Jen & Greg Engagement pics by Jasmine!

My good friends, and clients, Jen & Greg are getting married on Father's Day and I cannot wait! They have a great team of vendors, including the wonderful Jasmine Star. They recently met up with Jasmine at the Getty to take their engagement photos and they turned out beautifully! You can check out more on Jasmine's blog.




By the way, Jen & Greg are two of my favorite people.

A new favorite venue!

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to cover a wedding for my friend and mentor, the incredible Ryan Larson with Savoir Flair Weddings.

It was a beautiful wedding to be a part of. It was a venue I had never worked at before- Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica. I love this hotel! Not only is it right on the beach, but the decor is incredible and right up my alley. It has a vintage beach feel- complete with old trunks, white baseboards, worn wood flooring, and amazing vintage furniture. It is shabby chic meets the hamptons. It is so welcoming and even the ballroom had more character than your average hotel ballroom. It had beautiful chandeliers made out of shells. I loved it!

To make the day even better, I got to work with a great team. Jennifer with Fiore Designs did an incredible job with the flowers and decor. The centerpieces were beautiful- an array of sea-colored vases filled with lush white flowers. The ceremony flowers (see photo below) were incredible, even after my assistant & I dropped one while moving it at the reception (opps!). All the little touches were great too. Fiore does such an amazing job- their creations are always beautiful and inspiring.

Danny w/ NYC DJ's did a great job getting a hesitant crowd on the dance floor while dealing with having a Chinese translator echo all that he said. The cake, from Cake Divas, was cute & tasty and the dessert buffet set up by Shutters was incredible. No pregnant woman can turn down mini creme brulees and chocolate covered strawberries!

I also got to work with the incredible Laura Grier of Beautiful Day Photography. Laura is so laid back & easy to work and gets some amazing shots! Here are a few photos that her assistant, Meg, took and posted on her blog:









I am going to try to get a few more detail shots from Laura to post. Mary had a really cool escort card set up- messages in a bottle, all lined up in treasure chests. So, check back soon!

It once was lost but now is found!

I just got home and found an email waiting for me with some good news: my cell phone has been found! Somehow, it made it's way into the coat pocket of one of the guests. He just looked at the coat and found it tonight. Luckily, my business cards are in it so he knew how to get ahold of me.

For now, I have a loaner phone, so feel free to contact me at my normal number. Yay :)

A beautiful wedding & bad communication

Yesterday I had my first wedding at the Ritz Carlton and it was incredible! From the flowers, to the bride's dress, to the lighting, to the wonderful Ritz Carlton staff, it was an amazing event to be a part of. I will post more details this week and pictures as soon as I have them.

An unfortunate thing happened last night though. My cell phone was stolen/misplaced. If any of you have seen me at a wedding I always have my baby blue clipboard at my side (well... now it is more like resting on top of my belly). My cell phone is always clipped right on top. Well, I set my clipboard down for a few moments inside of the ballroom to help the bellman move some of the wedding items & flowers, and then next time I picked up my clipboard, it was gone. I scoured the whole room and found nothing and it hasn't been turned in yet.

So, needless to say, I won't be answering my cell phone today, saturday May 19th. If you need to get ahold of me, please email me at courtney@joyfulweddingsandevents.com. I will be checking emails frequently. If you are a vendor with a question for tomorrow's wedding, please call my cell phone number and there will be another contact phone number for me on the message.

That being said, it has been a bad few days for communication overall. For some reason, my server is rejecting emails. I have had numerous brides tell me this has happened to them over the past two days. I am so sorry about this! I have no idea why it is happening (my inbox isn't full)- I am looking it to it right now. For now, please just try to send it again. I have been receiving all of my emails (I think) since yesterday afternoon.

Phew- bad communication issues from someone with an interpersonal communication degree. Hopefully all will be up & working by the end of the day.

Thanks for your patience!

We love engagement pics!

Check out some of the incredible engagement shots Jasmine Star took of Erika & Ray, one of our August couples.



Erika & Ray are getting married at the Coto de Caza country club & it is going to be a beautiful, personalized & unique day! I can't wait!

By the way, I have become buddies with their two super cute boys. At one of our last meetings, Isaiah wouldn't let me leave until I accepted one of his Troll toys. Check out this cute family shot:



To see more of their photos, check out Jasmine's new blog, which launched today! It is one of the cutest blogs I have ever seen. By the way, if you are looking for a photographer, Jasmine is one of my favorites!

and the rain wins...

