Allow me to introduce the new Mr. & Mrs.!!! You may remember them from their gorgeous engagement session provided by the talented husband and wife team at Eight20 Photography that Amanda posted a few weeks ago Here. Nicky & Eric are so amazing, I can’t wait to see what they come up with for this wedding!

Erin and Adam have got to be one of the sweetest couples I’ve ever met, and their wedding was probably also one of the smoothest events I’ve ever worked! This may be due to the fact that Erin is probably THE most organized bride I’ve ever met. I arrived at the event to find that Erin had provided Miriam and I both with folders (in her wedding color of red of course) filled with contract copies, layout instructions, timelines, and a contact list you wouldn’t believe! Every item was tucked neatly into a large plastic storage container, and of course contained a list of every item in it, and where each item should go. Now that’s my kinda bride!!! Talk about making a coordinator’s job easy!

Unfortunately this was one of the days that our team had to be seperated, since Amanda was busy working a different wedding this day, but Miriam was there to head up this event, with me by her side. The ceremony was held at the United University Church on the USC campus. They had these gorgeous drapes going down both sides of the church, and were able to change them out to red to match Erin’s colors!

All of the amazing florals for this event were provided by the talented Shirvan Design. Check out those Manzanita trees!!

All of Erin’s paper products were so stinking cute! Here’s her programs for the ceremony.

The reception was held at the City Club on Bunker Hill in Los Angeles. The Club is on the top (54th) floor of the building, so the views were to die for! We’re talking so high, it literally made your ears pop taking the elevator ride up there! You can see the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory, & even Dodger Stadium out it’s floor to ceiling windows!

Erin and Adam provided several photos for a heritage table that were all placed in stunningly vibrant red frames .

Their place card setup.

Erin had us hang the cutest little red mini lanterns from the Manzanita branches.

The couple’s initials and the cutest little suitcase (which served as their card holder), were setup on the gift table.

The cocktail hour was held inside the room, and featured these simple table arrangements that were so perfect.

Here’s more of Erin’s cute paper products, and stunning floral arrangements.

So cute!!

Those gu-gu-gourgeous Manzanita trees were re-used next to Erin & Adam’s sweetheart table at the reception. I couldn’t believe that Art from Shirvan Design was able to transport these Giant things in one piece, and all on his Own! He literally carried these things in on his back like he was He-Man! Art, I am in awe of you. Anyone in the market for a florist with super human strength?

I didn’t get the best picture of Erin’s bouquet, but if you can’t tell, it had these beautiful red crystals in the center of each red rose. It was beyond perfection!

Grand entrance Time!!

Adam was being a good new husband and helped his wife look her best.

What the guests didn’t know was that Adam & Erin had hired the USC marching band to spice up the night! Adam is a graduate of USC and many of his family and friends shared his love for the school.

It was such a great surprise! You could literally hear the guests gasp in excitement as the band made it’s way around the corner.

Look at how happy Adam is. I believe this is what they call “Pleased as punch!”.

Now Erin & Adam did their order of events a little differently. The cake cutting came directly after dinner.

Cake provided by Hansen’s Cakes, decorated by Shervan Design.

They played nice.

And Then they had their first dance. I know, I know, cake cutting before the first dance?? What were we thinking? But surprisingly, I enjoyed the cake cutting being done so early. Since most people use this as a signal to their guests that it’s ok to go home, doing it as early as we did, actually took the focus off of that, and allowed people to just relax and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Erin’s simple, but beautiful toss bouquet.

It’s that time ladies, are you ready?!?

And straight into the garter toss. I love her face here.

And last but not least,a picture of Miriam with Erin at the end of the night.

So to Erin and Adam, thank you, thank you, thank you for letting us be a part of your day. It was evident from the moment that I stepped through the doors at the City Club, that you two had managed to affect every single person that you met. Every person I talked to was so completely enamored with you two that they just gushed about how great you were. They all went above and beyond to do the best job that they could for you that day. It was an honor to be a part of your world if only for a moment. May your new life together be so full of love and happiness that you don’t know what to do with yourselves!

