Light it up.

any excuse to have a party. or to buy a concern with a backyard.

so gorgeous. instructions via erst wed.

Gift Wedding

we didn't really have a cake topper. in fact, we didn't really have a cake. remember?

anyways, i thought that was that. done and done. but then something happened.

a couple of weeks before the wedding, we received one of our most favoritist wedding gifts, from a dear dear dear (three times, dear!) friend of mine who lives in ireland. she couldn't make it to our wedding and instead sent over something that squeezed the juice from my eyeballs.

i knew there had to be a place for it somewhere in our wedding. and it took me all of 2 seconds to figure it out.

on the day of, i had one of my bridesmaids put my friend's gift next to our cake. as a kind of cake topper. but the kind of cake topper that didn't go on top of the cake.

like this.

photo of our cake and 'cake topper' by max wanger.

p.s. it's wanger. not wagner. just sayin.

p.p.s. our venue ended up providing the cake table, a cake knife, a cake server, and cake stand...with no instruction from me. cool, huh.

Real Wedding: Julie + Alexis' Sonoma Reception

Remember this couple and their awesome engagement session at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco? Well, you may also remember that I mentioned Julie and Alexis eloped to Big Sur with their parents, (honoring a family tradition since both their parents also eloped!) So love that. But they wanted to have a party for all their friends and family. So they held a reception a few weeks ago at the Cornerstone Gardens in Sonoma. I'm such a fan of the photography of Tinywater and I think they really captured some stunning portraits of the couple.

From Tinywater, Julie and Alexis, our wonderfully Bohemian couple! What a match made in heaven for us, Julie and Alexis were our perfect couple. We have been looking forward to their wedding party ever since photographing their now infamous Flora Grubb engagement session. And what an ultra chic and eco conscious party it was, with fresh oysters, parsley centerpieces, pebble seating cards, handmade soap favors and french macaroons for dessert; the guests danced the night away to bluegrass music. What a perfect, beautiful day! Thanks so much for sharing your photos with us.

I love this tree covered with painted Christmas balls - what a cool backdrop!









Love this sexy night time photo!



Check out lots more from their day on the Tinywater Photography Blog. Congrats again to Julie + Alexis!

Mylien + Nick California Autumn wedding

Mylien and Nick wanted their wedding to embody the colors of fall and they couldn't have done a better job! The rusty oranges and reds look so dreamy mixed in with the softer cream accents. Love it! To see more from their lovely wedding, check out the slideshow here.

And now for a little insight on the day from the bride herself ...

Personal touches ... :
Both Nick and I made so many things for our wedding ... Branch centerpieces, hanging lighted columns, and [a] fall leaf chandelier. Both Nick and I made all the decor decisions to bring the room together. Also, our main color was orange and "Orange" is one of the many nicknames I have for Nick.

Favorite moment ... :
The vows. I couldn't wait to share my journal entry with him and finally commit our lives to one another.

Advice to fellow brides ... :
Don't procrastinate and plan ahead, RELAX, let it go and enjoy the actual wedding day, and lastly, make decisions in advance! I had a hard time making decisions and sticking to them which led to the worst case of procrastination with everything flooding in on the last few days.

Vendors ... :
Ceremony: St. John Vianney Church in San Jose, CA

Reception: Villa Ragusa in Campbell, CA (Alison was amazing!)
Coordinator: Adrienne Lee Tickled Events
Cake: Goldilocks
Lighting: Got Lights!
Photography: Alfred & Emma Salom (absolutely wonderful to work with and amazing pictures!)
Day Of Wedding Coordinator: Tickled Events, Adrienne Lee (she was awesome!)
Ice Sculpture: Ice Illusions
Make-up: Aimi Duong (better than I ever imagined!!!)
Hair: Alicia, Rootz Salon in Los Gatos (OMG, the best up-do hair style ever! My hair is hard to work with and she made it phenomenal.)
Wedding Dress: Jin Wang (True Couture Wedding dresses; she personally works with every client and is super sweet. Hands down the best wedding dress I've ever seen... and it happened to be mine!)

Thanks to Mylien + Nick {and Alfred Salom photography} for sharing this beautiful day!

A New Year Eve Celebration

Thanks so much to Amanda from In The Now Weddings for sending me this fabulous New Year's Eve Inspiration. From Amanda, The way this came about was to revitalize the humble, homespun New Year's Eve soiree. I tried to stick with the traditions but took the colors a step further and the decor up a notch. Palette: Chocolate, Gold, Copper/Rust with accents of bone.

The Favors: The obvious choice was to go with the traditional trinkets of NYE- horn blowers and tinsel "sparklers", which were re-purposed from party store accessories. We simply dressed them up modern style [the gold blowers gold a chic corset wrap and the tinsel was glued to sleek acrylic rods and finished with ribbon]. They were tied together with a rust ombre ribbon and tag to remind the guests of the reason for gathering [to ring in the new year]! And who can forget the classically cheesy New Year's gold hat! I re-worked the design to tie a stunning chocolate ribbon around it and added two copper-toned feathers to add that designer's touch.

The Papers: I wanted a simple feel for our paper products, so we went with gold shimmer paper and copper design/writing. Each place card featured a name and picture of a random object with a quote/statement underneath pertaining to starting over in the new year. The one featured, with the name Amanda, says "you already know where you're going". I wanted them to be simply inspirational about how we have a new start in just a few hours. For the menus, I focused on the idea of being the iconic "last supper... of 2009". I felt the play on the idea of a heavy, regrettable meal along side the inspirational and positively-toned place cards was a hoot!

The Decor: My favorite part of the setting was the over-sized, hand made metallic confetti. It brought in the simple "celebration" element that really set the tone for the dinner. The non-floral centerpieces, which is what I saw most fit for the party, were actually just jewelry "tree" holders and the pod-flowers were affixed to them with hot glue. The faux bois candle holders were actually from my home- as I'm totally head over heels for faux bois. I really liked playing with the metals and organics together- the tree out of metal, the flowers out of wood, the candle holders out of metal made to look like wood.

Vendors:
Rentals - Classic Party Rentals
Linens - La Tavola Linens
Design - In The Now Weddings
Photography - In The Now Weddings [Josh and Amanda Auer]

Thanks for taking the time to share this wonderful inspiration with us Amanda!