Beach Wedding at The Biltmore Four Seasons
I'm always so excited to see the wedding photographer's weddings. The details are obviously going to be tops, with as many weddings as she's seen, and it's just so fun to turn the camera around on the pro. Vivian Sachs captured such a wedding and it's filled with pink, love, and beautiful blooms from Seed Floral Couture!
From the beautiful bride... My husband Don and I were introduced by a mutual friend. Our friend posted on her Facebook wall that she was really good at playing Words with Friends, so Don accepted her challenge. After rounds of play, she started chatting to him about meeting me, and as they say, the rest of history. This is why, we chose scrabble letters as part of our wedding experience as part of the decor! WWF was an integral reason on how we met so I used this as part of the design element.
Deciding our wedding venue was the hardest and most stressful decision we had made. We both have aging parents plus 24 nieces and nephews (many under 5 years old) that would be most comfortable indoors though my dreams were to have an outside ceremony so we were on the hunt for a venue where we had both indoor and outdoor capacity.
When we were our lunching in Santa Barbara looking at private estates, we happened to lunch at The Biltmore Four Seasons and both loved the scene. We loved the Casino Ballroom with the outdoor patio right above the beach, that wrapped around a modern ballroom. I never envisioned my wedding to be in a ballroom, but the art deco feel really worked for us. It was a gorgeous setting on the Pacific Ocean and private enough that I felt the intimacy was there.
I knew that I wanted a modern and chic wedding. I also knew that I wanted the indoor and outdoor experience swapped. So, it was my goal to create an inside experience outdoors and vice versa. Because I also have an event design company, I just had too many ideas. Add that passion with a Pinterest obsession and I had a bazillion thoughts! I then sought professional help and hired someone to help me infuse my design ideas and pulling all these crazy thoughts together. My wonderful wedding coordinator, Wilmarose Orlands of Lovely Jubilee, was there to help bring out the best of what I loved and make it clean and modern. She trimmed the fat and help pull everything together.
With the modern and chic goal in mind, the wedding played off this black and white upholstry fabric I found while in downtown Los Angeles. This was the base of everything we went with. I used it when I cut and created each wedding invitation for texture on the front fold. We used strips of the fabric for the arches of the ceremony flowers. We used it for the candy and sweets station since it was so decorative. I loved how even our photo booth vendor, Sterling Photobooth, used the quatrofoil for our custom banner. I also gave some of this same fabric for Stephanie at Seed Floral Couture for the our bouquets for the wraps. I then had the black and white quatrofoil design turned into aqua and coral to use for all the signage and stationary for our menus, welcome signs, table numbers.
A tribute to Scrabble came into play in many ways. For one, I wanted a modern spin on it, so instead of the wood letters, everything was in black and white. We used the letters as props for our photostand, handmade pillows, wedding program, seating chart, seating card, table numbers
The style of all the clothing was also very modern. The flower girl dresses were probably one of my favorite purchases I had found on Etsy. The flower girl hair pieces were gifted and made by my dear friend Sandy. I did my best to keep the cost low and relied on the sheer talent of friends I luckily have! The ring boy outfit I found off a kiosk in Little Saigon in Orange County. His outfit was just $20.
Pinterest inspired the wedding with a lot of the signage, but just in modern typography that I chose. I found the following signs and will credit Pinterest for them!: Uncle Don, Here Comes Your Girl, All You Need is Love - And Sometimes A Little Candy, Our Love Story, So You're Not Blinded By Our Love.
It was also really important to infuse our personalities into the wedding. My husband works in the Sports Entertainment industry so to his surprise, I worked with our baker who made him New Orleans Saints inspired cookies and football jerseys. She also created mini Chanel purse cookies for my love of style and fashion. As a photographer, I also had vintage cameras sprinkled throughout the sweets table as well.