~~ Alicia

Alex and Brad are some of my favorite people. Throughout their entire engagement, they’ve been upbeat, fun, full of love, and so great at every meeting. We laugh, we cry, we’re attached. That’s why they were one of our first couples to feature on our “In The Mix” sessions- here, and here [for a peek at their florals], also here [with a sneek peek at their linens and decor]. Of course, who could forget their engagement session from just last week, here, taken by the amazingly fabulous Jan Garcia!

Their wedding yesterday was a dream. In the weeks prior to the wedding, life kind of exploded for Alex’s family and I was honored to be able to help them pull this wedding together at the last minute to truly make this day as joyful, beatiful, and amazing as possible. It went off without a hitch. And Jan’s “same day slideshow”, which is always an epic part of his services, was TO. DIE. FOR. Seriously! I can’t wait to see the rest!

Now, the ceremony was held at Lake Hills Wedding Chapel and was truly and simply gorgeous. I totally spaced and forgot to bring my camera along for the fun at the church, so I snapped this mid-ceremony with MiPhone:

A couple swags of white chiffon and we were done. This chapel is such an amazing sight in person- the natural stone, the wood, the modern, sleek design. It’s amazing! Since we knew that going in, we opted for a simple ceremony focusing on the couple, and dolled up the reception site to the nines!

The reception was held at the Art Gallery in Soka University. A two-story space of uniqueness that provided us with a blank slate to play in! The white walls and hardwood floors are perfection. To top it off, the gallery was displaying a black and white photography exhibit for Alex’s black, white and aqua wedding!! An amazing and thankful coincidence! Onto the pictures.

The cocktail hour took place upstairs [and the upstairs of the gallery actually has a large cutout area that looks right down to the lower story. We placed our dance floor right in the middle with their custom designed gobo on top!!]. Our sleek all-black dance floor was SUCH a hit. I seriously cannot wait to get pro pics back because mine just don’t do justice! Okay, I’ll stop… more pictures!!

Since the linens downstairs were black with aqua runners, we reversed them for the cocktail tables. Mini arrangements were the perfect accent.

These escort card boards were my labor of love! The family gave me this task a bit last minute [Thursday afternoon!!] and I knew I couldn’t just take the easy route. Alicia and I [love you Leashy] put our heart and souls into these little cards and boards! Since the black and white damask was a huge part of our theme, I carried it into their cards!

Alex and her mom, Debby, set up a beautiful “heritage table” for their loved ones.

They decided on a “signature drink” in honor of their honeymoon and it was a HIT! People had margarita glasses all over the place! It was too cute!

[Of course I made all of the custom and ever-so-darling signs!!]
Then we headed down for some downstairs details….

The gallery was LITERALLY the perfect setting for their event!

The lighting in the gallery played a perfect roll in our dramatic impact of the event, but the rest was taken care of by the FABULOUS team at Carcano DJ [Stefani is the best!!], who also provided our gorgeous brand spanking new white chiavaris through their sister company, Chiavari Chairs 4 Rent! Their team swept into our space and transformed it in a matter of hours!

The flowers were provided by a friend of the family and they combined the traditional with the modern by using warm flowers with funky blue painted manzanita branches dawning large crystals!

Black Forest Bakery made this lil’ beauty. I looooved their blingin’ cake topper with actually was the SAME font they used for their monogram [you guys know by now how deeply in love with a monogram I am!!].

A couple more detail shots for you:

Their favors were shot glasses filled with m&ms and tied with black tulle. Perfectly simple and matched our decor, to boot!

Check out those Waterford toasting flutes!!

During dinner, our sugary sweet sweetness of a groom played and sang a song he wrote for his bride. Before starting this he told the guests all about the night they got engaged how that prompted him to write the tune. This was all a surprise to Alex and she was waving tears away with her napkin before the song even started. SO cute!!!

Straight into their first dance [this was taken from the 2nd story, looking down, and I looooove that I could get this angle. Gives it such an intimate feel]:

Great shots of their gobo, too. And now, father/daughter [and let me just say that Alex is Daddy's girl! Her father had a hard time letting her go, and their dance was SUCH a unique expression of that relationship. It was fun, upbeat, and totally "connected". I love the heart that I saw out on that dance floor!]:

Time to cut the cake!!

