Real Wedding: Emily and Tim

Today's wedding is a gorgeous and classic black and white affair. And I will be honest, I am in dress lust with the bride and bridesmaids' gowns! Gorgeous! This couple also took a lot of care in making their wedding memorable and meaningful, which I love. The stunning photography comes from the amazing couple/photography duo at We Heart Photography. Enjoy!

From the beautiful bride, Emily:
My husband, Tim, and I had three top priorities for our wedding: the location, the decor and the photography. We wanted to treasure our wedding photos forever, so making sure the setting was as beautiful as possible was important. We chose the Rancho Bernardo Inn for our location because it was so lovely on its own, we hardly had to add anything. We wanted an elegant, yet relaxed wedding, so we chose the hold both our ceremony and reception outdoors. We chose black, ivory and silver as our color palette. Tim and I wanted our wedding party to consist of people who had influenced us and would also be a part of our lives in the future. My Maid of Honor was my actually my mom because she has been my best friend and role model for my whole life.

Favorite parts of the day: Honestly, the whole day was so awesome, start to finish. One of my favorite parts was the ceremony. I am really shy and the most nerve-wracking part of the whole wedding was walking down that aisle in front of nearly 200 people. As soon as I turned the corner and saw Tim's smiling face, I instantly relaxed. I loved listening to Tim say his vows with the biggest, brightest smile on his face. Also, we used Papa, Tim's 92-year-old grandfather, as our ring bearer, and we brought him up during the ceremony to give us our rings. He cried and held our hands as we exchanged rings, and it was the sweetest moment.Another favorite part was when Michael, Tim's brother and best man, recounted the story of how Tim got me to show up to his family's Christmas dinner wearing pajamas. When I showed up at Tim's house, all the men were wearing tuxes, and his mom and sister were in formal gowns. When Michael finished telling the story, he whipped off his tux pants and underneath, he was wearing flannel pajamas!

DIY: I made the favors for our wedding. I was took a bunch of graphic design classes through college, so I created a monogram that was both modern yet elegant. I purchased about 200 little white boxes at Michaels, as well as black satin ribbon. We filled the boxes with dark chocolate-covered espresso beans and our guests loved them! I also brought in a lot of the decorations that were used. We had this incredible indoor/outdoor fireplace with a huge mantel, and I stacked all kinds of silver candlesticks up there. I am not the biggest fan of DJ's, so Tim and I created several playlists to be played throughout the wedding. My brother, who is an amazing musician, helped us create out playlists and he was in charge of audio for the wedding. One of my favorite moments in the wedding was rocking out to James Brown with my brother. Finally, I got my jewelry from Etsy and my dress from a vintage and couture bridal store. My dress was awesome because it weighed barely anything, so I wasn't exhausted by the end of the night.

Advice to other brides: Remember that you will be looking at your wedding photos for years to come, so choose the things you love, but choose wisely. Also, when it comes to money, invest in what you care about the most. For Tim and I, we wanted awesome photography, so we invested in We Heart Photography and they did a phenomenal job. Finally, don't be afraid to break tradition. We put our flower girl in black, my mom was my maid of honor and our ring bearer was Tim's grandfather. Having those people involved in our wedding was meaningful for us and for them.

Photography | We Heart Photography
Venue | Rancho Bernardo Inn
Bridesmaid Dresses | Vera Wang

Real Wedding Kristin and Chris

Today's wedding is a classic and elegant vineyard wedding full of sweet details. The photos come from the fabulous Stephanie Baker, who you might remember from this amazing shoot (one of the most popular posts ever!)

The stunning bride Kristin shares some details:
The wedding was set in Sanger at Wolf Lakes because it was different. I loved the outdoor intimate setting of the garden for the ceremony and the lakeside reception fit our style of crowd perfectly. Wolf Lakes was wonderful to us, with all the littlest things I asked for to make the day special.  I wanted to incorporate a lot of things from my great grandma's (who passed away last year right before the wedding) into the wedding such as my great grandma's broach on my bouquet, my other great grandma's hankey, my great grandma's wedding ring, etc. That made the day more special to me.

I also request the excalibur car to pick Chris and I up at the house so we had the ride to WL all to ourselves. It was awesome. Since the day of the wedding is crazy, I wanted a few minutes to my self with my groom to be before hand! The colors were simple yet elegant. Black, Ivory and Champagne. I intermixed the centerpieces to give it character and we had a candy bar for our guests.

I wore two gowns, becuase we had a Chinese Wedding Banquet (thrown by his mom) three weeks after the wedding and I wanted to help perserve my gown. When I changed into my short gown, the bridesmaids had their gowns shortened as well (the bottom of them tore off and turned into a short gown). This made it fun for all of us to dance and not have to worry about dragging our gowns! My bouquet was my favorite personal item of the wedding beside my gown. It was hand tied gardenia's. Beautiful! I actually got to meet the designer of my gown to helped customize it to my body. Edric Woo from Tara Keely (he no longer is with them) but we still are in touch today.

Advice: tell all the little details to someone else or write it down for the planner. I wanted to do all the planning myself, wanted no one else's input but forgot some details in my head that made the day of planner wonder what I ment when I said guest book and there was no guest book, hehe. Only I knew the guest book was the Kendall Jackson Reserve bottle of wine to sign. Oops. But it all turned out well. If you can afford it, have at least day of event planners. I had 3 and it made the day sooooo much smoother!

