Wedding STD's

This week I am happy to report that we can cross our Save the Dates (or STD's as we like to call them) off our list!  What I thought would be a simple project somehow turned into a 2 + month project.  When we mailed these out on Valentine's day, I finally started to feel like we are making some progress.

We wanted to do something original so we asked a family friend to draw an illustration for us. We couldn't be happier with the way they turned out!

Now onto the other half of my dress!

Did you design your own Save the Date? How did they turn out?

Planning a Wine Country Wedding, Part 2: The Design

Laurel here from Esla Events for the next installment of our Wine Country wedding series. This week’s topic: designing and styling your big day. There is no shortage of inspiration out there these days, from blogs to magazines to books (my current favorites are this one and that one). So instead of getting into the style of your design, below I provide some tips to consider when styling your designs. None are rocket science but, as any bride can tell you, it's really easy to get so deep into the specifics of your idea that you overlook some styling basics. Think of this as a 7-point cheat sheet for taking your designs from concept to execution successfully, and for getting yourself unstuck when needed. 1. Ask yourself, “What’s behind it?” Sure, you’ve considered the backdrop for your ceremony, but what about your dessert table? Your head table? Your bar? You’ll want these to be in convenient locations that makes sense for access and flow, but don’t forget about the overall visual experience. If there isn’t a gorgeously textured barn wall or natural feature to help frame the component, create one by hanging something (see point #7).

Photo by MEF Photography | Rentals by OTL Vintage | Design and Styling by Esla Events and Amanda O'Shannessy Creative

2. Incorporate a few specialty pieces. One of the easiest and most surefire ways to enhance the look of your day is to rent a few signature items. Even if you don’t have a huge budget, focusing your limited dollars on one or two additions or upgrades can really help elevate your aesthetic. Some favorite strategies include: creating a lounge area with beautiful vintage pieces from One True Love, Heritage & Craft, or Milk Glass, upgrading your napkins and dinner table linens to La Tavola’s Tuscano line, or switching out basic folding chairs for crossback chairs, available at Wine Country Party, Hartmann Studios, and Classic Party Rentals.

 Photo by MEF Photography | Rentals by OTL Vintage | Design and Styling by Esla Events and Amanda O'Shannessy Creative

3. Use varying display heights. Use stands, wood crates, or other props to create height on your various stations and display areas. Not sure how to do this? Just check out your favorite boutique or coffee shop for ideas on how to execute this well. The end result is a more friendly, engaging, and visually pleasing design.

Photo and Design by Esla Events

4. When in doubt, use the rule of three. Most items look better in clusters of three, especially when they’re varied in height. Not sure why, they just do.

Photo by MEF Photography | Florals by Leigh Okies Design | Design and Styling by Esla Events and Amanda O'Shannessy Creative

5. Consider the white space. In addition to figuring out what should go where, think about what shouldn’t be there. Giving core design elements breathing room can amplify their visual impact.

Florals by Studio Choo | Photo by Esla Events 

6. Hang something. Many venues in Napa and Sonoma have arbors, wine racks, and other easy-to-hang-from anchor points. Hanging candles, lights, ribbon, signs, and chalkboards are all easy ways to personalize a space, add that romantic touch, and get the most visual impact for your efforts.

Photo by Meg Perotti  |  Florals by Studio Choo  | Rentals by Heritage & Craft  |  Ribbon wall and design by Esla Events

7. If you're not sure whether it will work, prototype it. Sketch it. Count it out. Visit a rental showroom. Make a floor plan. Make a sample. Whatever your strategy, getting the idea out of your head and into a physical form will ensure there are no surprises on the big day, and might even give you additional ideas. And don't be shy! As you can tell from my sketch below, you don't need to be an artist to use this trick—just doodle to get clear on your idea!

Still feeling design-challenged? Consider hiring an event designer to help you flesh out your ideas, help you find all the needed materials and rentals, and handle all the styling on the big day. Or better yet, check out Amanda O’Shannessey’s recently launched workshop series, Styled.

Making a Statement {Bridal Bouquets that Stand Out}

Much of our wedding look and feel is inspired by the artist Alphonse Mucha, known for his Art Nouveau botanical paintings of women, like the ones below:

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While we don't exactly subscribe to the school of thought of having set "wedding colors," our general color palate will be greens, golds, coppers, pewters, and some pinks. We're in the early stages of talking to some florists, and I've been thinking about my bouquet more and more. I've become quite fond of the idea of a "statement" bouquet, in a brighter, yet still complementary, color to the rest of the wedding flowers. Here are a few that I've found inspiring this week:

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Adventures in Cake Tasting

Happy Valentine's Day! What better thing to blog about on Valentine's Day than cake. Yumm give me a slice of cake and a glass of champagne any day and I am one happy girl. Anyways, this past weekend we had a marathon of cake tasting. Our caterer strictly handles food so we needed to find another baker to make our cake. Of course, practicing my due diligence, I scheduled tastings with three different bakers in the same day. Blame being out-of-town bride for this kind of madness. (Way too much sweetness for one day).

