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!

Our little gold star

I feel like a second grader who was just given a metallic gold star sticker to put on my chart. Check our "Good Job" sticker below:



Woo~hoo! The official stamp of approval from The Knot. For those of you who missed our blog a couple of months ago, we were selected through recommendations from brides in the area, so this means a lot to us! We are incredibly honored!

Check out The Knot's Best Of Weddings issue. It hits newsstands today! We are listed in the Southern California section and also keep an eye out for our super cute ad designed by Jasmine Star.

Details from our last couple of weddings coming this week!

off to sacramento we go...

We are headed up to Sacramento for the wedding of our wonderful web designer, BSmith Designs. It is going to be a beautiful and fun wedding in a barn at a winery just outside of Sacramento. I can't wait! This is the second time in a month I have headed up to norcal for a wedding! I am happy to be driving up this time because I don't have to figure out a way to smuggle my emergency kit through security :) They don't look kindly on scissors, razor blades and sewing kits.

When I get back next week, I will post about this wedding, as well as Sarah & Partick's wedding, which was held at the end of March in Lodi. Have a great week everyone!

A Beachy St Patty's Day Wedding

On a beautiful St. Patrick's Day, Stacie & Dana became husband & wife. It was a fun day filled with laughs and lots of beachy touches. They were married at St. Simon & Jude and had their reception at the Hilton Waterfront in Huntington Beach. Both the church coordinator & the site coordinator were great! So nice & easy to work with. That always makes my job 10 times easier and more enjoyable!

Stacie & Dana join a couple of our other recent pairs who were lucky enough to meet online! They are such a fun couple- very easy going with an evident love of life. The wedding was beautiful with a lot of personal touches. Stacie decided to go with a classic black & white color scheme, with touches of sage green. There were a few fun St Paddy's day surprises thrown in at the end of the night, including ridiculous hats & emerald green boas paraded around the dance floor.

Now, I have to give a big high-five to Stacie. She was one of the most organized and prepared brides I have ever worked with. She made pretty much everything herself, including the centerpieces, placecards and even the flower pens used to sign the guest book & photo matte. Not only did she do an incredible job making these things, they were done weeks, even months before the wedding! Everything was boxed up and labeled for me. She even put the adorable starfish placecards into ordered individual bags broken up into letters of the alphabet. When someone is as organized as I am, if not more, it always makes me smile & sigh with relief at the same time!

Below are some of the wonderful photos taken by Rene' and Jay of The Storykeeper Photographer. Not only are the pictures beautiful, but they were a pleasure to work with! Check out their website to see some more of their work.






These placecards are so cute! Take a tip from Stacie: If you are making your placecards, be sure to design them in such a way that you can get most of the work done prior to knowing the table assignments. She made the tags using a square of cardstock, and then gluing on a small strip of green paper with the guest's name along with another strip of green paper with the table assignment below. She was able to get the placecards done weeks ahead of time, and then just glued on the table assignments once the rsvp's were in and the table assignments had been done. It will save you a lot of stress in those final weeks!


The beautiful and tasty cake was made by the Great Dane Bakery. One of my favorites!


The favors were king-sized Hershey bars, wrapped in various styles of paper, all in the color scheme. Stacie got the paper from one of my favorite stores, Paper Source. Brides- this is an amazing resource. They have the most incredible paper, as well as favor boxes, idea kits, and more than you can imagine. They also have colored labels, which are great for customizing favors, such as Stacie's above.





A great guestbook idea! Shutterfly can make photo guest books with pages filled with blank lines for your guests to leave notes. You can use engagement photos or fun photos that span your relationship. Much more fun and memorable than a normal guest book.



I included this photo because it makes me laugh. This is a photo of the Groom's parents. They were adorable! First of all- the mother's hat is amazing. At the end of the night, she kept asking the photographer to get some photos of the two of them. She especially liked this pose. Now- look closely. Who can you see in the mirror? Me- ruining the mother of the groom's idyllic photo. Way to go Courtney!

Another touch that Stacie included, which I love, is displaying wedding photos of the parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. She made labeled cards explaining who was who. The guests loved it! It is a special way to include your family heritage into your day.

Other vendors (all of them get an A+ in my book):

So Cal DJ's
Today's the Day Weddings (videography)
The Spiraled Stem (florist)
Carina Lindgreen (make-up)
Natalie Buketov (hair)
White Rose Limo

Happy Taxes!

I hope you all are not having to deal with post office lines today. I will be momentarily- hooray for waiting to mail taxes until the last day! Honestly- I am just blown away that I got them done in time and didn't have to file an extension. I cannot take even half of the credit though. Here is a big shout out to my Uncle Ray- taxman extraordinaire! Also, for the record- owning your own business + having a spouse in ministry= extremely confusing taxes. I miss the days of getting a refund!

Anyway- enough about taxes. I am smiling for a bigger reason than having my taxes done. Contrary to popular belief, we are not having twins! After an Easter sunday filled with comments about how big my stomach is and assertions that we most definitely were going to have twins, we rushed into the Doctor's office to get her opinion. Upon hearing that we do have twins in our family, she rushed us in for an ultra-sound (YES! We were looking for any excuse to see this baby before the 20th week!). You cannot imagine our relief when the technician assured us that there was only one baby. And, for any of you who know my husband, I am sure you can imagine his child-like awe seeing a fetus for the first time. With a smile that could not be made any larger, he was nearly jumping up and down. It truly was an amazing experience- made the whole thing much more of a reality. I cannot believe that there is a baby growing inside of me! It is such a miracle! Only 7 more weeks and we'll get to find out if it is a boy or a girl!

In the meantime, if you look at my stomach and wonder why I am so big in the beginning of my second trimester, I am, as my doctor said it, "petite. With nowhere for this baby to go but out" :)

I'm a stalker

I admit it. Happily! I love to scour the blogs of my client's photographers, eagerly awaiting a post that bears their names. Engagement photo sessions are so fun! I love seeing how photographers are able to catch the personalities of my clients in fun, artistic & beautiful ways.

Check out the engagement session of Endren & Caohien, a fun couple from Texas who are going to have a beautiful, tradition-filled wedding this June. Their photos, by Michael Norwood, are great! Check them out at on his blog: Endren & Caohien on mnphotography.blogspot.com

Lazy....

Happy Easter Everyone! (well..technically, it's the day after Easter, but hey!)

So.... I've been really bad with keeping my blog updated. Really bad. That ends today! After a wonderful weekend of celebrating the life and resurrection of Christ, I spent a lazy day relaxing with my family. At the end of my lazy day, I realized that I had been extremely lazy with my blog. Now, I absolutely love blogs. I'm addicted to the wonderful blogs of a few of my photographer friends. However, I'm horrible with my own. I always think of great things to put on here and I never get around to it.

So, all of this to say- I promise to write more often! I usually wait for photos to post about my recent weddings, but now I'm going to gush about them right away while the joy and the details are fresh in my head.

So- look out! Here we come!