Southern Weddings

I’m always surprised by how difficult it can be to work with a pink color palette: choose the wrong shade or the wrong accent colors and you end up with a too-pink, too-princessy affair that’s fit more for a child’s birthday party than a wedding.  I think that’s why I love Ashley + Nick’s wedding from Kerry Corcoran of David Michael Photography so much.  (But really, how could you go wrong with a wedding at the fabulous Hotel Bel Air?)  The pale pink rose accents in the Fleur de Liz centerpieces and sweet, understated blush-colored details are sophisticated and romantic without looking too girly or overdone.  The bride’s ivory Monique Lhuillier keeps with the feminine feel of her California nuptials while her bridesmaids’ chocolate Melissa Sweet gowns are a great complement to an otherwise pink affair.  Kudos to planner extraordinaire, Beth Helmstetter, for designing such a lovely event!

How did the two of you meet? Tell us your story:  We met at Pepperdine Law School.  I was in my first year of law school and Nick was in his third.  We met because we were both members of the Democratic Club.  Nick two friends, who also happened to be co-presidents of the club, introduced us one morning in the atrium.  It was history from there.  We went to lunch about a week later and have been together ever since.
What was the design inspiration for your wedding? Vintage Elegance.  My grandmother, who passed away in June of 2007, had great style and I wanted to copy that trademark style in my wedding.  I wanted everything to be very formal and vintage.
Favorite design element of your big day: The floral arrangement on the gazebo.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I knew I wanted a Monique Lhuillier dress ever since I saw Trista from “The Bachelorette” search for her wedding dress.  The only question was which one!  I changed dresses three times because the one I wanted was, of course, the most expensive.  My mom ended up agreeing that the “Clementine” was worth the extra expense!
Describe your wedding flowers: Shades of ivories, creams and blush pinks.  We used garden roses, hydrangeas and tulips that were arranged on top of crystal candelabras surrounded by press crystal vases filled with accent pieces.
Describe your wedding cake: We had a white three-tiered cake with icing stephanotis covering the entire cake.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: The flowers on the gazebo and the chandelier in the gazebo.
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Vintage, elegant and beautiful.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? Growing together as a married couple.

Congratulations to Ashley + Nick.  We wish you a lifetime of love and happiness!

Where to start, where to start?  The vintage car lot escort cards?  The fold out dinner menus?  The relationship map?  The champagne bottle guest book?  The cute graphic signage?  Unsurprisingly, the details from Sabrena + Casey’s wedding are as stunning as the couple themselves, and, might we say, as stunning as the photography from Next Exit.  See more of this wedding on their blog here!  And P.S. Sabrena’s darling reception dress is from Melissa Sweet.

What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? When Casey and I did our first look and portraits before the ceremony.  It was a really great opportunity to just be together, and a fun kick-off to the rest of the day.  
Did you write your own vows?  If so, what was your favorite phrase, verse or line?  Yes, we both wrote our own vows.  Casey liked when I used my shoe collection to talk about how great of a guy he is!
What’s next for you as a couple?  What are you looking forward to in the future?  We are just enjoying married life!  The wedding planning spawned a career in letterpress printing and design for me, so keep an eye out for “Dear Lola,” a letterpress stationery line, in 2010.

Congratulations, Sabrena + Casey!  We’ll keep our eyes peeled for Dear Lola!

Katharine will probably kill me for saying this (she is, to put it mildly, not the world’s biggest animal lover), but isn’t the poodle ring bearer super cute?  Almost as cute as the photo of Sabrena + Casey chillaxing on the Viceroy’s lounge chairs.  Sabrena’s stunning dress, by the way, is from Nicole Miller.  Love it!  Thank you, thank you to Next Exit for sending these images our way!

Describe your wedding flowers: We wanted a really modern and clean look so we went with white ceramic vases. The one flower I absolutely loved and had to have was blush pink anemones.  Our florist was awesome and tracked down the grower from a picture I found through Martha Stewart.  Unfortunately, the grower misled our florist, and I ended up with a really deep pink color and a flower mess the week before the wedding.  Our florist was great, though, and worked with us until I was happy.

Describe your wedding cake: We didn’t want to go the traditional wedding cake route since I’m a huge cupcake lover.  So we did cupcakes through a local Palm Springs baker in a variety of flavors.
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding?  The planning was so much fun, and there really weren’t any challenges during the bulk of it.  The wedding flower issue, as well as having a hair and makeup artist cancel on me five days before the wedding, were some last minute glitches that we had to work through.