A Classic And Timeless Celebration Filled With Garden-Like Blooms

Melissa Hammam
February 7, 2023
Categories: Real Weddings, Romantic, Seasonal Wedding Trend, Spring, The Blog

This gorgeous garden-inspired wedding has it all. From a beautiful setting to a focus on guest experience, Blissfully Styled Events planned a day that magnificently brought the couple’s Big Day vision to life. Whimsical floral design by Lily Roden Floral Studio adds just the right touch of playfulness, and the love and joy of the day shine through imagery captured by Jenny Quicksall Photography. You’ll love every moment inside the full gallery.

From the bride… Trent and I were set up on a blind date by a mutual family friend and we hit it off right away. We fell in love over our shared love of food – Trent with his background in restaurants, me with my love of beautiful plating, and a great dining experience. He was newer to Portland and I spent several months showing him my favorite restaurants in the city. Our love only grew as we traveled the world, shared new experiences, and discovered how much we had in common. Trent proposed out on a boat in August of 2021 in Newport Beach, where his family lives and we shared many special visits and moments throughout our 5-year relationship. We later did our engagement photos with Jenny on a sailboat to capture a location and hobby that is special to us. As a wedding photographer myself, I knew I wanted to get married before my wedding season kicked off the next summer which meant southern California was our best bet for a wedding in May. I always dreamt of an outdoor garden setting with dinner that lasted from dusk through candlelight. We fell in love with Rancho Bernardo Inn’s Aragon Lawn immediately and I could see the vision in my head come to life.

Trent and I have always loved entertaining our family and friends, and this night was no exception. Our wedding was designed around our shared focus on the guest experience being a beautiful and romantic setting for delicious and well-plated food, set to good music and great conversation. Cocktail hour was around the pool with live Italian music inspired by a recent trip to Italy, with a raw oyster bar and appetizer stations for the guests to taste their way through the hour. From the beginning, I had a pretty clear vision of how I wanted our wedding to come to life. After spending years in the industry myself, I knew that planning my dream wedding in 6 months was tight, but possible as we teamed up with the incredibly talented Karen, owner of Blissfully Styled Events to pull it off. I shared mood boards with natural greenery, whimsical garden bouquets, black tie attire, tables dripping with soft flowers and candles, and a consistent thread of classic and timeless elements pulled throughout. Karen took it from there and landed our stellar vendor team to bring it to life, and I couldn’t be happier. While Trent and I were sitting at our head table looking out over the dinner service at our family and friends enjoying the evening, I couldn’t stop smiling and I whispered to him, “Everything about this is what I imagined it could be. Thank you for trusting in what I envisioned for this day.” He smiled back and said, “It’s perfect.” And it truly was perfect from start to finish.

Our stationery was knocked out of the park by Kelsey Malie Calligraphy. We wanted soft, romantic invitations and she brought that to life with hand-torn paper, hand-tied with silk ribbon and our wax monogrammed seal holding everything together. We worked to find the perfect mix of garden vintage stamps to set the stage for the evening that was to come. These design elements were later pulled through our escort board, dinner menus, and table numbers. I worked with Sam, owner of The Bold and Bridal to find my wedding dress in LA. Because of the tight window, this was actually the first thing I did! I found my wedding dress at Oscar De La Renta a week before we found our venue, and from there everything else seemed to fall into place. I wanted a classic, elegant look and I knew Trent would love seeing me with my hair down. I started with my hair down (I knew that would be a surprise to him) and later pulled it back into an elegant ponytail.