Archive for the ‘Real Weddings’ Category
* A Modern Red and White Chinese Wedding
Posted on September 22nd, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Real Weddings.
I love the modern color palette in this elegant take on a traditional Chinese wedding…
photos by Laura Bruen
Fay, the bride, was kind enough to share some details of her day…
Being Chinese, it was very important to me and my family that we incorporated Chinese wedding traditions with David’s Catholic and American traditions.
First, my inspiration for our wedding was from an old Qaui Po (Chinese silk dress) that belonged to my Aunt. My Aunt was 2nd place in the Miss Chinatown pageant in the 80’s and it was one of the dresses she wore for the competition. It was a long pink dress, with red cherry blossoms embroidered throughout the silk fabric and Mandarin collared. I’ve been keeping this dress in my closet since I was 13 years old, hoping one day I would have something just as beautiful for my special day.
So with this inspiration, I decided to design my bridesmaids dress incorporating the cherry blossom fabric of the Quai Po with a modern American style. The bridesmaid dresses were custom made, as well as my 3rd wedding dress by a Vietnamese tailor, Phung’s Tailor, located on 4th Street in Philadelphia. The bridesmaid dresses were strapless, in red silk with embroidered gold cherry blossoms and a row of 5 gold frog buttons lining the back of the dress and above each slit. The bridesmaid’s bouquets had a range of off white roses, peonies and hydrangeas wrapped with the same fabric as their dresses, topped off with a Hello Kitty pin.
I chose the color red because it is a lucky color in Chinese tradition and it’s also David’s favorite color, so that was easy!
In Chinese tradition, the bride and wedding party usually changes throughout the day, up to 5 different dresses for the bride. I chose to change 3 times, a dress for each portion of the wedding: the wedding ceremony, Chinese tea ceremony and the reception.
The ceremony was officiated by Richard Binder from Journeys of the Heart and was beautiful next to the water fountain of Twenty 21. There was a gorgeous path of wheat grass cordoning the aisle topped with the same fiery red mokara orchids in my bouquet, David’s boutonnière and the outdoor cocktail table centerpieces. My bouquet was hand tied of tone-on-tone red flowers that highlighted the orchids as well as velvety red Black Magic roses and burgundy red peonies all wrapped with the fabric of my third dress and finalized with a Hello Kitty pin. Twenty 21 was the perfect place for it captured nature with its’ whimsical greenery intertwined with the city life David and I both love.
The Chinese tea ceremony took place where the wedding ceremony was, but this time I changed into a long sequined Qaui Po with a dragon (symbolizing the groom) and phoenix (symbolizing the bride). This dress was also an old dress of my aunts. The tea ceremony is a Chinese tradition where the couple gives a cup tea to their elders. In return, the elders give a Lai See (lucky red envelope) usually filled with money or jewelry. This exchange is an acceptance of the newly married couple into the family. David’s family participated in the tea ceremony as well to show the joining of both families and culture.
For the reception, I changed into my final dress. A custom-made white silk Quai Po with gold phoenix and chrysanthemums embroidered throughout the dress. This dress was lightweight and allowed me to dance all night! Not only were we and the guests dancing, but also so were the goldfish in the centerpieces. We had a mixture of submerged
white cymbidium and dendrobium orchids in tall glass cylinders and peonies floating above goldfishes in glass cylinder bowls both polished with earthy river rocks that ran off as a runner over the gold overlay tablecloths. Thanks to Bailey Hale at Moda Botanica for his creativity and expertise in making all the flowers so elegant.
Our wedding cake was so delicious and included my inspiration as well. It was a four-layer red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and sporadic white cherry blossoms throughout by Termini’s Bakery. The cake was topped off with a red Swarovski crystallized cake topper of the Chinese symbol, Double Happiness. In addition to the cake for dessert, we had a candy bar with five choices of your favorite sweets. Guests took home the wedding cake and candy in pint sized Chinese take out containers that had personalized stickers of the Double Happiness symbol along with our names and date. The candy bar was surrounded by glass bud vases of bamboo stalks guest took home as their favors. These too had our personalized sticker on them.
The finale of our wedding was the tossing of the bouquet and garter off David’s motorcycle with a “Just Married” sign and a string of beer cans in front of Twenty 21. We thanked all our guests and drove off on the motorcycle into the night down Market Street towards City Hall. It was the best night ever and thanks to Laura Bruen for capturing every blessed moment on camera, (and being so fabulous to work with) David and I can look back on our wedding day and remember all the wonderful memories.
* Roaring 1920s
Posted on September 15th, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Real Weddings.
* Modern Colorado Wedding by Cori Cook Floral Design
Posted on September 8th, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Flowers, Real Weddings.
Loving this modern wedding color palette of chartreuse green, cantaloupe, and accents of brown…
photos by Gaston Photography, Floral Design by Cori Cook
From Cori, the master floral designer behind this gorgeous wedding decor…
Beth’s Wedding was all about the details! Details, Details, Details! Her bridal bouquet was adorned with a piece of vintage lace from her mother’s wedding gown. Her mother also hand-sewed a sixpence into the lace! She wanted her colors to “pop,” which we achieved by using limes, candles, willow branches, and plenty of shades of bright orange. The creativity of the vendors made a space that was traditional in nature chic and contemporary with the help of gorgeous linens, chair ties, and stylish florals.
