Project Wedding Blog

Today we are featuring the Real Wedding of Paloma and Scott. The gorgeous bride, Paloma, is a valued member of the Project Wedding community. I am in love with the glamorous old Hollywood feel of her wedding. Here’s a preview of the details from Paloma’s wedding, click here for the entire editorial spread!

Images are courtesy of Jennifer Skog.

Here are some sweet words straight from Paloma, the beautiful bride…

I am a big Project Wedding fan, having used it to research all of my vendors, and I also frequent your forum boards.

So let me tell you all about our wedding….
It was held at Viansa Winery on August 14th, 2008.  My now husband Scott & I live in the British Virgin Islands where we own The Dove Restaurant & Wine Bar.  We chose to have our wedding in Sonoma because we love wine, and we think it is absoutely gorgeous there!   We had 84 guests, only two of whom live in Sonoma.  The other 82 guests flew in from the Caribbean, Canada, England, Australia and all over the USA.  It was definitely a destination wedding!
My colors were dusty pink, grey and white.  I wanted it to be simple and chic, with a vintage feel.

Organizing my wedding from thousands of miles away was not easy, but luckily I had fantastic vendors who more than exceeded my expectations in every way possible!  Our wedding wasn’t exactly a ‘budget’ wedding, but by choosing to have it on a Thursday (as everyone was flying in anyway, we could hold it any day of the week) we were able to afford and choose vendors and a venue that were top quality, and whom we probably couldn’t have afforded otherwise.

Scott & I wanted to spend as much time with our guests as possible, so we urged everyone to arrive on the Sunday before. By doing this, we were able to have four days of activities!  We really wanted to include our guests in as much as possible. On the Monday we had our bachelor and bachelorette parties, which were all day events!  All the female guests were invited to bachelorette, and all the male guests to the bachelor. The next day (Tuesday) we organized wine tasting trips in limousines for our guests.  Each limo had it’s own itinerary, which meant that our guests got to visit wineries all over Napa and Sonoma.
The Wednesday was our casual rehearsal dinner at the private patio of the Swiss Hotel.  We invited all 84 guests to attend, and it was a great way to catch up with our families and friends. And of course Thursday was the wedding.

What helped pull together my vision was a few small touches (the hair pieces, the black and white dance floor, my silver chivari chairs) as well as our amazing band.  We actually play their music at our restaurant all the time!  They are a #1 billboard artist. You can listen to their music on iTunes.  Our first dance was to their song “Honey Pie”.

There are so many more things to mention (our kissing menu, a national anthem ‘sing off’, a sabering of a huge champagne bottle during the cake cutting, a native american cleansing ritual during the ceremony). I am so excited about being one of your ‘real weddings’!

Many thanks,
Paloma

Thank you so much Paloma and photographer Jennifer Skog for sharing your gorgeous images with Project Wedding! And for all the loyal readers and awesome PW ladies, you do not want to miss the full editorial spread of Paloma and Scott’s Real Wedding.