Santa Monica, California Wedding at Casa Del Mar from Michael Segal

Stephanie Weers
November 5, 2013
Categories: Real Weddings, Traditional Elegance
Tags: Chuppah, Jewish

Ballroom weddings have a way of stealing my heart. And when they’re designed in the hands of Green Ribbon Party Planning Co and Brown Paper Design, you know they’ll be spot-on amazing. From the sparkling chandeliers to the bride’s dreamy Kirstie Kelly gown, the result was basically a fairytale brought to life. Michael Segal was there to capture every moment and this post? Well, we’re only scratching the surface. There’s so much more to love in the full gallery right here.

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From the Bride… To start, I was never the little girl that dreamed of a big wedding and all of the details. I always wanted to get married but I definitely did not have it all planned out. When I did meet the man I would ultimately marry, I can honestly say I knew from our very first date that he was and is the one. Over the course of our relationship, he’d ask me every so often when I wanted to get engaged and I’d say things like: “last week” or “tomorrow”. Little did I know that he had been planning to propose for months. Needless to say, it was incredibly romantic and more perfect than I could have ever imagined. And then began wedding planning. Jeff and I are both Jewish and knew we wanted a Jewish, but not too traditional Jewish wedding. We wanted our wedding to be elegant and classy, but also FUN! We wanted our guests to really feel part of our relationship and the new life we were starting together and we accomplished that with all of the little details throughout the night. Our goal was to make sure our guests had an amazing time and create memories we’d hold onto forever.

We actually waited about 6 months to start looking at venues and ultimately set a date. Like any engaged girl I was constantly looking at dresses and weddings online and stumbled upon my dress. Just from the picture, I knew that it was going to be the perfect dress for me…I just had to find it. After a quick search, I found the designer Kirstie Kelly and learned that her showroom was only 10 minutes from my house. It was fate!! I made an appointment and brought my Mom and my future Mother-in-law, and it was literally that simple. I put on the dress from the picture, decided I wanted it to be white, and I had my dress and found a dress for our rehearsal dinner! Kirstie and her team are amazing!!! They are so fun to work with and made the process a breeze. After finding my dress, it was time to set a date.

Jeff and I looked at quite a few venues. We knew we wanted to stay fairly local since both of our families live in Southern California. Jeff and I live a few blocks from the beach and we love how beautiful and relaxing it is to see the water. We gravitated towards venues near the beach, and one day I decided we should go to one of my favorite places to have dinner and drinks: Casa Del Mar. Casa Del Mar has such a historic and romantic feel, but not stuffy. After seeing the insanely gorgeous ballroom and meeting with their impeccable staff, our search for a venue was over. The ballroom is magnificent but not overdone and has floor to ceiling windows that open to a terrace overlooking the beach/ocean. The staff at Casa Del Mar was beyond accommodating during our planning process. They went above and beyond in making our day perfect. Our guests still gush about how amazing the food was and how gorgeous the cocktail hour overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the iconic Santa Monica Pier was.

With a wedding date set, it was time to find a wedding planner. Lucky for us, a mutual friend suggested I meet with Nicole Arena of The Green Ribbon Party Planning Co. Nicole and I bonded over love of stripes and J.Crew, and she genuinely understood the vision we had for our special day. Nicole was available 24/7 for us, setting up meeting with amazing vendors who made our day absolutely perfect and explaining exactly what we wanted when I was at a loss for words (and memory). Nicole really tied our whole theme/vision together – from making sure color palette was always incorporated, to making sure all of our paper goods used the same fonts – she nailed the details to a T.

Our photographer, Michael Segal, is more than we could ever have imagined. After a weekend trip to Palm Springs, we asked the hotel to send us their wedding information and that’s how we found Michael Segal. Michael’s personality makes everyone so comfortable and he gets the most gorgeous photos. We are incredibly lucky to have had the chance to work with such a talented photographer and team.

We selected Posh Paperie to do our invitations and paper goods and I loved how everything turned out! When I saw the invite I was beyond excited – the gold foil was perfect and I loved the blush pieces and how they all worked with the room décor. All of the extra details really made my wedding look special.

Having a Jewish wedding meant having a Chuppah (wedding canopy) with a Tallis on the top. Jeff and I were lucky enough to have two Tallit from my maternal Grandfather and my Father above us. We also used my parent’s wedding bands for the ceremony, and had our initials and wedding date engraved next to theirs. We intend to pass the rings onto our children and grandchildren to do the same.

After the ceremony, our guests had cocktails and appetizers on the terrace while we took photos. Then came the fun! Our band, Masta from DeBois Entertainment, could not have been any better. From our first dance to the traditional Jewish Hora and being tossed around in chairs, our guests didn’t leave the dance floor until the end of the night because the band was so much fun! Jeff and I wanted our guests to have fun and Masta made that happen!!

Brown Paper Design did an outstanding job with the flowers – creating the exact look I wanted. My bouquet was drop-dead gorgeous and the chuppah looked exactly how I imagined. The whole look of the ballroom was breathtaking and I couldn’t have asked for a better team.

Love is sweet, especially when your cake comes from Sweet & Saucy – BEST tasting wedding cake ever! An of course we had to get a table full of mini desserts after we had the tasting and tried all of their amazing options!

A really special touch, was the same day edit our videographer Imagique did. They put together a short video with things our guests didn’t get to see throughout the course of the day – getting ready, signing the Ketubah, parts of the ceremony and show it at the reception. It was really lovely and so fun to watch and helped our guests feel even more involved in our big day.

My wedding was the best day of my life and I am so happy that I got to marry the man of my dreams and have a wedding I truly loved! It was beautiful and fun – exactly what I wanted!