And just in case you hadn’t noticed- Alex is a KNOCKOUT! Just wait til you see more pictures from Jan and Tey. I’m not kidding. You’ll cry!

Fave picture of the whole night:

[... and she MEANT it!]

Tossing, tossing, tossing….

Also a great shot of Alex’s dress, which fit her like a GLOVE [despite her stress level rising and her losing 2 INCHES two weeks before the wedding... thank goodness for last-minute alterations!]!!!

Alex basically threw it purposefully RIGHT at her best friend and Maid of Honor, Megan, who has been with her boyfriend for 9 years. This is her rejoicing at getting the correct angle, right to Megan:

And this is Alex being embarrassed by her husband [already and it'd only been a few hours!]:

Alex: there’s nothing wrong with modesty! :)

She was a great sport, though, and Brad definitely had fun with it! The last shot of the evening I snapped while walking around during open dancing. When the lights in the gallery were turned down, we relied on the candles and up-lighting to set the tone. The result was truly magical. It was such a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart. I totally loved it!!!

A&B: I miss you two already! I know I said this already but I’m truly happy/sad about all of this. So, so, SO happy that you two are married. So happy that it went perfectly, that the stress is over, and that this new chapter in your life is beginning. I remember how excited you two were when we first met and to see it all fallen into place and to have lived it with you two… wow- truly remarkable. I’ll have to learn how to live without our monthly laugh-fests [err, meetings] and without our daily emails! You two have a love that will last a lifetime, I just know it. I am so thankful that I got to be a part of your story. It’s something I treasure very much. I hope this week is full of so much love and happiness, and memories to last a lifetime [but hopefully none similar to your parents' honeymoon stories, A!!!]!

xoxo,

A.

Yippeee Yippeeee Yippeeeeee! I am SO in love with the photos that Yvette and Roman at Galvan Photography provided me from Brook’s wedding. DANG, this girl can work. I knew that she’d have killer photos!! But a picture is worth so so SO much more than 1,000 so here we go:

This picture of the dress, below, UGH, makes me get butterflies about weddings!!!

Since I forgot to mention before, Cindy Babuscio did all of the incredible arrangements for Brook’s big day. The vision was garden-y, romantic, rustic, organic… man, did it all come straight across!! And at 3 arrangements per table, this was no small task! I lalalalaLOVED them! She’s got a little blog in the works, too, so keep an eye on her!

Look at those lovey-dovey super googlie eyes! I adore those!

If you can’t tell, B&D opted for a “first look” and it totally provided that intimate moment and atmosphere for their pictures, it was the perfect choice for them!!

Oh Brook, you’re such a looker!!

This moment just as the doors opened, is magical. I love that it’s caught forever for their kids and their kids’ kids to see.

There is no- NO- substitution for professional pictures of your reception space prior to the guests arriving. I totally heart this picture!!

‘Member what I said about the florist, above?? Yeah, seriously!

And a couple of the reception:

SO sweet! I love. Do you?

Hope you’re having a fab week! I’m off to brainstorm some creative [on time constraints] DIY escort cards for this weekend!

xoxo,

A.

You’ll remember Brook and Dan from their engagement photos and the little blurb I wrote on their planning process.

We all have been looking forward to this wedding for a LONG TIME, but I have been looking forward to it for several reasons. Here’s a few, in an appropriate list form [as is my style]:

1. Brooklin is drop dead gorgeous. I cannot WAIT for the photos because they’re gonna be killer. And I knew she’d make a gorgeous bride.

2. Dan and Brook have such a special relationship- so real and beautiful to watch. The ceremony was so touching and personal- it radiated everything that they are, as I knew it would.

3. This was my FIRST wedding of 2009 and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my day then with this fantastic couple!

That being said- the wedding was exactly what Brook and I had envisioned: organic, inviting, stylish, and an all-around great time! Here’s some pictures to prove it!

We’ll start at the church. Their custom monogrammed black aisle runner was oh-so-chic!

