Real Wedding: A Sweet Mix of Bliss

Lydia and Cote are hand’s down one of the sweetest most genuine couples we’ve had the pleasure of working with. I guess you kind of have to be when you own a company called Sweet Lydia’s! That’s right, Lydia can whip up some mean sweet treats!

After walking the property of their fabulous venue, Lydia’s parent’s insanely gorgeous 
built-for-a wedding home, we figured out exactly what the feel of the wedding should be- an elegant fine dining affair! Since their family is also friends with Vincent Grumel’s , who catered the event, the fine dining part was already set. Coupled with their love of green, we drew inspiration from the gorgeous home, and their passions - cooking and eating!

We knew the perfect person to create the couple’s inspired invitations, Vanessa from Alchemy. We worked closely with Lydia and Vanessa to make sure the invitations set the tone for the entire event. Vanessa hand sketched elements from Lydia’s parent’s home and they could not have turned out more gorgeous! Lydia’s aunt hand calligraphed all of the envelopes in brilliant emerald green ink!

On the day of the event, guests were greeted by the sign-in table where we had a custom recipe box set up with cards that read “Please leave your recipe for a good marriage” as a nod to Lydia's love of baking. The guests were then lead straight to the ceremony within the walls of the families gorgeous fountain courtyard.

Twigg Botanicals created a stunning focal point for the ceremony by dripping orchids from the fireplace that was also lined with romantic pillar candles of varying heights.  The ceremony was beautiful and touching and we couldn't help but get a little emotional when our groom began to tear up. So much sweetness between these two.

The escort card table was a favorite detail of the evening! With Lydia’s love for emerald green and sweets, we opted to have green lollipop letters for each guest as their escort card! Each letter represented a table and corresponded to something green. Cori from Brightly Designed created the classic day of paper elements and fashioned each couple’s name around their lollipop. By adding moss and some other props to the escort card table we were able to create a beautiful and tasty introduction to the reception.

Brightly Designed also created the table numbers for us...we loved Cote’s suggestion of keeping the table names simple, since there were a lot of tables, but we couldn’t resist having a little fun with it! Each table name also had an image of an item that was green and started with the same letter, such as A for Artichoke, E for Emerald, S for Succulent, Z for Zucchini, the list goes on!

The groom really wanted to incorporate symmetry into the event, and Lydia wanted something conducive to the family style dining they were having so we did a mix of squares and banquets. We think it was the perfect balance.

The whole reception was just magical- it was like being in another world under that tent! Town and Country did a phenomenal job transforming the tennis court into an intimate canopy that we were able to fill with all the fabulous details and furniture. Hello confessional chair, can you live at my house?

The green table letters looked beautiful and elegant next to the towering centerpieces Twigg Botanicals created. Twigg really outdid herself with those beauties! She used a mix of Queen Anne’s lace, maiden hair fern, scabiosa, mint, kale, peonies, garden roses and succulents to achieve the rich texture of each centerpiece. Each one was really a work of art!

Speaking of masterpieces...we were in love with the cake display!!! Town & Country provided the barback and we arranged each wonderful Michele Coulon creation on our cake stands to be displayed perfectly. The cakes were designed to match the feel of the wedding and of course just had to be in different shades of green! What could be better than a Michele Coulon cake...how about seven? Lydia had initially wanted to whip up the cakes but making seven cakes right before your own wedding; that is a hard feat even for a professional baker!

Can we talk more about the food!? Vincent and Lisa Grumel from Vincent’s were amazing!! All types of delicious cheeses, breads, olives, tapenades, you name it were placed on the tables right when guests entered the reception tent. That was just a tease for the rest of the incredible courses. Lydia + Cote really liked the idea of promoting conversation and not wanting the feel to be stuffy so they decided to have servers bring out platters of food and serve family style rather than plating each guest individual. Guests definitely enjoyed the interactiveness and being able to select their own food from the trays brought to them.

Guests danced into the wee hours of the night because not only did we bring in a band, but we also had a DJ to make sure the party was never without music and had seamless MCing! Rockola and David from Hit it Music kept the party alive so much so it felt like being a concert; never seen so much dancing! The night was definitely a success; how could you go wrong with good food and good friends?

Lydia and Cote definitely have the love recipe down. They are such a beautiful couple, inside and out. Thank you to Luna Photo for capturing their day with all of these to die for images that we can't get enough of! And thank you to Lydia and Cote for bringing us along and letting us be a part of your sweet mix of bliss.

Love at first Bite

With the Twilight Saga continuing and Breaking Dawn in the theaters this week , we thought this would be the perfect time to share our Twilight and Sleepy Hollow inspired wedding with all of you. Some of you may have already seen it on Green Wedding Shoes but we just couldn't resist posting it here ourselves!

