Woodland romance meets West Coast cool in this California wedding so perfectly captured by Raya Carlisle Photography. Inspired by the groom’s Mexican roots and the bride’s Hawaiian heritage, Joy de Vivre helped design a beautiful blend of two cultures for a wedding of unparalleled pretty. Modern Day Design, NLC Productions and Ambient Event Design crafted the tropical-inspired blooms, Cana Family Video Production created the tear-inducing film, and you can see even more details of the day right here.
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From the bride…We lovingly and jokingly called the theme of our wedding, Mexican grandma’s Hawaiian vacation. I was born and raised in Hilo on the Big Island, and Louis is from a large Mexican family who’s roots in Santa Barbara reach pretty far back. We wanted to blend the two aesthetics and make the design of the wedding a reflection of our vintage taste, our family,and our up bringing.
More particular flowers rather than color dictated the color palette. It really organically evolved over the course of planning. We both really love turquoise blues and greens so we opted for a beautiful aqua linen from La Tavola, with the flowers being a combination of peach, yellow, and grey with touches of white and plum. As a floral designer choosing the flowers was so fun but so difficult. I love too many to count which made it hard to wade through the millions of ideas and options. Actually Pinterest was a huge help in distilling a vision, along with my amazing friends/bridesmaids/fellow floral nerds Camille Panzarello and Bree Tate of Modern Day Design. The flowers were heavy on the tropicals but blended with the spring blooms that are so abundant in the Santa Barbara area. We used a lot of locally grown product, such as hellebores, orchids, olive, rex begonias, tillandsias, dusty miller, and ranunculus.
Our wedding was truly a labor of love and when they say it takes a village there is no joking in that. There were so many crafty helping hands it would take a thousand words to recognize every individual. Our good friend Joaquin Valle is an amazing studio potter and hand made a set of gorgeous footed bowls for centerpiece flowers. Scott Tate of Wilson Printing printed all of our escort cards, menus, programs, and wine label table numbers. Both families made all the sweets for the dessert bar. Nico Cervantes of NLC Productions made floral arrangements, styled the dessert bar and painted the beautiful “Bienvenidos” signage. Husband and wife team, Ambient Event Design, did fabric draping, lighting, and flowers. It was a huge help having friendships and professional relationships with great people in the Santa Barbara events industry, from catering to the DJ we personally knew practically everyone involved in the production of the big day. My sister and I will take all the credit for the making of dozens of tissue paper flowers and that is about it as far as my DIY contribution.
There are so many fun memories! One of our favorite memories from the wedding was the garter belt toss. Louis had to redo the first toss because it landed on the DJ equipment two feet from where he stood, and then when we tossed it again he threw it so hard it landed up in the hanging star lanterns above the dance floor. Subsequently the tallest groomsman climbed up on the shoulders of the tallest guest and barely retrieved it with out pulling down half of the lighting. We laughed so hard and will never forget that moment. The ceremony is tied for first. It was beautiful and personal and more wonderful than we ever could have ever hoped.
My favorite detail of the wedding was definitely the invitations! They were a splurge and so worth it. I have always loved and admired Rifle Paper Co.’s work and I was so pleased when Louis was as over the moon for them as I was. Also the flowers, they were pure magic.
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Wedding Photography: Raya Carlisle Photography | Venue: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara, California | Wedding Coordination: Joy de Vivre | Floral Design: Modern Day Design + NLC Productions + Ambient Event Design | Catering: Ernie Price Catering and Susan Ledig Events | Rentals: Ventura Party Rentals | Linens: La Tavola | Invitations: Rifle Paper Co. | Cinematography: Cana Family Video Production | Lighting: Ambient Event Design | Photo Booth: Magnolia Photo Booth Co.| Music: DJ Ray Aspuria | Painted Signs: Modern Day Design + NLC Productions | Hair + Makeup: Jenn Montoya | Wedding Dress: Jenny Yoo | Shoes: Lola Cruz | Rings + Jewelry: 33 Jewels + Jewels of the Beach