Elisabeth Millay Photography is one of my absolute favorite photographers, and it all comes down to images like these. The way she captured the beauty of this wedding is unheard of. The wedding itself far surpassed any expectations I had (and I’ve come to have high expectations) and Elisabeth was able to capture it’s very essence.
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From the beautiful bride… After my husband proposed to me in February, we both knew right away that we didn’t need to wait very long to plan the wedding. I’m an extremely visual person who makes very quick and decisive decisions so we gave ourselves six months and it was a perfect amount of time.
It also helped that for a long time I’ve known how I wanted my wedding to feel–I just didn’t know how to make it a reality.
After Googling and Yelping for a week straight–I called Amber Events since I was in love with a beach wedding they had styled. Nira de Luna met me for a lunch meeting and that day I made a friend for life and the best wedding decision of them all: hire a planner that you mesh with.
Here’s what I told Nira about my ideas for the wedding at that lunch. I wanted the ceremony to be “crisp and unfussy” and on the ocean with a breezy but elegant “Nantucket evening vibe.” As for the reception–I wanted a “super classy black-tie event, bursting with color that shimmered in everyone’s memory.” Not an easy task to achieve. I studied her face. She didn’t even flinch. She started typing on her iPad and handed it over.
“You want the Bel Air Bay Club. It’s a gorgeous country club that overlooks the ocean with a fabulous ball room inside. Take a look at these pictures.”
Done and done. And it was like this the entire time we planned. Easy and enjoyable, which is not what I was expecting the process to be like. Each vendor she introduced me to I loved because she only picked extremely visual and creative people and they all thought out of the box like me and my husband.
People like Brad from StageLabs who did our amazing lighting after I described picturing the entire room under a “canopy of twinkle stars.” Or Becky from HollyFlora who didn’t think it was weird when I showed her a tangerine popsicle as my inspiration for the tangerine flowers. Or Elisabeth Millay who understood what I meant when I said “I don’t want any wishy-washy pastel photographs.”
But, to be honest, my secret weapon was “Brudy.” “Brudy” is a combination between my husband “Brooks” and my mother “Judy.” Strangely, Brooks and my mother have extremely similar taste and it is of a higher quality than mine. So, we made a deal that if Brooks and my Mom independently said no to something–I would have to give it up. And that’s why my wedding was so classy and not filled with pounds of gold glitter.
Photographer: Millay & Young Photography | Videography: Juice Box Media | Wedding Planning: Amber Events | Flowers: Holly Flora | Dress: JLM Couture, Inc | Shoes: Kate Spade | Lighting: Stage Labs | DJ: Red Shoe LA | Rabbi: Heather Miller | Ceremony Music: Angelica Strings | Cake & Dessert: SusieCakes | Ceremony And Reception: Bel Air Bay Club | Linens: BBJ La Tavola | Photo/Video Booth: Flash Life Photobooth | Wedding Video: Juice Box Media