A close up [and a bit over-exposed picture] of the small floral splash for the guest book- really giving you a feel for the style of florals at the reception…

In the bathroom [Brook and Dan got married at the church on the site of where Brook went to high school! A bit of nostalgia on her big day!!] here’s B’s mom attaching her gorgeous veil!

I love this picture because it feels SO real.

The ceremony!! He cried. Then she cried. Then I cried. :)

Married!!!

Over to the reception, which was held at the OC Sailing and Events Center in Dana Point- about 5 minutes from the church. The room is known for being a blank site- white ceiling, grey carpet and with the right “vision”, it can turn magically delicious. That’s what me and my team did last night. Can you believe it… there were 6 of us working this wedding [Me, Josh, Alicia, Brittany, Miriam, and Rebekah]!!!

The cake is always my favorite part the wedding decor it seems. This cake, however… was beyond words it was so stunning.

We used these great ivory and black damask runners from Dress My Chair to set the vibe for the evening along with the color theme of the avocado bridesmaid dresses. The florals were whimsical and garden-inspired and were the perfect compliment!

Long banquet tables filled the room with that family-style vibe that Brook had been hoping for!

Since the space is SO blank and white, we used pipe and drape to create a background on the stage area, where the sweetheart table was placed. Adding their ceremony decor, a few up-lights, and a hanging monogram and voila! You’ve got magic!

This picture below actually isn’t the BEST picture of how the room looked, but I love the centerpieces and tables all in a line like this, so here it is:

The team, halfsies style:

Britt, what’s with the peace signs, huh?? I’m beginning to think this may need to be your pose for the new site!!

Back to the cake. L.O.V.E. The florist SO outdid herself with this. When the cake arrived it was a simple cake- just plain black ribbon wrapping the round tiers. They did a floral cascading swirl down both sides of the cake that trailed all the way down to the table. It was a shame we couldn’t cuddle it and keep it forever. And yes I said I want to cuddle a cake. Deal with it!

First dance. B’s dress is soooo flamenco flowy pretty delicious!

“Bustles that kill me for 100, Alex”

Father/Daughter:

A little backdrop close-up:

Bouquet toss!!

Her gorgeous bridal bouquet:

And a quick final snap of the cake cutting:

All in all- the day was perfection! We had ZERO snags. My staff was pumped to work and we works our little tails off! The weather was gorgeous [after a year and a half of anxiety about the possibility of rain and what we'd do with the outdoor cocktail hour!], the site was transformed, and the party was so fun!

B&D: you two have a love that is infectious. If I didn’t know it before your wedding day, I am so 100% sure of it now. It’s not about the words you say- it’s about HOW you say them. About your eyes behind them. About your hearts showing through. Love like yours moves me. It’s why I’m in business. It’s why I work to ensure that your vodka tonics and vodka-and-diet-cokes get to you in a timely fashion. It’s why, when I hug you goodbye at the end of “the perfect day”, I hug you with my whole heart, and release you knowing that you’re the ones who’ll make it work.

You are the ones who will give what I do a good name.

xoxo,

A.

Since Alex and Brad [who you may remember from my initial post about them HERE and then my post on their invites- still in the works- HERE!!!] have a family friend who is their florist, they made the trek to downtown LA and braved the early morning market hours to have a little floral trial run. It came out wonderful and she LOVES it- which makes me more happy than anything. The staff at Dress My Chair were kind enough to allow me to borrow the linens for a bit to allow us to really complete the look! Here are some pics below.

The bridesmaid bouquets:

Cocktail centerpieces [but our linens will be aqua crushed satin]:

And now, for the centerpieces!!

Rumor has it the manzanita branches will be painted aqua to match the runner. Yippee… and moreover, we’ve got crystals to hang from the branches. I know in their venue, this is going to be so fabulous. YAY! I can’t wait for wedding season to start!

xoxo,

A.

Remember Alex and Brad?? They’re awesome black, white, and tiffany/aqua wedding is set for March and we’re having oh so much fun figuring out all the details [FUN! not stress! Right Alex??].

We just met up this week and laid the invite comp out on the table and are pleased as punch with the results! One of their groomsmen whipped them up a personalized monogram graphic that will run as a theme throughout the reception. Since the font in it was easily identifiable to me as “Scriptina”, I went for it with the invites and matched it up!

