Ballroom weddings make me happy. Maybe it’s the Cinderella-esque atmosphere and gorgeous traditional details that send my heart into a flurry… or maybe it’s just because they are so darn pretty. My guess? It’s all of the above. And when you feast your eyes on this gorgeous day from Blum Design In Flowers and Tara Francis Photography, you’ll see exactly what I mean. Join me in the gallery for more.
From the Bride… The Elysian Ballroom was one of the first ballrooms we saw and went to look at. We fell in love with it and looked at a few more, but none could compare. It was decorated perfectly and was exactly what I expected my wedding to look like. Most important were the chiavari chairs. All of the decorations you saw were done by Mike and his wonderful team from the Elysian.
We lucked out on my shoes, because my mother-in-law found them at DSW, but they were the last ones and happened to be in my size. When Spenser called, they were out of stock, but miraculously got one back in stock a week later.
My wedding dress was the first one I tried on and my sister actually picked it out for me. I wasn’t sure if I liked it and kept looking, but none compared to mine. I eventually went back and tried it on and fell in love with it. Each time I tried it on I loved it more and more. I loved the fact that it was both white and ivory.
I wanted a formal look for my bridesmaid dresses, so I wanted a long sleeve look and a blush color. When we went to Nordstrom’s to look for dresses, these caught my eye immediately and were exactly what I was looking for.
The groomsmen were left up to my husband. He chose a more modern tux style that were trim fitting. He loves paisely so he picked the paisely tie and vest combination. And he thought it would be a good idea to have the ivory shirt for all the groomsmen with a black vest and tie and he would have the ivory shirt, tie and vest. It was a last minute decision while they were picking up their tuxes that they decided to do the wild socks for every guy in the wedding party, including the dads.
The wine was from Spenser’s dad’s good friend, Kirk Reuter, who owns his own winery in California called Ard Aven Winery. They brought two kinds of red, a syrah and a barbera. They also designed their own label from one of our engagement photos. From making to bottling to labeling, the wine was created for our wedding.
We used six bottles with a gold sharpie as our guest book. Guests used the pens to sign and write us a message wherever there was space on the bottles. Spenser used one of our engagement photographs to make the guestbook table sign from Vistaprint and bought the stand from Micheals.
One thing we added, that was actually an idea from out pastor, was the love box during the ceremony. Engraved on the box was our names and wedding date. Inside the box were notes we wrote to each other expressing our love, two glasses for wine (that say, “I do” and “I do too”) and a bottle of wine. There is a key that locks the box and the story behind it is you open the box if you are having a terrible fight, pour some wine, and read each other the notes. If you make it to your year anniversary then you open the box, pour the wine, read the notes, and write each other new ones for the year.
Jordan from Blum did all of the wonderful work on the flowers. She just looked at pictures I had on my Pinterest and took notes in a short meeting to come up with everything. She did a wonderful job.
Our DJ, John Ross was a referral from my sister. But we had also heard him and grabbed a CD from the Portland Bridal Show. Spenser took the time to listen and pick out all the songs.
Our party favors were XS energy drinks. We ordered tags from Vistaprint, hole punched the corner, and attached them with ribbon in bows.
The cake was from Wrightberry’s and was also done based on a short meeting to describe the color scheme. We took in a few pictures from Pinterest and she also had a few of her own ideas. The best part was getting to choose the flavors. It was a 4-tier cake. The bottom tier was german chocolate. The next was salted caramel. Followed by marionberry. And the top (which we got to take home!) was Reese’s Peanut Butter.
Photography: Tara Francis Photography | Floral Design: Blüm, Design in Flowers | Wedding Dress: Casablanca | Cake: Wrightberrys | Shoes: Designer Shoe Warehouse | Bridesmaids' Dresses: Nordstrom | Tuxedos: Men's Wearhouse | Venue: Elysian Ballroom | Bridal Shop: Bridal Exclusives | Hangers: Etsy | Music/DJ: John Ross | Wine: Ard Aven Winery
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