We love couples who think outside the box and are open to doing something that has never been done before! We got just that, when we started working with the sweetest couple, Lora + Gary!

Lora + Gary are from the U.K. but wanted to have their dream wedding here in sunny California! We only got to meet a couple of times with them in person and did over a year's worth of planning with them via email! So you can imagine our surprise one day when the couple emailed us wanting a Twilight meets Sleepy Hollow meets Tru Blood feel for their wedding. We were thrilled and could not wait to start brainstorming ideas. We knew we had to incorporate pumpkins, old world scripts, antiquated silvers, tons of candles, and eerily romantic quotes from the movies so the guests would really get the inspiration behind the whole event.

The couple had fallen in love with the Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse, where the weathered wood and natural setting seemed to be the ideal backdrop for this hauntingly beautiful and elegant affair. The only challenge was bringing the feel to life in the middle of a bright and sunny August day!

Nicole Deanne did a great job on all of the ladies make-up! Lora was a complete knock-out!!

Aren't these images taken by Brandon Kidd already blowing your mind!? We are so in love with how romantic each shot looks!

Such a sweet moment! Love when the mother of the bride gets the first peek!

The couple had an adorable first look! The hid on either side of this old truck and then popped out and exchanged love letters with one another...what a great way to start the wedding!

We knew the perfect addition to the team would be Kate from Flowerwild, whose loose and romantic arrangements were spot on with the vintage theme. Kate and her team did a breathtaking job translating the colors and inspiration perfectly into each floral masterpiece.

Can we take a moment to admire Lora's jewelry...did you see her killer headpiece? Out of this world gorgeous!

We thought the wine box ceremony that JP Reynolds officiated was just the sweetest and neatest idea! The couple tucked away a favorite bottle of wine along with letters in a wooden box, to be opened on their 5 year anniversary.

Since Lora + Gary were such a joy to work with it made all of the design decisions seem easy! First we selected a color palette that would work for the summer wedding yet fall theme....ice blue, ivory, rich chestnut with touches of burlap, and of course blood orange.

The escort card table helped set the mood immediately for guests. We used pumpkins of different shapes and sizes to display "scrolls" with guests' name and the name of their table, which were named after the spooky towns that house the vampires and headless horsemen...Sleepy Hollow, Forks, and Bon Temps!

Anatomical heart with the words "thump, thump." What could be more perfectly eerie and romantic?

Creepy black crows held up the banner over the escort card table that read "Bitten and Smitten."

Instead of a traditional guest book, they had a family photo table that displayed Lora + Gary's "Bloodline."

The dining tables; Sleepy Hollow, Forks, and Bon Temps!

Since all of Lora + Gary's guests were from overseas, they really wanted their favors to be a little piece of California, and what could be better than California Poppy Seeds that guests could plant on their own?We couldn't resist spooking the favor up! We put the packages of seeds in burlap bags that read "Dawn is breaking." Guests were surprised to also find a scroll with eerie instructions on how to properly bury their seeds!

Lora + Gary are also an incredibly romantic couple and wanted their wedding to incorporate sentimental notions as well. To further decorate the tables and to bring a sweet element to the mix, we compiled and framed our favorite romantic quotes from Twilight, Sleepy Hollow, and Tru Blood. A favorite was "before you my life was like a moonless night." Cori from Brightly Designed created all of the paper elements that perfectly mixed romantic vintage with subtle dark accents.

Found vintage props, such as shadow boxes, old binoculars, vintage quills and ink wells enhanced the table decor.

Kate was awesome in helping us with our last minute request of adding Garlic cloves to accent the tables. These, in addition to the blood oranges we tracked down and sliced, added an unexpected element to the dining table and dessert table props that hinted at the vampire undertones.

U.K. tradition to throw confetti at the happy couple. Such a beautiful shot, love that they did this earlier on in the evening!

Toasts were a riot! As you can tell from Lora's face, no embarrassing story was left untold. Don't worry, Gary got his fair share too!

Guests got a kick out of the dessert table that housed salted caramel macaroons, mini cupcakes, and mini cheesecakes. It was definitely "Love at First Bite!"

Brandon Kidd Photography snuck the couple out of the reception for these amazing sunset shots! These could not be anymore beautiful-definitely a perk to having your venue in the middle of nowhere.

There's no better way to spend the night than dancing it away! Congratulations Lora + Gary we will treasure working with you forever! Thanks again to Brandon Kidd for these stunning images- the weekend would have not been the same without you guys!