Elegant Wedding at San Francisco's Palace Hotel
I'm a full blown stationery freak; I notice the tiniest of details and obsess over fonts. I get giddy when an invitation suite perfectly captures the essence of a couple and their big day. Press Engaged made magic with their creations for this San Francisco multi-cultural wedding, setting the tone for a beautiful celebration. Larissa Cleveland snapped every smile and this gallery is sure to spread joy.
From The Bride... We wanted classic San Francisco elegance and our gorgeous historical venue served it up in spades. The Palace Hotel is over 100 years old and its stunning Garden Court features high ceilings and gorgeous chandeliers, a perfect setting for our reception. We let our venue, and our beloved city, set the tone for our entire wedding. We favored classic and local elements every step of the way and delighted in selecting vendors who love our city as much as we do.
One of the important elements for us was to incorporate my husband’s Taiwanese heritage in a way that felt authentic to both of us and subtle enough not to compete with the classic San Francisco vibe we wanted to embrace. To do that, we relied on our phenomenally talented invitation designer, Press Engaged, to help us create a save-the-date that walked this line just how we wanted, featuring an illustrated San Francisco cable car with a “double happiness” Chinese symbol in the headlamp. Press Engaged also put together our bilingual wedding invitations, which included art deco font as well as red lettering and gold foil edging (red and gold being auspicious for a Chinese wedding).
For the wedding itself, our wonderful florist incorporated the red colors we wanted in a subtle way by selected a palate ranging from pinks to reds to deep wine colors. We used these same colors, as well as the orchid illustration Press Engaged created for our invitations, to create our meal place cards; different color orchids indicated different entrée selections and then our calligrapher added the guests’ names in gold. We placed hongbao (Chinese red envelopes) on the tables as our wedding favors and tucked inside lottery scratchers as well as Taiwanese coins (lovingly lugged back to the states by my in-laws) to scratch then with. And we were delighted to find Lollipop Workshop when browsing Style Me Pretty for cake topper ideas; their personalized cake toppers are adorable and perfect for a mixed race couple.
The night was a dream and we loved visiting with family and friends from around the world and watching our wedding vision come to life. The biggest hit of the evening after our rocking band was probably our dessert table. Our guests devoured the local macaroons, chocolate truffles, and s’more bites we had sourced from our favorite spots around the city. A sweet ending to a truly sweet night.
One of the important elements for us was to incorporate my husband’s Taiwanese heritage in a way that felt authentic to both of us and subtle enough not to compete with the classic San Francisco vibe we wanted to embrace. To do that, we relied on our phenomenally talented invitation designer, Press Engaged, to help us create a save-the-date that walked this line just how we wanted, featuring an illustrated San Francisco cable car with a “double happiness” Chinese symbol in the headlamp. Press Engaged also put together our bilingual wedding invitations, which included art deco font as well as red lettering and gold foil edging (red and gold being auspicious for a Chinese wedding).
For the wedding itself, our wonderful florist incorporated the red colors we wanted in a subtle way by selected a palate ranging from pinks to reds to deep wine colors. We used these same colors, as well as the orchid illustration Press Engaged created for our invitations, to create our meal place cards; different color orchids indicated different entrée selections and then our calligrapher added the guests’ names in gold. We placed hongbao (Chinese red envelopes) on the tables as our wedding favors and tucked inside lottery scratchers as well as Taiwanese coins (lovingly lugged back to the states by my in-laws) to scratch then with. And we were delighted to find Lollipop Workshop when browsing Style Me Pretty for cake topper ideas; their personalized cake toppers are adorable and perfect for a mixed race couple.
The night was a dream and we loved visiting with family and friends from around the world and watching our wedding vision come to life. The biggest hit of the evening after our rocking band was probably our dessert table. Our guests devoured the local macaroons, chocolate truffles, and s’more bites we had sourced from our favorite spots around the city. A sweet ending to a truly sweet night.