Al Fresco Elegance at Cal-A-Vie

Erin Lepperd
July 17, 2014
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog

I was so excited to see this beauty of a wedding because it just so happens to take place in my childhood hometown; a pretty, pretty spot in California made even more so at the hands of Jose Villa. It’s So Cal au naturel kicked up a few elegant notches by Brooke Keegan and Holly Flora with a wildly good looking backdrop of Cal-a-Vie. Al fresco dining never looked so good, my dears. See for yourself right here.

Before you take off into the gallery that al fresco dreams are made of, lay your peepers on this sweet film crafted by Living Cinema…

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From The Bride…Justin and I were high school sweethearts, I don’t know if there was ever a time we thought it would be for life but what we did know is that we never wanted to be apart. The first time I actually met Justin was the first day of high school when he ended up dropping a book on my head while getting to his locker and while we both had little crushes on each other on and off over the next two years and it wasn’t until our junior year that he had finally got up the courage to ask me out on a date. After that we spent two wonderful and exciting years together and then after high school graduation four more difficult years yet wonderful years attending two different schools across the country, Justin at an art school in California and me at Duke University in North Carolina. During my graduation weekend, he took me on a walk through the Sarah P Duke Gardens, flowers were in bloom and it was an almost magical place to be. I was about head to Denmark for a few months and Justin had just gotten his dream job in Seattle but none of that mattered as we walked through the garden it was time just for us. We talked and reminisced taking in the lovely surroundings all the time I was clueless to what was about to happen. Suddenly the clouds opened up to a Carolina thunderstorm and as I started to take off towards the car Justin stopped me and before I knew what was going on he was on one knee, covered in rain asking me to marry him. It all felt unreal the two of us in such a beautiful place and under the warm Carolina rain and without hesitation I said ‘Yes’.

When we started planning our wedding a year later, Justin and I tried very hard to stay true to ourselves, we found just that at Cal-A-Vie, it was a dream destination, they hadn’t done a lot of weddings but thanks to a lot of help we were able to turn it into the ideal venue. We kept things natural to highlight the beauty of the California landscape and the old French décor of Cal-A-Vie, by filling the chapel with greenery and candles we tried to give the ceremony an intimate feeling between the two of us and our guests. And in an effort to keep the day about family, we found pictures of past generations at their weddings, giving us a great perspective on love through the ages. Throughout the day we tried to incorporate elements that would appeal to my love and pride of my Danish heritage, as a nod to that heritage we ordered mini kransekage, the traditional Danish wedding cake, as favors, and we had the guests sing along to a typical toast, which ends up being more like a roast. One of the most special elements we stumbled across was a custom monogram by Tiny Pine Press, it completely captured our spirit. As a lovely surprise Justin and I received a number of small contributions to our wedding day, including an abundance of vintage family jewelry and a traditional Danish plaque, memorializing our wedding day. Overall, with a lot of help and love we managed to plan our ideal California wedding.

Our wedding day was better than I ever could have imagined. It was filled with love happiness and excitement. It was a perfect day spent with family, friends at a wonderful venue with an amazing staff and the best band ever.