Every once in a while, a wedding comes along that’s the complete and total package. The dress, the design, the florals, and the couple — so madly in love they outshine everything with ease. When those kinds of perfect moments come our way, our blogger giddies hit whole new heights. Because it’s nuptials like this Los Olivos affair — a modern-day fairytale, if you ask me — that remind us of all the reasons we love weddings so, so much. And of course, a dreamy gallery from Braedon Photography doesn’t hurt either. Get lost in it all right here.
From the Bride… I grew up in the Midwest and had lived in California for 6 years when I met Dennis. During those six years I developed a love/obsession with the Santa Ynez/Los Olivos area. The first time I went there I was in shock that something so serene was so close to LA. Dennis on the other hand is born and raised in Manhattan Beach, CA and after we started dating he told me that he had never been to the Santa Yenz area. I about died so needless to say our first get away weekend was to Santa Barbara Wine Country.
At this time I had never been to Demetria, but had started to hear a buzz about it and told Dennis we had to go there. The day we went it ends up that Dennis grew up two block from the owners of Demetria in Manhattan Beach and he had no idea that they had opened a winery. About a year and a half later we got engaged and when we went up to Santa Ynez to look at locations we never left Demetria. We actually stayed past them time that they closed because they all knew Dennis’ father who passed away 14 years ago and the owners started telling stories about his Dad and I started crying and needless to say we never left and knew that this is where our wedding was going to be, no questions.
Once the location and dress was chosen my creative brain started churning right away. Pink has always been my favorite color so Dennis was a good sport to go along with it, and in the end he loved the gray and pink together. I also purchased a lot of custom made items off of Etsy, I became a little Etsy obsessed. We were also lucky that Dennis’ sister is a graphic designer and she made all of the printed materials for our wedding. I really wanted peonies, but given the time of year we got married they were not readily available so Nico at NLC productions worked with me to make sure I was happy, and l was very happy!
It was very important to Dennis and I that everyone coming have an amazing time, since this location was a destination for everyone we knew it was very important for us to make sure that our guests had an unforgettable experience. We both love food, wine, and cocktails so we hired Damien Windsor to do the cocktails, and Savior Faire for our family style dinner and our guests still talk about both. We also had a few special moments for our parents by having a surprise bag piper for our moms and my Dad and I pretended for about 10 seconds to do a normal father daughter dance, but then we threw on Dodger tshirts and hat and danced to “I love LA” by Randy Newman (My Dad has loved the Dodgers his whole life even though he lives in Omaha, NE). My favorite surprise of the night was that I put together a surprise bourbon bar/cigar lounge that I dedicated to Dennis in memory of his Dad and it was called “Bob Komick’s Bourbon Bar.”
Our favorite part of the night was when we stopped for 10 minutes before walking down to the reception and had one of our favorite cocktails just the two of us and looked down on all of our guests already having a great time and the party was just getting started. I am event obsessed and always planning something for my immediate group of friends and after being so happy with the way the wedding turned out I am thinking of branching out into doing something of my own. Really I could go on and on because we loved BRAEDON and the photos that we received a few weeks later and lucky for us we chose great vendors that worked well together and help make my fairy tale dream wedding come true.
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Wedding Photography: Braedon Photography | Wedding Venue + Wine: Demetria Estate Winery | Floral Design: NLC Productions | Day-of Wedding Planning: Felici Events | Wedding Cinematopgraphy: Urbane Media Photo & Video | Wedding Catering: Savoir Faire | Wedding Cake: Decadence | Rentals: Town & Country | Linens: La Tavola Linen | Lighting: LBPS Events | Bag Pipe: Bill Boetticher | Singer: Ray Fortune |Transportation: Silverado Stages | Mixologist: Damien Windsor | DJ: Maxx Henry | Wedding Dress: Lazaro | Shoes: Badgely Mischka | Hair: Kelly Scripps | Makeup: Julie Severt