San Juan Capistrano Wedding at Serra Plaza
If this beautiful Bride walked into the SMP offices, I'm pretty darn sure we would all become immediate besties. With her love for all things sparkly, need for chandeliers and her crafty yet curated approach to her big day, she is most definitely a girl after our own heart. And it will only take one peek at all the pretty planned by Intertwined Events (with stunning florals from Stephanie Grace Designs) and captured by Christopher Todd Studios to see why. See it all here.
From the Bride...After a perfect proposal on the day before New Years Eve 2013, I knew that 2013 would be not only the year of my wedding, but also of planning, dreaming, fantasizing and endlessly romanticizing our perfect day. Indeed, 2013 was the year of the SMP Homepage, the bedroom floor of magazines and rip outs, OCD pinteresting, a DVR consistantly 97% full of "4 Weddings" episodes, and paying homage to the wedding goddesses: Emily Post and Mindy Weiss. Two of my bridesmaids had also recently gotten engaged and we, along with several other friends were, simultaneously planning our dream days.
When asked my vendors what I envisioned for my wedding day, I found myself at a loss for words to what I envisioned. Whimsical, but not to Alice and Wonderland-ish, sparkly but NO glitter, romantic without being sappy, quirky without being flat out right strange. I had no way to describe it - except that I wanted it to be different than any other wedding I had ever been to. I wanted it to be all outside, no standard round centerpieces, no stuffy bridesmaids dresses- and most importantly, I wanted it to be a day that my future husband and I would look back on as simply perfect...and have lots of chandeliers!
After taking suggestions from my friends based on my jumbled vision, I came across Serra Plaza and the rest essentially fell into place. Other than not knowing how to describe it (it is an office park turned amazing wedding venue on the weekends), it was the perfect setting that was equally unique, open, and the perfect neutral but elegant canvas on which to express my vision of the perfect wedding. With the venue locked in, the scrambled vision began to take its form.
I'm not sure if I was driven by madness, my love of crafts, or just plain German cheapness, but my fiance and I found ourselves doing a fair amount of DIY. Having a graphic design background, he painstakingly crafted every piece of paper from the invitation (and it's many pieces), to the program, to the menu and everything in between. Between the paper details, me spending hour upon hour of hand-crippling faux-ligraphy for the invitations, it proved to be well worth the effort and an excellent bonding experience (with "conflict-resolution" skills as an added bonus!). The bonds of DIY also extended to our mothers who reveled in helping us pick out pictures for each of the 22 tables where the table number matched our age (which ended up looking a slightly questionable on some tables seeing as how we are almost 4 years apart in age!).
When September 15 had arrived, we felt that we had assembled the dream team of well-researched vendors (all of whom I would whole heartedly suggest if you are in Southern California) and it truly felt like the perfect day. Although it was a logistical "challenge" (to say the least), we couldn't resist the allure of the San Juan Capistrano Mission to do our first look and bridal party pictures- which proved to be well worth the headache! We all jumped into a van rented and driven by my father and headed back to Serra Plaza for the rest of the ceremony and reception.
From my loving family, to supportive bridal party, the day was filled with nothing but joy and love - the perfect beginning to our happily ever after!
When asked my vendors what I envisioned for my wedding day, I found myself at a loss for words to what I envisioned. Whimsical, but not to Alice and Wonderland-ish, sparkly but NO glitter, romantic without being sappy, quirky without being flat out right strange. I had no way to describe it - except that I wanted it to be different than any other wedding I had ever been to. I wanted it to be all outside, no standard round centerpieces, no stuffy bridesmaids dresses- and most importantly, I wanted it to be a day that my future husband and I would look back on as simply perfect...and have lots of chandeliers!
After taking suggestions from my friends based on my jumbled vision, I came across Serra Plaza and the rest essentially fell into place. Other than not knowing how to describe it (it is an office park turned amazing wedding venue on the weekends), it was the perfect setting that was equally unique, open, and the perfect neutral but elegant canvas on which to express my vision of the perfect wedding. With the venue locked in, the scrambled vision began to take its form.
I'm not sure if I was driven by madness, my love of crafts, or just plain German cheapness, but my fiance and I found ourselves doing a fair amount of DIY. Having a graphic design background, he painstakingly crafted every piece of paper from the invitation (and it's many pieces), to the program, to the menu and everything in between. Between the paper details, me spending hour upon hour of hand-crippling faux-ligraphy for the invitations, it proved to be well worth the effort and an excellent bonding experience (with "conflict-resolution" skills as an added bonus!). The bonds of DIY also extended to our mothers who reveled in helping us pick out pictures for each of the 22 tables where the table number matched our age (which ended up looking a slightly questionable on some tables seeing as how we are almost 4 years apart in age!).
When September 15 had arrived, we felt that we had assembled the dream team of well-researched vendors (all of whom I would whole heartedly suggest if you are in Southern California) and it truly felt like the perfect day. Although it was a logistical "challenge" (to say the least), we couldn't resist the allure of the San Juan Capistrano Mission to do our first look and bridal party pictures- which proved to be well worth the headache! We all jumped into a van rented and driven by my father and headed back to Serra Plaza for the rest of the ceremony and reception.
From my loving family, to supportive bridal party, the day was filled with nothing but joy and love - the perfect beginning to our happily ever after!