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Nicci and Dennis’s wedding had the perfect fall color scheme - cranberry, orange, and apple. I love the crispness and vibrancy of the colors and the beautiful images from Tana Photography.

Bridesmaids received custom bracelets by The Beaded Bangle to wear with their cranberry gowns…

… while groomsmen wore train cufflinks, echoing the couple’s reception venue, the Boise Train Depot. Such a cute touch!

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While Nick and I were taking photos, our guests headed to the reception tent for the cocktail hour. They were supposed to gather around the rectangular pool — amidst round high top tables and mason jars of candles tied with red and orange ribbon — but the wet weather prevented that from happening. However, I heard they still had a pretty excellent time.

The space was decorated with red and orange Chinese lanterns, strings of white lights, baskets of greens, and fichus trees (all expertly arranged by our day of coordinator, Betsy, I must add).

Susan Savia provided the entertainment, and drinks were served alongside a European cheese spread with fresh bread, fruits, dips, and mustards (provided by The Festive Board of York).

We offered two signature drinks: Arnold Palmers from the groom and Peach Sangria from the bride. The Arnold Palmer is a blend of iced tea, lemonade, and vodka. And we mixed the Sangria the morning before the wedding. (Get the recipe.)

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There are many things that I love about Farnaz and Jeff’s beautiful Hawaii wedding.  First, the lovely setting of the Four Seasons Hualalai.  Second, the incredible photography from Clark + Walker Studio.  But mostly I just adore the gorgeous natural beauty of the bride, Farnaz.  She looks relaxed, calm, and happy - the three things that I hope every bride feels on their wedding day!

Farnaz and Jeff chose all white floral and decor but let their bridesmaids have a splash of color with bright and beautiful red dresses - perfect for the beach setting.

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I adore winter - it’s so soft and still.  I hope your weekend is as peaceful as this board is!

{bird in winter branches via the All Things Bright and Beautiful blog (now defunct), place setting photographed by Sang An via Truly Smitten, floral photographed by Jenny Ebert via Thoughtful Day bride photo by Punam Bean}

Every now and then I come across a wedding that is not only drop-dead gorgeous, but it’s so creative it warms my soul. That’s Kristen and Matt’s wedding. Kristen, an art director for a cosmetics company, created the entire event herself from start to finish, and the result, photographed by the talented and sweet Daisy Varley, was absolute perfection.

Kristen chose a Mexican fiesta theme for the wedding, full of bright colors, family traditions, paper flowers, and fabulous details!

Bridesmaids were asked to choose a Mexican peasant dress and hem it to their liking.

The wedding was held at Condor’s Nest Ranch in Pala, CA.  Guests were able to stay on the grounds, so signs pointed the way to the wedding and the camping!

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I have been so busy with wedding season that I have fallen behind a bit on sharing lovely weddings with all the fabulous EAD readers. But I am so happy to be able to share a truly stunning and inspirational wedding from Labor Day weekend with all of you.

Crista and Bill were married at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) here in Chicago. I was so excited about this wedding, as it was one of the last before a wonderful exhibit by Olaffur Eliasson was taken down (if he ever exhibits in your city, please go!). This was my favourite exhibit I’ve seen in a long while, and I couldn’t wait to shoot in such a colourful and inspiring environment.

Bill and Crista are both creatives, and Crista did a beautiful job pulling together a gorgeous event that felt relaxed and artistic.  It was also an incredibly emotional day, with Crista and her sister crying throughout the day–it was really lovely and sweet, and I was so happy to be able to share in the day along with my second photographer, Frank. Also, a big thanks to the amazing team at Kehoe Designs for designing the stunning florals that perfectly played off the rainbow of colours in the exhibit, while not being overkill. Really wonderful job; highly recommend them for very creative and unique displays and bouquets (we were all swooning over the succulents)!

Opening a present from Bill…

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Fall is on its way and it’s put me in the mood for deep and rich colors, like this burgundy and gold palette.  Build a wedding around this using ornate linens, filigree, velvety fabrics, chandeliers, and lots of gold accents.

Clockwise from top left: room styling with burgundy curtains and gold frames by Katya de Grunwald via Desire to Inspire, perfume bottle and necklace photo by Don Mears Photography via Little White Book, ornate gold, burgundy and brown office by Caroline Beaupere via Desire to Inspire, burgundy and gold bedroom photographed by Verity Welstead via Desire to Inspire, velvet and jewelled wedding invitation by Andrea Yung via The Bride’s Cafe (photo by Jennifer Skog), bride at the Ritz Paris photographed by Olivier Lalin, photo of gold and pearl necklace by Colin Cooke via Perfect Bound

So excited today to be featuring the wedding of one of our loyal readers, Anne, and Thomas!  Their gorgeous Sarasota, FL wedding was photographed by Brian and Briana of Divine Light Weddings.

Anne’s Nicole Miller gown was just perfection.  I’m a huge fan of champagne colored gowns and it’s just stunning against her skin tone.

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I adored our wedding reception. It flew by like mad, but here’s what I know: I have distinct memories of everyone who was there, it felt exactly like we’d hoped it would, and we’ve never had so much fun.

Crossing the street heading over to the reception:

We chose Ray LaMontagne’s “You Are the Best Thing” as our song, and my heart bursts through my chest every time I hear it, still.

We had a buffet of local food featuring the Outer Banks at its best: fresh shrimp served with grits, stuffed flounder, seasonal vegetables, and of course… mini strawberry shortcakes, made Southern-style with shortbread biscuits. With freshness like this, who needs a wedding cake, anyway? Not us.

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We approached a reception decor plan much the way we approached our ceremony decor plan. The reception would take place across the street from the ceremony in a tented area that leads out onto the Sound. We were dealing with a standard white tent, and wanted to incorporate three big things: color, pattern, and personal touches. We’d keep costs down by reusing elements from the ceremony and making as many of the elements ourselves that we could.

