A Year in Pictures

In no particular order. One of my brides, Jess, super stylish, made this amazing brooch bouquet, a trend I absolutely love and want to make one for myself just because.

She was a bride after my own heart, also, because she had her maids all wear the same color (in different shades) of blue, which I had my bridesmaids do at my wedding almost 5 years ago. But I love that they are not only in different styles, but also different shades of the color (my favorite color still).

And, Jess and her now husband, Chris, decided to forgo the "first dance" and instead did a first song. They sang "Anyone Else But You" by the Moldy Peaches. A special thanks to Rob Greer who took these fantastic photos from Jess & Chris' wedding at Stone Manor, in Malibu. 

You can see the clip from the movie below.

At the same venue, Stone Manor, I had the pleasure of doing my first inspiration shoot designed by yours truly along with Peony & Plum, who did amazing florals. I'll be posting pics after we get it featured on a wedding blog, but here's a little taste.
The calligraphy and all paper goods are from my friend Calligraphy Katrina and the brooch on the velvet ribbon napkin treatment was my grandmothers. The rentals are all from Archive Vintage Rentals.

 The cake is from Fantasy Frostings, flowers from Peony & Plum, the fabulous backdrop is from Picotte Photo, the vintage rentals are all from Archive Vintage Rentals.

I did another wedding at one of my favorite venues, Hummingbird Nest Ranch. I also tried my hand at a few DIY details like this table number, lilac shimmer paper & lace from Jo-Ann Fabrics. Calligraphy from Calligraphy Katrina. Photo by Jasmine Star. 

I also made this direction sign, my first ever, and had Calligraphy Katrina do all of the writing in the colors of the day. I bought the wood pieces already cut from OSH and just nailed it all together.

Another DIY Project was this escort card board, as opposed to traditional tent cards. I used the same lilac shimmer paper as the table numbers and had Calligraphy Katrina use a darker plum color for the writing. I cut a foamcore board and covered it in a simple ivory fabric from Jo-Ann Fabrics and placed it in a large silver frame I had. I pinned each piece of paper using white pins and added a little bling using flatback swarovski crystals and voila.

And here's a pic of the lovely bride, Laura, who I've known since I was in fourth grade and reconnected on Facebook and she asked me to be her wedding planner. You never know what God has in store for you and who he'll lead back into your life.

I got to do my first Destination Wedding in California. The bride and groom, Lisa & Quinn, chose Firestone Vineyards up in Los Olivos. It was a gorgeous day with gorgeous decor. I'll be posting this wedding as soon as I get more pics from the photographer, Alex of BlueSilver Photo, so stay tuned. 

The bouquet made with mostly peonies in all shades of pink was made by Camilla Svensson Burns.

Earlier this year my friend & colleague, Lina, of A Stunning Affair, and I co-designed our first ever inspiration shoot based on Edward & Bella's Wedding in the 4th book in the Twilight Series, Breaking Dawn. This was the ahhhmazing cake that Melody of Sweet & Saucy did for us for the Twilight Tablescape, which was featured on Style Me Pretty, Hostess with the Mostess, and Woman's World Magazine.

The photos were taken by Meg Perotti who herself is a big Twilight fan and we were so thrilled that she jumped at the chance to be a part of it. I met Meg through Twitter, got together from coffee a little over a year ago and she'll be doing the photos of one of my brides this coming March. She and I also share the safe affection for the wonderful photographer, Jasmine Star who took Meg's wedding photos a month ago.

Calligraphy Katrina was a part of it as well. She did the menus, invitation, ribbon on the bouquet, apple escort cards, and other signage for the shoot. She also created my fabulous new logo you see at the top of this blogsite as well as my website.

This photo above was my absolute favorite from the shoot. I feel it captured what we were going for with the look and feel and color scheme.

I also had my first Montecito / Santa Barbara wedding. The ceremony was at a private estate and the reception was at The Valley Club.

