Manhattan Beach Wedding by Erin Hearts Court

This wedding from the always-amazing Erin Hearts Court is capital C, COOL!   It is super chic and modern but has the attitude and feel-good vibe of a house party.  The hip Shade Hotel sets the scene for this contemporary, Southern California celebration filled with loads of comfy lounge furniture and incredible, fresh florals from JL DESIGNS.  And that ceremony is just jaw-dropping awesome!!! Head on over to the full gallery to get your style fix for the afternoon.

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My husband, Morgan, and I were married this past August 2010 at Shade Hotel in Manhattan Beach, CA.  I was never the girl who pictured or planned her wedding growing up, but sure enough, soon after we got engaged, we had a very clear picture of the wedding we wanted.  We are natural party hosts; one of our favorite activities is having people at our home.  We wanted the wedding to feel like our parties do:  free flowing, fun, and filled with lots of good music, food, and drink.  With that image in mind, we began planning the wedding design and style.

As soon as we moved to Manhattan Beach after college, I fell in love with Shade Hotel.  It is modern, clean, and simple—a style that describes our taste perfectly.  Shade’s unique layout made us think differently about the flow of the wedding.  We had no assigned seats, all different types of seating, and stations all around the courtyard for the food.  We had rented the entire small hotel out, so the weekend felt like a long slumber party with our closes family and friends.

Shade had recommended Carissa from JL DESIGNS for our florist, and she really helped my vision come to life.  Not only were her florals gorgeous, she really took the role as the event designer and helped us get the right rentals and linens in place.  We went with green and white flowers and included some of my favorites, tulips, cala lilies, orchids, and succulents.  One of my favorite parts is the fact that each of my bridesmaids carried a bouquet of a different green flower.  They looked beautiful held against their gray J.Crew bridesmaid dresses.

As for the other details, design-savvy Morgan designed our invitations, website, and paper goods, we used our friends at Jamaica’s Cakes for our delicious cake, bought tons of details from different Etsy vendors, had the same ceremony guitarist from my parents’ wedding (with some of the same Cat Stevens songs.)  Luckily, our wonderful photographers, Erin Hearts Court, beautifully captured all of it.

Wedding Venue: Shade Hotel / Wedding Photographers: Erin Hearts Court / Wedding Cinematographer: Living Cinema / Wedding Florist: JL DESIGNS / Lighting and Rentals: Level 4 International / Linens: Wildflower Linen / DJ: Aaron Massey from VOX DJs / Officiant: Greg Mohr from You May Kiss the Bride / Ceremony Music: Marty Kaniger / Hair and Makeup: Nicole DeAnne Bridal Hair and Makeup / Bride’s Hair Accessory: 5eizen / Bride’s Dress: Modern Trousseau from The White Dress / Bride’s Shoes: Charles David / Bride’s Shoe Clips: bpoetic / Bride’s bracelet: emin jewelry / Bridesmaid Dresses and Shoes: J. Crew and Nine West / Groom’s Suit: J. Crew / Groomsmen Accessories: The Tie Bar, Express, and Converse / Flower Girl Tutu: tutugirl / Wedding Bands: Pasha Fine Jewelry / Wedding Cake: Jamaica’s Cakes / Wedding Cake Toppers: RedLight Studio / Favors: Gotta Have S’more