Southern Weddings

August must be my lucky month! Heather + Freddie’s gorgeous wedding captured by John Partridge at a private estate in Laguna Beach proves that classic black and white is anything but basic.  From the bride’s hip Chuck Taylor high-tops and the black and white swans swimming in a nearby pool to the authentic photo booth and s’mores station, this wedding was a fun, creative and vibrant affair!  Planning and design by Fleur de Lis Events.  We’re really liking this trend of couples choosing personal and original alternatives to the traditional wedding cake.  What do you think about Heather and Freddie’s homemade cupcakes (made by the bride’s mother!) that inspired the couple’s California B&W wedding?

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story. Believe it or not, we met at church. Freddie had been a lifelong member at this church and had been invited to the church by a friend.  We caught each other’s eye early during the service, but neither of us had the courage to say anything to the other.  Freddie had approached my friends and asked them to give him my number but I told them to let him know that if he was interested than he would have to come ask me for my number himself!  One Sunday evening after church, Freddie followed me to my car and asked me for my phone number.  The next morning, he called and invited me on a date.  Although I was excited to join him, especially since it was Valentine’s Day and I was without a proper date, I already had made a commitment to babysit for my next-door neighbors.  As God would have it, I got off work early with an entire night’s pay!  I immediately called Freddie and we planned a last minute double date with our mutual friends.  We have been together ever since!

What was the design inspiration for your wedding? My mom’s cookies and cream cupcakes.  After Freddie and I got engaged, I was having trouble coming up with ideas for what my dream wedding would be like.  My biggest worry was the cake, because I am not a cake-eater.  Since my mom had recently opened her own bakery in Ireland and has always made the best cookies and cream cupcakes, I decided that the cupcakes would be a perfect substitute for a cake, which meant that our color scheme would necessarily have to be black and white!

Favorite design element of your big day: Our favorite design element was the black and white swans.  They were a surprise from my mom; we had no idea there would be swans at our wedding!  As our original goal was to push the envelope on innovative design ideas, I think that swans in a swimming pool were a perfect fit!

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: When I started looking for dresses I had no idea what I wanted, but I knew exactly what I didn’t want: NO POUF!  My mom flew in from Ireland for a few days to accompany me to local bridal salons. We went to 5 places, tried on about 20 dresses, narrowed it down to 3 and ended up with a POUF dress from Monique Lhuillier!  The dress really was a no-brainer, though, as I could wear my favorite Chuck Taylor shoes with it.  I couldn’t have been happier!

Describe your wedding flowers: We are not really into flowers and didn’t want anything too put together or too matchy-matchy. Instead, we opted for a more casual garden feel.  To be honest, we could have done without flowers all together.  The designs were inspired by the flower arrangements my mom put together for my bridal shower.  They looked so fresh and original that we replicated the look at the wedding as well.

Describe your wedding cake: We decided on cookies and cream cupcakes instead of a cake.  My mother flew in two days before the wedding and baked 150 cupcakes from scratch, then had to decorate them all.  In the meantime, she decided to bake a small three tiered cookies-and-cream cake so that we had something to cut for the cake-cutting ceremony.  She kept it clean with plain white frosting.  On the top of the cake, she stenciled a fleur-de-lis emblem filled with cookie crumbs.  Everything was delicious!

Our favorite detail of the wedding was: The photo booth was definitely our favorite detail of the wedding.  It made for an excellent social piece and even better memories.  When we started planning the wedding, we had two things that we had to have on our special day: a photo booth and a s’mores station.  Both were big hits!

Three adjectives that describe the day are: Beautiful, romantic and breathtaking.

What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding? Make sure you get an amazing photographer. We used John Partridge.  He is so talented!  His work is original, creative and definitely the real thing.  We don’t have enough nice things to say about him.  He captured the day so well.  We can’t stop looking at the pictures.  It takes us back to that exact moment.  He made us look our best and, even more importantly, he made us feel comfortable.

What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? We have recently moved into our first apartment together.  We are looking forward to buying our own home and starting a family within the next few years.  We are enjoying each other’s company and the feeling of being one.

Any DIY items? We made our own party favors.  An important theme to our relationship has been an umbrella, so my mom baked homemade sugar cookies in the shape of an umbrella and we decorated them and wrapped them individually.  We also added a tag with a quote about why umbrellas are a good metaphor for life.

We loved your modern spin on traditional black and white, Heather + Freddie! Best of luck on your new home and life together!