The photography team of Tim & Cheryl Halberg of Halberg Photographers were quickly added to my vendor recommendation list once I saw their same day edit. They also have a fantastic new feature where the slideshow created from the same day edits has real video footage mixed into it, which is something I've never seen before.

It's hard to tell from these romantic and seemingly traditional photos, but the bride & groom are pretty non-traditional and somewhat bad ass. The bride herself is a singer/songwriter, a rock star for all intensive purposes and you can check our her website by clicking here. Emily & Brad were one of 2 of my couples from New York that got married in Cali.

My other couple from New York, Sami & Roman, got married at the Four Seasons Westlake Village. They had an Old Hollywood style event. This photo was taken by Norris Photo.

Lina and I did another design project together and created 5 different tablescapes for the launch party for Calligraphy Katrina's new invitation line, Maison du Papier. The event was in the middle of the year so we had to do an Alice in Wonderland table...who didn't this year??

Lina found this vintage Alice in Wonderland book which we used as our invitation, writing on the page with the photo of the tea party as well as pasting in a pocket and a bookmark with all the details.

A tea party wouldn't be complete with out teacups and saucers. We used 6 different sets, mixing and matching them at each place setting, giving each guest their own personal art display before their eyes. Each guest also had their placecard tied to a vintage key I bought at Pottery Barn.

That's a picture of me on the left, Lina on the right, and Katrina in the middle. The event took place at Alina Pizzano's studio in Pasadena. She's creating the dress for one of my bride's this year, possibly 2 and she let us borrow this gorgeous crocheted wedding dress for the Stone Manor inspiration shoot I showed you a couple pictures of above.

We also did a winery inspired tablescape with deep merlot and cabernet inspired florals and tea stained stationary with burnt edged for good measure.

And we had to bring in a pop of color with a fabulous and bright tablescape. You may recognize the brooch on the napkin treatment, it's the same on Lina and I used in the Twilight tablescape.

We also did a "Back to School" inspired table using chalkboards as a main piece and went modern with the color scheme using black, white, and yellow. I think this tablescape was my favorite. Fun but a little unexpected.

I also got my first intern this year. Her name is Kristen and she happened to also be one of my bride's this summer. She and her husband Dan were living up in Washington while we were planning their wedding and they moved down to California just before the big day. She is a fantastic addition to the team and you'll want to stay tuned for the photos from the Stone Manor Inspiration shoot as she and Dan were kind enough to be the models for me. This photo and the launch party pics were taken by Aaron Okayama.

Kristen & Dan's backyard wedding was super colorful and fun and was the first wedding this year that I did with Peony & Plum. She and I worked on the Stone Manor shoot and have 2 definite and 4 potential weddings lined up for next year together. Can you tell I LOVE her work???

I also made my first bouquet. The bride is a friend of mine who I went to college with. She did a "day after" shoot as we was not too pleased with her original wedding photos. To those of you brides reading this, please, please invest in a phenomenal photographer. You won't regret it. Anyways, she wanted something warm and bright and so I used yellow and fuchsia gerbera daisies, roses, and tulips wrapped in a chocolate brown satin ribbon. The photo was taken by Tira J who works at my alma mater, Azusa Pacific University, go Cougars.

And on a personal note, my husband and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary, we moved to Orange County, we got a dog, and he started working at Saddleback Church on their Jr. High staff.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that I had the opportunity to go to Colorado to work on a destination wedding with Beth Helmstetter.

 The wedding was in Basalt, Colorado, just outside of Aspen.

 The bridesmaids dresses, are from Forever 21 if you can believe it. I know, right.

 They had this "True Love is a Big Deal" sign made just for their wedding. It was suspended over the bride and groom at the ceremony.

And yes, I helped light all the candles in the mason jar chandeliers, made by Holly Flora. And wow were they gorgeous. Beth is a true visionary and is my absolute favorite wedding and event designer. These amazing pictures were taken by Jonas Peterson, a destination wedding photographer based in Australia.