We wanted to have fun elements for our guests as well. It was Wilmarose's idea to get each guest a pair of black and white sunglasses for the southern California experience, and it worked out great as it was blazing hot that day in Santa Barbara. I had no idea the guests were all wearing it during the ceremony, a fun favor as well as very handy on that day. However, walking down the aisle was a blur, I was fixed on Don's eyes! After I saw the pictures, I thought it was a great sea of our most cherished friends and family with the same shades on. Another affordable and personal additional I loved about our wedding.
For the inside experience outdoors and outdoors experience inside, we accomplished this in a few ways. I had seen oversized lampshades used when our hotel was featured on another SMP blog and had to have them! We also added pillows the coaches outside and added mirrored coffee tables too. I had a friend lug up my mirrored vanity to have as our sign int table as well. For the inside, the driftwood we used seemed like it could have arrived right at the shore, but we modernized it for the tables. When it was time for flowers, I really wanted the look to be very modern and clean. The wallpaper of the inside room was very busy, and as I mentioned, I wanted the outdoor experience, inside. My florist and I worked on a driftwood centerpiece with succulents, dahlias and big floral accents. Once again, in order to cut costs, I spent one afternoon spray painting the natural wood with 7 coats of spray paint so that the driftwood looked modern! Also, another friend donated her succulents to our wedding and I painted them gold to make it modern. I am so thankful my florist worked well within our budget to make our wedding beautiful! We also had the groomsmen boutineer stay with the modern black and white colors, she was really on board!
All the details aside, truly the best part of our wedding was all the love that filled up that patio, and that filled up that room. We had such heartfelt speeches made from both sides of friends and family that still conjures up so much joy when I think back. We had my niece and his nephew perform a surprise skit for us that was really adorable and I just remember thinking how surreal our day was. Because I had told myself to stop worrying about the details on how everything "looks", I really didn't even notice much of the labor of love that went into all the design, and was pleasantly swooning over the pictures once the wedding was over. To me, it was the hugs from friends and family, laughter and tears from all the speeches, and most importantly, his vows that I'll always remember. in submitting our wedding today, I hope to inspire other brides to add as much personality to your wedding --- but let go as early as possible so you can enjoy the incredible experience. Not everything has to cost a pretty penny, rely on creative friends and take one or 2 elements and run with it! In my case, it was that fabric I found in downtown LA and scrabble letters. Everything will fall into place, I promise!
Deciding our wedding venue was the hardest and most stressful decision we had made. We both have aging parents plus 24 nieces and nephews (many under 5 years old) that would be most comfortable indoors though my dreams were to have an outside ceremony so we were on the hunt for a venue where we had both indoor and outdoor capacity.
When we were our lunching in Santa Barbara looking at private estates, we happened to lunch at The Biltmore Four Seasons and both loved the scene. We loved the Casino Ballroom with the outdoor patio right above the beach, that wrapped around a modern ballroom. I never envisioned my wedding to be in a ballroom, but the art deco feel really worked for us. It was a gorgeous setting on the Pacific Ocean and private enough that I felt the intimacy was there.
I knew that I wanted a modern and chic wedding. I also knew that I wanted the indoor and outdoor experience swapped. So, it was my goal to create an inside experience outdoors and vice versa. Because I also have an event design company, I just had too many ideas. Add that passion with a Pinterest obsession and I had a bazillion thoughts! I then sought professional help and hired someone to help me infuse my design ideas and pulling all these crazy thoughts together. My wonderful wedding coordinator, Wilmarose Orlands of Lovely Jubilee, was there to help bring out the best of what I loved and make it clean and modern. She trimmed the fat and help pull everything together.
With the modern and chic goal in mind, the wedding played off this black and white upholstry fabric I found while in downtown Los Angeles. This was the base of everything we went with. I used it when I cut and created each wedding invitation for texture on the front fold. We used strips of the fabric for the arches of the ceremony flowers. We used it for the candy and sweets station since it was so decorative. I loved how even our photo booth vendor, Sterling Photobooth, used the quatrofoil for our custom banner. I also gave some of this same fabric for Stephanie at Seed Floral Couture for the our bouquets for the wraps. I then had the black and white quatrofoil design turned into aqua and coral to use for all the signage and stationary for our menus, welcome signs, table numbers.
