Davis and Sara: A La Jolla Beach Wedding, Part 2

Hello from New York! I am having an amazing time here. Yesterday we spent a large portion of the day at The Renegade Craft Fair- it was amazing! I will be sharing some photos once I return. I grew up dreaming of performing on Broadway and now that is reality for some of my friends and it is incredible to see them in their element!

Enough about New York, lets get back to La Jolla. Today we have Davis and Sara's fun reception at The Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, photos by the wonderful Jason of Garret Photography.

Escort cards:

The Museum is such a wonderful event space. Here is the bride and groom during the cocktail hour, under a cool statue of canoes:

Instead of giving each guest a favor, the bride and groom gave donations to nonprofit organizations. I came up with the idea of choosing multiple organizations so that guests could have some say. They selected three: American Heart Association, World Wildlife Fund and Doctors Without Borders. Guests could choose which organization they wanted their donation to go to and put the round paper from their placesetting into the box of their choice. Guests loved it and it was so meaningful. 

The food, catered by the wonderful Giuseppe Fine Catering, was out of the park. Absolutely delicious! Davis and Sara are vegetarians, so we did all vegetarian appetizers in their honor. 

For dinner, we had stations set up with small plates and it was a huge hit. 

The cake not only looked incredible, but it was the best tasting cake I think I have ever had. Way to go Sweet Cheeks! The picture of the slice does not do it justice- banana peanut butter with chocolate ganache. Yum. We also served gelato along side the cake as a nod to Sara's Italian heritage. 

The topper was made out of fondant to match their monogram from the invitation.

One of the greatest things about the museum is that there are exhibits in the reception area. They change periodically- so you never know what you are going to get when the wedding rolls around. Lucky for us, one of the current exhibits was a cool chalk drawing of a gazebo. The perfect spot to put the cake. It made a lovely backdrop and was so unique. 

The Save-the-Date and invitation:

A view into the reception from outside:

Most of the guests were from out of town, so we hired a school bus to charter them around from the weekend. It was an inexpensive and fun alternative to a charter shuttle. 

A few more shots:

Sara and Davis, I had a blast getting to know you two over the past year. Thank you for entrusting your wedding day to me- it was amazing! Thank you for wanting a day filled with personal touches- I know that all of your guests thought it was a great reflection of your personalities and your relationship together. I wish you two the best- many more happy travels, beach walks and Radiohead concerts. 

Our stellar vendor team:

*Venues: Torrey Pines State Beach

                Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla (they also provided the bar)

*Catering: Giuseppe Fine Catering (One of my new favorites!)

*Photography: Garret Photography, Jason

*Florist: Whimsey Florals 

*Video: Firefly Films 

*Cake: Sweet Cheeks Baking Co 

*DJ: Peyton with La Jolla DJs 

*Linens: Concepts Event Design 

*Rentals: Abbey Party Rentals (ceremony) & Raphaels (reception)

*Papergoods: PinkStar Design 

*Bus: FirstStudent Charter 

Davis and Sara's La Jolla Beach Wedding: Part 1

Last month, I had the privilege of seeing Davis and Sara's wedding come to life at Torrey Pines State Beach and The Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. I had been working with this fun couple for a year on their wedding plans and every day of it was such a joy.

When talking about decor, Sara knew that she wanted something a little different, not too matchy matchy and fun. What that translated into was a day full of personal details and lots of fun for all of their guests. 

We had a great time working with Jason of Garret Photography and are delighted to share some of his photos with you.

First, let me introduce you to the gorgeous  bride and adorable groom:

Now onto the ceremony on the beach at Torrey Pines State Beach:

Guests were greeting with a shoe changing station. Sara found this old trunk on CragisList for $20! Flipflops were purchased from Dollar Days. 

Sara and Davis live in Encinitas and whenever friends come to visit, they take them down to the beach and have each person collect a rock. They keep them in their home in a bowl- how special is that? Taking from that tradition, we used those same rocks to line the ceremony aisle and also placed one on every chair to hold the programs down. Gerber daisies are Sara's favorite flower, so we incorporated them in where ever we could. 

How killer is this photo?

The bridesmaid dresses were from J. Crew and the guys cool grey suits were actually purchased from JC Penny.

I have to end with a special moment for my husband. He played guitar for their ceremony music and it was so fun! Sara loves The Beatles so he played all Beatles songs. She walked down the aisle to "Here  Comes the Sun" and they exited to my hubby singing and playing "All You Need is Love". Other songs included "Blackbird", "When I'm 64" and "Across the Universe". I loved it!

I am off to New York early tomorrow morning (yay!) but stayed tuned for part two of this wedding on monday! You won't want to miss it: a cool favor idea, a hot groom's cake and some yummy decor.

Jess and Christian's Fun Retro Wedding featured on Style Me Pretty

Such a happy day today!

One of my favorite weddings we have done has been featured today on Style Me Pretty. Click here and here to see the posts about Jess and Christian's "downtown LA, Wonder Years backyard BBQ wedding".

Thank you so much Abby for sharing this wedding and for your sweet comments! We had an absolute blast and are thrilled to share it with the blogging world.

Speaking of Christian, the groom,  you have to check out his absolutely hilarious blog and book, Stuff White People Like. Seriously- if you need a good laugh, take a look. A few recent topics: "Hating people who wear Ed Hardy", "Sea Salt" and "Ugly Sweater Parties".

Another sneak peak at Megan and Jason's Wedding

A couple of months ago, I posted a few photos from Megan and Jason's gorgeous wedding at Vibiana. Their wedding was a combination of so many lovely things: It was vintage, feminine, clean, personal, urban. I still cannot show you all of the details, but to keep you intrigued until we can post it (we are working on getting it published), I am excited to share a little collection of images from their day.

This board was created for a sweet post about our florist, Carissa of JL Designs, on the blog of wedding PR queen, and my current business coach, Leila Khalil (Inspired by This). Photos by Ryan Phillips.

(note: please do not "borrow" this board without permission...since we are trying to get it published we must be careful not to spread these images too far around the web - just email me if you have any questions or want any images - thanks!)

Thanks for being so wonderful Carissa!!

Justin and Kristin's wedding in Big Bear

Since I posted Megan's engagement session last week, I thought it would be fun to show photos of her brother's wedding that Darcie coordinated back in 2007. Justin and Kristin were married up in Big Bear and the amazing Jessica Claire was on hand to capture their day.

Isn't it too cute? The florals were done by Megan and Justin's mom, Tara of Megan's Garden Weddings.

Megan and Dom's engagement photos

We are so excited for Megan and Dom's wedding this August at the Ole Hansen Beach Club! Darcie and Megan have been friends since they were little and I have known Megan since freshman year of high school. Megan's mom, Tara, is also a wonderful florist that we love to work with (you can see some of her work on her blog).

We are also excited for their wedding because we get to work with Gabriel and Carlie of Gabriel Ryan Photographers. Here are some amazing engagement photos they took of Megan and Dom:

To see more, check out Gabriel and Carlie's blog.

Home Sweet Home

We are back!

The wedding was amazing, Hawaii was beautiful, trying to be a bridesmaid, coordinator and partial florist was a tad bit crazy. I will have all of the details coming soon!

I have about 2 pictures of the actual wedding since I was a little busy, so here is a peak at one of my favorite moments of the trip:

Aloha!