* Real Wedding - Lynette + Tyson
Posted on September 1st, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Real Weddings.
I love love love it when brides from our PW community write to me about their real weddings. Lynette, also known in our community as lcullen, had one of the most beautiful weddings I have seen in a long time…
photos by Rachelle Photography
Lynette was kind enough to share some details about her wedding..
Well to start let me say that I married my best friend and we waited for this day for the past 13 years of our lives. Our wedding date was actually the anniversary of the day that we met. We met as kids- I was 12 and he was 14. It was the first summer of living in a new house and Tyson was our next door neighbors nephew from out of town. Tyson would come and visit during the summer breaks and we would spend the hot days watching movies, going to the river and hanging out on my mom’s porch. When Tyson turned 18 years old he decided to move to Sacramento and live with his uncle. We started dating about a year later which was nearly 9 years ago! We’ve both said that we always new each other were the one…and so did everyone else!
What took us so long to get married? We wanted to get everything in order first, you know school, careers and money for a nice wedding. Neither of our families have very much money and Tyson and I paid for our entire wedding out of pocket over a two year period of saving. I LOVE weddings and all of the planning. I spent hours surfing the net to find new ideas and deals. I watch a lot of reality wedding TV shows as well. I loved the creativity and all of DAY DIY projects! My dear husband often used to ask me what on earth I would do when the wedding was all over- my answer, I have no idea!
The day was perfect and not a single thing went wrong. It went by so so so fast! We each had a house to get ready in for the day on the golf course so my girls and I hung out all day and relaxed while getting hair and makeup done. About 3:00 the photographer showed up and that’s when the nerves hit me! It was all happening so fast, all of this planning leading up to this moment. The next thing I knew my pictures were over and it was time to head to the aisle. My brother walked me down the aisle to the classic bridal march. Walking down the aisle I was so nervous and I teared up, all I could see at the end of the aisle was Tyson- nothing else, literally time stood still. The ceremony was very short and sweet, about 13 minutes, which I am sure everyone appreciated at 6 o’clock and 95 degrees. After the ceremony we spent an hour taking pictures while our guests enjoyed a nice cocktail hour on the terrace. They were treated to our signature drink which was a blue sangria, mini pizzas, jumbo prawns, Kobe beef skewers, mango chicken, and crab cakes. The reception begun just about 7:30 pm and we were introduced to a cheering crowd! We went right into dinner which consisted of Filet Mignon, potato au gratin, and a corn/asparagus medley, followed by toasts, cake cutting, slide show, and the first dance. Everything wen off so well and we had such a marvelous time. A special note- this is actually the first and only time we have ever danced together, we are actually pretty shy dancers, but we danced the night away until midnight when it ended! We were so busy and high on life that we weren’t hungry and didn’t eat our food or have anything to drink, but we absolutely had the time of our lives! All of my vendors were amazing and the venue was stunning and the staff was so nice accommodating. The decorations and color combo turned out better than planned- we did aqua/teal, chocolate brown and touches of light pink. The DJ was AMAZING and the life of the party, he did the best job ever! The slide show was so special and made us tear up. We waited so long for the day that we had and it was so, so, so worth the wait.
Thanks so much Lynette for sharing your wedding with us today! If you’re itching for more inspiration, click here for her bio, which is chock full of more gorgeous images from Lynette and Tyson’s big day!
* A Beach Wedding by Mathieu Photography
Posted on August 31st, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Real Weddings.
Today’s the last day of August, so I thought it would be befitting to feature a gorgeous beach wedding. These images definitely a great distraction for a quiet Monday morning…
photos by Mathieu Photography
* A Fall Wedding by Kim Mendoza
Posted on August 25th, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Real Weddings.
Angela and George had the most adorable garden wedding. The orange and black color palette was inspired both by the autumn season, and also by the couple’s love for the San Francisco Giants….
Photos by Kim Mendoza
Event Location/Coordinator: Cynthia O’Leary / Peachwoods>, Santa Cruz, CA\
Florist: Vy Dang
Cake: Jen’s Cakes
Makeup: Erika Hernandez
DJ: Jason Spencer - Spencer Weddings
Officiant: Daniel Mendez
Videographer: Todd Lehr
* Bold and Beautiful Details by A Stunning Affair
Posted on August 18th, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Real Weddings.
Love the bold contrasting colored details in this “stunning” wedding …
… coordinated by Lina Wallace at A Stunning Affair, photographs by With Love Photography
* Italian Renaissance, IV
Posted on August 12th, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Real Weddings.
* Italian Renaissance, III
Posted on August 12th, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Real Weddings.
The wedding had many personal touches. For the fall they used apples and beautiful fall leaves to decorate the venue. Colors were green, red, yellow and orange. The coordination and catering were done by Villa del Sol d’Oro.
* Italian Renaissance, II
Posted on August 12th, 2009 by Margaret. Filed under Real Weddings.
Sarah from Fino Photography writes…
The reception venue Villa del Sol d’Oro was spectacular! It was built in “pure” Italian Renaissance style in 1922 by the famous Pasadena architect Wallace Neff. The Villa has been used as a location for filming commercials and shooting photo layouts for Vogue and various catalogs. Hollywood movies such as the Princess Diaries, Mommy Dearest, Ed Wood, Legally Blonde, and A Walk in the Clouds were filmed here, as were episodes of the television dramas Bones, CSI:Miami and Cane.
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