In my three years of wedding planning, I have never had a wedding rained out. I have had plenty scares. For an outdoor Laguna Beach wedding last October, it rained up until 30 minutes before the invite time, only to stop, opening up to sunny blue skies for the ceremony. (We stashed away the 40 umbrellas we had bought at Target that morning!) I always suggest having a back-up plan for outdoor weddings when there is even a slight chance it may rain. However, none of my brides have actually had to use them.

Because I have had such great luck with this, I guess I became a bit cocky about it. When talking to Jess, my April 21st bride, I quickly tried to ease her fears about the forecast by telling her about my track record with the rain- none of my weddings had been rained out. Well, I guess the rain got mad at me for my comments and decided to fight back.

Jess & Brian (our amazing graphic & web designer) had planned a beautiful wedding at a rustic winery up near Sacramento. The grounds of the vineyard were incredible- there was a creek, a huge beautiful oak tree framing the ceremony area, lots of gorgeous flowers & plants, and birds chirping. It was the perfect ceremony site. Until the clouds rolled in. It was not supposed to start raining until 8:00 that evening, so we planned on keeping the ceremony outside and moving the party inside the big barn just in time to escape the rain. The sky had other plans. It started raining at 2:00 while we were setting up and it never stopped. The whole time I was waiting for a miraculous parting of the skies, beaming down sunshine, but it never came. Luckily, we did have a back-up plan. Sort of.

The reception was to be held in an awesome rustic barn. With 225 guests, there was only just enough room for the tables, dance floor & food stations. With no choice left, we packed the 225 guests into one side of the barn and had them crowd around the dance floor area, which became an impromptu alter. We set up seats for the family in the front and dressed up the area a bit with candles and hydrangeas. It ended up being a very memorable and romantic ceremony. The sides of the barn were open, so we could see & hear the rain while staying dry inside. The intimacy and closeness of the space transferred into the very personal and fun ceremony. It was beautiful. And, in the end, they got married. That's what matters!

Jess & Brian are amazing people and I could not be happier for them! It was a blast to be a part of their wedding weekend, including a fun sangria party the night before (none for me & my baby though!). Thanks for bringing us up & we hope & pray that your marriage is an incredible and beautiful thing.

Here are some fun pics from the wedding. Some were taken by the Bride's cousin, John and others were taken off of a friend's myspace page :)


The beautiful bride in front of our make-shift altar. The barn had these amazing vineyard branches on the wall, so we decided to make that the centerpiece for the ceremony. Add some hydrangeas and wa-la!


The communion wine barrel. The flowers in the back were also the centerpieces for all of the tables. Jess ordered the tulips wholesale and that morning, I put them into mason jars. This is a super cute & affordable centerpiece idea. Mason jars are great- they have a lot of character & fit well with a rustic, vintage, or winery wedding. Add a bit of ribbon in the color of your wedding and you've got a cute arrangement for dollars.


The bride & her parents squeezing through the "aisle". It was nice and cozy!


The bride & groom share a laugh during the ceremony. A little planning note: Brian selected all of the music played throughout the entire wedding himself. It was fun & personal and reflected their style. He organized all of the music into playlists in his itunes folder and had a trusted friend man the computer all night. He also had another friend MC. This is a great way to get good music when on a budget. However- it is very important to do this right. Get a good sound system, have someone you trust running it (who know a lot about music & sound), have a good MC, and always have back-ups of your music in case something happens. It is also important to be very meticulous in picking your songs and setting them up. Music can make or break the flow of a reception. With all of Brian's planning & expertise, the night went smoothly without a hitch. Guests wanted to keep dancing well after the bride & groom had left the reception.


The bridal party braves the rain!


A sweet moment before the reception. Aren't they a cute couple? Also, notice the fun lanterns hung all over the barn. We found these lanterns a year ago and Jess knew she had to have them. They matched their wedding color perfectly and added a really fun touch to the rustic barn.



The bridesmaids & groomsmen wait to enter the reception during the grand entrance. The girl's bouquets were simple clutches of tulips & the bride's bouquet was a mix of hydrangeas and tulips. They were simple & beautiful!


How cute is this little cake? In addition to the cake, the bride & her bridesmaids made cupcakes for the guests and the bride's grandmother baked up some delicious cookies.

A big thank you to all of their vendors:

Wilson Vineyards- Sandy, the site coordinator, was great! She also reminds me of Martha Stewart a bit :)
Randy Peters Catering
Fremont Bakery

Super Cute!!

I was browsing blogs yesterday and came across a really cute new product. Check these out:



These would be perfect for a escort card/favor all in one! They are made by BlumeBox & a big shout out goes to the Style Me Pretty blog- I love this blog! It is full of fun, stylish ideas for brides. Be sure to check it out!