Colorful Carmel Valley Wedding Celebrating The Beauty Of Summer

Melissa Hammam
February 3, 2023
Categories: Real Weddings, Seasonal Wedding Trend, Summer, The Blog, Whimsical

Bright summer-inspired colors and California cool vibes make this celebration an absolute must-see. Be Hitched perfectly planned a day that mixed the natural beauty of Holman Ranch with vibrant hues and fun patterns creating a wedding that pops. Floral design by Seascape Flowers is endlessly dreamy, and every incredible moment is elegantly captured in imagery by Rebecca Yale Photography. Let the good times roll inside the full gallery.

From Rebecca Yale Photography… Caroline and Sam were married on a beautiful sunny day in the Carmel Valley. The weekend was full of personalized touches, from the floral invites and cocktails in the welcome bag to the musical performances during the welcome dinner and ceremony, their guests were in for a weekend-long treat!

When it came to design, Caroline knew she wanted to play off of the natural beauty and Mission-style architecture of Holman Ranch, but also wanted to bring in fun patterns and color. So, planner and designer, Rebecca P of Be Hitched took those cues and created a concept for an elegant and sophisticated garden party wedding, but with the lush, colorful brightness of California summer woven in. Utilizing vibrant, bountiful florals courtesy of Seascape Flowers, and curated rentals featuring crisp white tones pops of gold, regal navy blue, and elevated tabletop settings courtesy of Theoni Collection and Casa de Perrin, the bride’s vision came to life beautifully.

From the bride… When looking for a venue, one of my biggest priorities was finding somewhere all of our guests could stay on-site, so that we could relax and mingle throughout the 3-day weekend. I am from the Bay Area, so even though we live on the east coast, we were excited to welcome our friends and family to California for a long weekend. It was easy to say “yes” to Holman Ranch in Carmel Valley, CA after our first visit! In addition to the on-site lodging, where we were able to host our immediate family and wedding party, we loved the stunning views, A+ venue staff, and the many different beautiful spaces throughout the property.

I have so many favorite memories from the day, but if I had to pick one, it would actually be our wedding ceremony. It was amazing to look out and see all our friends and family gathered together in one place. Our officiant was a very close friend of ours, and we had invited our family and close family friends to share musical performances, readings, and speeches. We wrote our own vows, and I “smashed the glass” as a nod to my Jewish heritage. Overall, it was a very personal ceremony – and of course, the best part was emerging from the ceremony as an officially married couple. Sam’s favorite moment was cocktail hour. He says: “I loved the appetizers, the tomato bar, and getting to interact with and greet all our guests from near and far with a smile and a drink”

Another favorite moment from the wedding was putting on my dress with my Mom before the wedding. My Mom was a huge help in planning our wedding and I will cherish the personal and intimate moments that I spent with her before my first look with Sam. I adored my wedding ballgown, but loved changing into my sparkly minidress during the reception – the beaded fringe made it especially fun to dance in. I planned my outfit change to coincide with “Sweet Caroline” – and had a blast returning to the dance floor in my second look for a song that has special meaning to me.

Our wedding planner Rebecca wrote the following as part of our design board which I think really captured our goals/ vision: “The vision for this wedding is to take the concept of a sophisticated, elegant, and refined garden party wedding, and breathe some lush, colorful brightness into it. …the goal is to create an event that is warm and fosters a feeling of ease and community among guests.”

We really wanted an aesthetic/ atmosphere that was both elegant and exuberant without being fussy. In terms of color and specific design, I love all things blue, white, and gold (see: my shoes/ engagement ring!!) so that combination was a natural starting point for our base colors, which show up in our invitation suite, linens, and many of our printed goods. We then layered in bright pinks, yellows, and oranges with our florals. We also thought carefully about creating a distinct and more laid-back design aesthetic for our welcome event on Saturday, which drew on the Spanish/ Mexican history of the venue, with bright “persimmon” linens in bold geometric patterns. Our planner (Be Hitched), florist (Seascape Flowers), and paper goods (Aerialist Press) vendors did an amazing job helping us articulate these design visions and bring them to life.

Many of our vendors were selected with guidance from our fabulous planner, Rebecca Pfiffner, who sent us curated vendor options and quotes. We then selected individual vendors by looking at vendor portfolios and, where applicable, chatting with different vendors over the phone. Given the large scale of our wedding, we tended to prioritize vendors who had worked at our venue before since we knew they’d be experts on how to navigate the space! Photography was very important to me, and I pored over photographer’s portfolios, comparing side-by-side shots from different photographers to see how they handled challenging light situations. Another notable vendor was our cake maker. My mom loves baking and wanted a cake that was both delicious and beautiful – we tried three other bakeries before finding Edith Meyer Wedding Cakes, who wowed all of us with her commitment to high-quality ingredients, creative flavor combinations, and stunning decorations.

We love hosting, and bringing people together – that focus underpinned many of our decisions and wedding day priorities. For example, we really wanted to serve our reception dinner family-style because we love the way family-style meals create interaction and conversation. Our caterers (Paradise Catering) went above and beyond to accommodate some very specific requests to serve a delicious, fresh, and local meal. We also wanted to support live musicians so we prioritized finding a great band for dancing. Finally, we prioritized being able to relax and focus on each other and our friends/ family during our wedding weekend. Having a full-service planner meant that we didn’t have to worry about set-up or vendor logistics during the wedding weekend, which was a huge gift. Be creative, flexible, and allow yourself time to come up with new ideas if your first ideas don’t work out. In a few cases, the vendors or rentals we had originally selected weren’t available, but with the help of our wedding planner, we were able to find other options that worked out just as we wanted.

One element of the wedding we loved was our wedding favor – we asked each of our immediate family members to choose a book and write a short blurb describing the book. We then purchased copies of each of the books, and let guests select a book from our family “bookstore” to take home as their wedding favor. Seeing (and tasting) our AMAZING cake by Edith Meyer Wedding Cakes! Our cake completely blew me away. Edith had piped frosting on the cake to match the jacquard design of my dress. It was even more gorgeous than I could have imagined — and delicious! — there were actually no leftovers!