Photographer | Stephanie Baker
Venue | Wolf Lakes Park
Event Designer | Wildflower Designs
Florist | Stems at the Palantine
Cake | Olde Tyme Pastries
Dress | Mia Bella Couture
DJ | Haro Entertainment

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Real Wedding: Alison and Zack

Today's gorgeous wedding is modern and bright, with a sweet vintage touch. If I told you this was a DIY wedding, would you believe me? Because I wouldn't have guessed it. This bride has style and she definitely let it show in her wedding! All the details are perfectly planned and expertly designed.

Here's what the lovely bride Alison had to say:
My husband and I got engaged in August 2009 and starting searching for wedding venues in December. I am from the Bay Area and he is from the Chico area. We both knew we didn't want to get married in our hometown's; we wanted something more memorable and unique. I used to go to the Santa Cruz area every summer with my family, and Zack had gone with us a few times; we both really liked it down there, and we thought it would be a beautiful place to get married. He wanted something by the ocean or tropical, and I wanted something that was outdoor, but not necessarily on a beach.

We were searching venues down in the Santa Cruz/Monterey area, and we stumbled across The Holly Farm. There we some pretty neat looking pictures on their website, which made us very interested. We set up a few different appointments with various venues in the Monterey area, but as soon as we walked into The Holly Farm, we knew that was the place. I loved the funky, vintage vibe, and he loved the tropical oasis feeling. We both really felt a connection, and The Holly Farm had so many different elements that fit both of our tastes.

My mother owns an antique store in the Bay Area, so I have been raised around antiques and vintage style. I always knew I wanted my wedding to be modern and glamorous, but with touches of vintage chic sprinkled throughout. When The Holly Farm had a few dates open for fall 2010, we knew we needed to book fast. As we were in the office at The Holly Farm I was flipping through wedding albums of previous weddings at The Holly Farm; as soon as I picked up Meg Perotti's album, I knew I had to have her do my wedding. To me, after the wedding is over all you have left are the memories, so pictures are one of the most important things for a wedding; they capture the special moments throughout the day, so they can last forever.

I always wanted to plan my own wedding, and make sure I didn't just have someone else map it all out for me. Between my mom and the antique store and my aunt the interior designer, I think designing and planning runs through my blood. Not only was I a big part of the planning process, but so was my husband. He was really interested in having a say about many of the details, and it was nice to here his ideas and opinions about specifics; after all, it was his wedding, too! :) I did work with a florist for my bouquets/boutonnieres/corsages and some of the table centerpieces, but I designed all of the orchid box centerpieces on my own. I went to the SF flowermart and starting picking combinations of flowers I thought were fun, flirty, and timeless. I knew I wanted a black and white wedding, but it wasn't until I went to the flowermart that I decided to go with yellow for my accents. We chose yellow football and spider mums, and mokara orchids, along with traditional white orchids. 

The yellow candy bar was an idea I had seen online, but I tweaked it by using all yellow candies and apothecary jars. I designed the labels for the baggies the candy went in with our monogram and date using our computer and printer. The table number frames were also a DIY project using cheap black frames and our printer. I brought some vintage cameras, and a monogrammed paper parasol to use as props for fun pictures at the wedding. Overall, I feel like our wedding was a great combination of traditional style, elegance, but with a fun, vintage flair.

One of my favorite parts of the day was when I was getting ready; things were starting to get set up and I snuck down to the dining table and ceremony areas. I saw all of my planning unfolding before my eyes and everything was just as I had always dreamed. It sounds so cliche, but I really had dreamt of my wedding day since I was a little girl! Another big moment was when I was coming down the aisle. The look on my husband's face was priceless (a combination of complete awe and nervousness) and the mokara orchids hanging from the arbor over his head with all the beautiful tropical orchids and plants that fill The Holly Farm were just amazing. As I turned that corner with my dad, it was like a dream. I could go on and on about special moments from that day, but altogether it was great to feel so proud of a wedding that I was a part of the planning process every step of the way. As my husband and I were circulating the tables after dinner and mingling with guests, we repeatedly heard how amazed everyone was with the venue, and how amazed they were that we had done so much of the preparing and planning on our own. I was very pleased with how everything turned out, and enjoyed every minute of planning and creating the wedding of my dreams!

As for advice, I would say, "Be an active part of planning your wedding. It is something that most girls dream of their entire lives, so make sure you leave no detail left unturned." 
"Make sure you pick a style, venue, and overall feeling for your wedding that fits your personality. Your guests should see decor that fits you and represents your style, not just something that is trendy or 'in style' right now, but something that you can look back on in 50 years and still be in awe about. Blend elements of modern and traditional for a timeless look." 
"The day flies by! All the months of planning whiz by in mere moments, so make sure you and your husband have a chance to step back amongst all the hustle and bustle and soak it in! After all, it is the biggest day of your lives!"

Photographer | Meg Perotti
Event Planner | Grapes of Wrath Catering
Reception | Historic Holly Farm
Florist | Ribbons and Roses Florals
Cake | Layers

Thanks so much Alison and Zack for sharing your gorgeous wedding with us!

And many thanks to the incredibly talented Meg Perotti for the stunning images!