Alex’s main priority and request for the invitations was this: simple, cheap, and easy. She doesn’t “get” spending money on something people throw away! So, we kept it simple with two inclusions- the rsvp, and the map/directions card. We’re using all black ink to print, to save $$, and going with an aqua envelope and ribbon around the invite. I’ve already picked up the ribbon from the infamous Fabric Barn in Long Beach- for a steal, mind you- and we’re off and running! Thought I’d share what we’ve got, for all you D-I-Y gals out there:

The main invitation will be white cardstock with a black backing cardstock:

Page 2 will be double-sided print that we will get perforated to separate the RSVP postcard from the map/directions card:

They’ll be tied together with the aqua ribbon, as pictured in the first picture, and then we’ll be using a matching aqua “open end” #10 envelope [yep, the same size envelopes you buy at the store for your mail... the invites are about the size of 1/3 sheet of paper!].

Does this get anyone inspired for the weekend or WHAT? Have a good one, I’m off to work on more paper products, meet with more clients, walk around more sites, and have a TON of FUN! xoxo!

I thought you all might find this fun. I’ve been working with Lisa on her invitations, trying to concept them for a while now. Since her “theme” is focused around the colors of a peacock’s feather, we’re working with kelly green, teal, black, and ivory as our base colors. I came up with the idea to wrap her pocket fold invite in an ombre ribbon [which means it fades from one color to another]. I found the PERFECT ribbon that fades from a teal blue to green, and right now we’ve split our minds between an ivory or kelly green pocket fold.Here’s the basic concept, what I’ve mailed to her and she’s fallen head over heels for [aside from Pedro of course]:

Basically, we knew a pocket fold was the direction we wanted to take since day one. Lisa [whose real full name is Elizabeth, yes, your eyes do NOT deceive] was sold on that. But coming up with the perfect color scheme took some time. Since we’re also trying to remain budget conscious and do this relatively cheap, we’re only printing in black ink! In fact, what you’re looking at is an ivory stock with a thick black [bleed-off-the-page] border to give it that extra POP. Lisa’s other request: postcard RSVPs. Not a problem for this gal! I do those all the time so plugging in that info to create a postcard was easy peasy!! I added in a handy directions card complete with a hand-Amanda-made map with directions from church to reception, and presto! We’re done-zo!

Another unique element… it’s all in Spanish!! Seeing as I seriously don’t speak a lick of Spanish, it’s been so fun to see the translation of what I know from the standard wedding invite! I had Lisa write up the text and send it over so that I could plug it in and style it to the best of my abilities. It truly came out great! I can’t wait for their big day next June. So far, it’s turning out smashingly!! Stay inspired, and happy Friday!! xoxo!

I must admit: this is probably my favorite table top! From concept to actual, I love this look! First off, the color scheme of brown, black and white. Every year it seems like one color is paired with black and white to make a smashing impact on guests. I love the warm, cocoa brown we chose to use as inspiration! As always, thanks to my lovely vendors, Jonilyn for photography, Kristin at The Treasured Petal, Signature Party Rentals for being all around awesome, and Elegant Design Specialty Linen for providing the base black linen for this look. Now, here it is!

The black and white, thick striped extra-durable-and-washable satin was found and made into a table topper by moi! It’s truly incredible to the touch. The brown “new damask” runner was also found and made by me, including the matching napkins, which I loooove the look of! I bought the white vase collection at Ikea and they didn’t need a thing to dress them up to fit this look. Kristin stuffed them full of creamy white flowers including these funky heart-shaped brown pods that I provided her with. I really wanted something textural for the florals in these. We included a mini little bud vase with a single stem and incorporated the table number right onto it! We wrapped the napkin between the two square plates and resting on top was a folded black and white napkin with their licorice skewer as a mini favor! For the real favors [pictured below] modern shaped Chinese To-Go boxes were filled with carmel waffle cookies and spreadable chocolate for dipping, all packaged with a monogram and a plastic knife! Here’s some detail shots for you all:

To see more, and there are definitely more details to see, visit the Tabletop Gallery on my site! Hope you love it as much as I do!!