I knew from the start that I wanted patterned tablecloths, and found out two things very quickly: local rental companies didn’t offer patterns, and pre-made tablecloths for sale weren’t available in appropriate colors or patterns. In other words, we were going to have to buy fabric and make the tablecloths ourselves. Searching for the right fabric - the right color, the right patterns, all at the right price - was extremely challenging. To increase the pressure, almost every decision about reception decor was contingent on the fabric decision. We searched long and hard for almost two months before making our final selections. (Nothing went to waste - a fabric we decided against for the tables after seeing it in person became our aisle runner!) Here are the final fabrics, both from Premier Prints:

The reception tables were 60-inch rounds, so we hired a family friend to make 84-inch square tablecloths (half in the red print, half in blue) to provide a 12-inch drop all the way around the table. Each tablecloth was stitched in three pieces, with the pattern lined up so precisely you couldn’t even see a seam. Having such strong linens on the tables allowed us to use the vendor’s white underlays without sacrificing color, which helped cut down on costs.

Once we made the fabric decision, it was time to call in our floral/event design guru Renee Landry to help us plan out the rest of the space. I was inspired by tablescapes that featured separate clusters of matching flowers, grouped together in varying sizes. I was also inspired by pomanders, and was committed to reusing them from the ceremony for our tables. Here are two of my favorite inspiration images, both from Martha:

We decided to use urns to hold the large flower pomanders as table centerpieces and as accents on areas like the bar. The pomander centerpieces would be surrounded by smaller receptacles holding matching flowers, and we decided that the small receptacles should add to our mix-and-match feel by introducing yet more pattern. In order to cut down on costs, we planned on using aluminum cans of various sizes and printing patterned paper ourselves to cover the cans. I got to work creating patterned sheets using the design files that ABCD had given me, while my sister headed up the job of printing the paper and covering the cans. Lots and lots and lots of cans. And did I mention that she was super-pregnant at the time? Go sis! To supplement the look of the cans and centerpieces, my mom decorated white rice paper votive holders with whimsical red and blue designs.

The look coming together (remember our pomanders and wedding wands?):

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We were married at an inn on the Outer Banks, on a deck that led from the inn to the dunes, and then the ocean. The space has the same rustic, weathered look the defines the Outer Banks. Since “rustic and weathered” wasn’t quite the look we were going for with our ceremony decor, we needed a decor plan in place to achieve our vision. My mom, sister, and I took a trip to the Outer Banks to work with floral/event designer Renee Landry and create a decor plan that achieved three things: (1) the space should burst with personality and color (2) the space should be red and blue, but use a range of palettes and patterns so that it didn’t feel too “4th of July,” and (3) in order to keep costs down, we would reuse as many ceremony decor elements at the reception as possible, and make as many elements ourselves that we could.

I fell in love with the idea of using pomanders instead of traditional altar florals as a way to add vibrant pops of color and personality to the space. (True story: the wedding that got me hooked on pomanders was right here on EAD!) In my mind, pomanders were fun, flirty, and more casual than traditional florals, so they fit into our wedding theme perfectly. The downside of pomanders is how long they take to create, which means they’re fairly expensive to use in bulk. We achieved the look of a pomander bonanza at a lower pricepoint by making fabric pomanders to supplement the floral pomanders at the “altar,” then reusing only the floral pomanders as our reception centerpieces. We had originally planned on tissue pomanders, but the high humidity and wind on the beach called for a more substantial material. My mom took on this thankless task, using pinking shears to cut fabric squares and inserting them one by one into styrofoam centers. Each pomander took up to nine hours to create, and she made lots of them. Here’s a shot from her dining room as the pomander collection started to grow:

In person, the effect was wonderful. The floral pomanders (made primarily of carnations) were beautiful, and the overall look had so much volume that you didn’t notice they weren’t all flowers. Up close, though, the fabric pomanders were so pretty that you didn’t mind they weren’t flowers - the patterned fabric added some depth to the overall effect.

(All photos by Beach Productions)

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I’m going to tell it like it is: nothing made me feel less in the mood to get married than shopping for The Dress. Some girls get goosebumps just stepping into a bridal salon. Some girls hear chords from above when they try on The One. I was not one of those girls. Dress-shopping was the opposite of a fairy-tale for me. More like a morality tale featuring evil, judgmental salespeople trying their best to make me feel too large (”curvy” and “broad,” they said, shaking their heads and sighing) and unsophisticated to wear their gowns. I finally flew my sister down from North Carolina to help me make the final decision, desperately in need for a second opinion and someone who actually knew me to be in the room. I already had a favorite by the time she arrived, and when I stepped out into it - after a morning of trying on dozens of other gowns for her - she called it like she saw it: “This is the only dress that’s made you grin all day.”

I’m a fan of grinning, and my sister was right - the dress was light as air and felt like me. It referenced the beach with a scalloped halter neckline, had a vintage feel thanks to its beautiful lace, had a bit of sweetness with raw silk ribbons woven into the waist and straps, but felt quite modern because of the slim cut. It was Monique Lhuillier’s “Fabiana,” and it was the only one that I felt relaxed wearing, excited, even. Here I am wearing The One at the salon. No chords from above, but a lot of laughter with my sister instead, and that was all I needed.

I ordered the dress in white to coordinate with the beach and Trevor’s seersucker. His suit was something we were thrilled about; it belonged to his late grandfather and fit him like a glove. We found a tailor who modernized the fit a bit, turning the triple-pleated pants into flat fronts. We decided on a navy linen tie and a red and white gingham pocket square in lieu of a boutonniere. The result was dashing, completely beachy-handsome!

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