A tribute to Scrabble came into play in many ways. For one, I wanted a modern spin on it, so instead of the wood letters, everything was in black and white. We used the letters as props for our photostand, handmade pillows, wedding program, seating chart, seating card, table numbers
The style of all the clothing was also very modern. The flower girl dresses were probably one of my favorite purchases I had found on Etsy. The flower girl hair pieces were gifted and made by my dear friend Sandy. I did my best to keep the cost low and relied on the sheer talent of friends I luckily have! The ring boy outfit I found off a kiosk in Little Saigon in Orange County. His outfit was just $20.
Pinterest inspired the wedding with a lot of the signage, but just in modern typography that I chose. I found the following signs and will credit Pinterest for them!: Uncle Don, Here Comes Your Girl, All You Need is Love - And Sometimes A Little Candy, Our Love Story, So You're Not Blinded By Our Love.
It was also really important to infuse our personalities into the wedding. My husband works in the Sports Entertainment industry so to his surprise, I worked with our baker who made him New Orleans Saints inspired cookies and football jerseys. She also created mini Chanel purse cookies for my love of style and fashion. As a photographer, I also had vintage cameras sprinkled throughout the sweets table as well.
We wanted to have fun elements for our guests as well. It was Wilmarose's idea to get each guest a pair of black and white sunglasses for the southern California experience, and it worked out great as it was blazing hot that day in Santa Barbara. I had no idea the guests were all wearing it during the ceremony, a fun favor as well as very handy on that day. However, walking down the aisle was a blur, I was fixed on Don's eyes! After I saw the pictures, I thought it was a great sea of our most cherished friends and family with the same shades on. Another affordable and personal additional I loved about our wedding.
For the inside experience outdoors and outdoors experience inside, we accomplished this in a few ways. I had seen oversized lampshades used when our hotel was featured on another SMP blog and had to have them! We also added pillows the coaches outside and added mirrored coffee tables too. I had a friend lug up my mirrored vanity to have as our sign int table as well. For the inside, the driftwood we used seemed like it could have arrived right at the shore, but we modernized it for the tables. When it was time for flowers, I really wanted the look to be very modern and clean. The wallpaper of the inside room was very busy, and as I mentioned, I wanted the outdoor experience, inside. My florist and I worked on a driftwood centerpiece with succulents, dahlias and big floral accents. Once again, in order to cut costs, I spent one afternoon spray painting the natural wood with 7 coats of spray paint so that the driftwood looked modern! Also, another friend donated her succulents to our wedding and I painted them gold to make it modern. I am so thankful my florist worked well within our budget to make our wedding beautiful! We also had the groomsmen boutineer stay with the modern black and white colors, she was really on board!
All the details aside, truly the best part of our wedding was all the love that filled up that patio, and that filled up that room. We had such heartfelt speeches made from both sides of friends and family that still conjures up so much joy when I think back. We had my niece and his nephew perform a surprise skit for us that was really adorable and I just remember thinking how surreal our day was. Because I had told myself to stop worrying about the details on how everything "looks", I really didn't even notice much of the labor of love that went into all the design, and was pleasantly swooning over the pictures once the wedding was over. To me, it was the hugs from friends and family, laughter and tears from all the speeches, and most importantly, his vows that I'll always remember. in submitting our wedding today, I hope to inspire other brides to add as much personality to your wedding --- but let go as early as possible so you can enjoy the incredible experience. Not everything has to cost a pretty penny, rely on creative friends and take one or 2 elements and run with it! In my case, it was that fabric I found in downtown LA and scrabble letters. Everything will fall into place, I promise!