screen printed on handkerchiefs at a local printer. Many of our friends brought the invitation with them and used it as a pocket handkerchief, which we encouraged on the invitation. One of my co-worker's mom made a dress out of the two handkerchief for their daughter to wear at the wedding. It was great that everyone found another use for the invitation. Also, his mom helped us make the ceramic birds. (She just happens to have a kiln in her basement. Lucky us!) We had purple and orange ceramic birds with the center piece. There were enough for each of the guest to take some home.



Looking back, my favorite memories were everything leading up to the wedding. Jim and I had an amazing time being creative and incorporating pieces of us in our wedding. We got in engaged in December 2008, and decided to have the wedding in less than 6 month. So it sparked a lot of energy to get motivated and design a wedding that reflected our personalities. At the actual wedding, I think my favorite part was the Pae Bek Ceremony. It was so unique and our friends loved it. It also allowed us to recognize our parents and have them incorporated in the evening. Plus i got to wear a korean hanbok, which was so beautiful.

Vendor Info:
We made it a point to keep it within the community, so the majority our vendors were Culver City locals.

Caterer: Tender Greens, Culver City
Cupcakes (Green Tea, Oreo Cookie, Creamsicle, and Banana Cream): Jessica Madrid (a friend of the couple)
Dress: Handmade by my friend Tamara Dutton Zielinski
Other Desserts: Dolce Forno and a local donut shop
Paek Bek Ceremony (Korean Tea Ceremony) Esther Kim