After choosing the flavors and fillings, the next question bakers want answered is what the cake will look like. Luckily I brought my handy ipad mini to show them some of my favorite cakes out there:

Thinking Beyond the Cake

Happy almost Valentine's Day! I can't stop thinking about sweets this week. There are so many cute and creative ways to tie your favorite confections into your wedding day. From the get-go my fiance and I liked the idea of doing something different from the traditional wedding cake.

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Milk and cookies. Yum.

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I love what this couple did - instead of having a wedding cake, they had a wedding cake-shaped piñata and then did a french croquembouche for dessert - that translates to 'crunch in the mouth'!

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Macaroons are adorable and come in endless colors and flavors.

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Donuts - always a crowd-pleaser.

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And you can't go wrong with ice cream. I'm actually eating some raspberry sorbet as I type this right now :-)

Did you decide to forgo the wedding cake? What are you going to do instead?

Details in the Heart

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, this week I have been looking at ways to subtly add hearts into our wedding without being overly predictable or cutesy.  I love a sweet heart as much as any other girl, but want to incorporate this idea with an element of restraint so as to keep it from looking like a Valentine's explosion. Here are a few creative ideas I found to add some extra love to your special day.

Wedding attire: I would love to create our own heart patch with our initials and wedding date.

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Add some love to your sole! These awesome heart stopper pads on the right will help you stay upright down the aisle and while you are breaking it down on the dance floor.

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Darling Details: (above) Ring pillow, heart touches on envelopes, photos props, (below) heart confetti, guest book, and garland.

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Are you adding any heart details to your special days? Happy early Valentines Day to you and your sweet!

Planning a Wine Country Wedding, Part 1: When & Where

Today we are announcing a new Engaged & Inspired series, Planning a Wine Country Wedding. This series is written by one of my favorite Wine Country wedding planners, Laurel of Esla Events. Esla Events is responsible for some absolutely gorgeous weddings, no seriously, check out her gallery of work. Truly breathtaking. Find out more about Laurel and Esla Events right here. Take it away Laurel! 

I’m thrilled to contribute to Engaged & Inspired’s wealth of information and insight for real brides who are planning real weddings. My four-part series will focus on planning a wedding in Napa, Sonoma, and the surrounding areas. While I have a few ideas for the upcoming posts, I want to first open it up to you, Engaged & Inspired readers: What would you like to know? Feel free to email me directly at laurel@eslaevents.com, or leave a comment on this post.

Two of the first major decisions you’ll need to make when planning your wine country wedding are where and when to get married, so let’s begin there.

“When” is relatively straight-forward. Prime wedding weather in Napa, Sonoma, and surrounding areas is mid-May through mid-October, with the most reliably comfortable months being June and September. However, couples get married year round in this beautiful area. Even now in February, there are beautiful blankets of yellow mustard among the vineyards and, just yesterday, I was comfortably running around Yountville in a dress. The weather is of course less predictable from November to April, but if you’re on a budget or have a challenging schedule, don’t feel limited to just the prime summer and fall months.

"Where” to get married is the more interesting, and often more personal and challenging, question.

Beautiful custom map by The Aerialist Press

You might have a vision in your head already — a cozy dinner with a beautiful vineyard backdrop and soft magical light, right? But beyond that, you might be surprised by the range of variables you’ll need to consider. Here are a few questions I always ask clients when beginning the venue hunt:

How far from San Francisco do you want your guests to drive? If you want to encourage all guests – including your San Francisco friends and family – to make a weekend of it and stay overnight one or more nights, select a venue in Healdsburg, Glen Ellen, or Calistoga, which are a solid 1.5-2 hours outside San Francisco. This can make for livelier receptions, as your guests won’t have to worry about driving home after the celebrating (assuming you provide transportation back to the main hotel, if needed). However, if convenience is a bigger factor for you, and you don’t want to ask your out-of-town guests to drive another two or three hours after their cross-country flight, then opt for a venue near the cities of Sonoma or Napa. Some favorites include The Carneros Inn and Gundlach Bundschu.

How late do you want your wedding to go? Local noise ordinances makes outdoor dance parties impossible after 9 or 10pm. If you want to twirl late into the night with your friends and new husband, seek out venues with indoor reception areas, such as Cline Cellars and Calistoga Ranch.

Do you want cocktails to be served? If so, be sure to check whether the venue you’re considering allows hard alcohol. Many vineyards only allow wine (often only their own) and beer, but many other types of venues allow both, especially hotels and estates, such as Solage and Beaulieu Garden.

What does an “intimate setting” mean to you? Many couples are drawn to wine country for the promise of an intimate, relaxed, and beautiful setting. There are many types of “intimate” in wine country though, and getting clear on what exactly that means to you and your fiancé will help focus your search. Do you want all your family and friends to stay onsite all weekend at a property like Dawn Ranch? Or do you imaging whisking all your guests away to a beautiful hideaway like Healdsburg Country Gardens? Or does is really mean renting a wing of rooms at your favorite hotel like Bardessono, and having all festivities right there onsite?

Talking about those four basic questions with your fiancé will help focus your search, and make the most of your initial visits to the area.  Once you have an idea of what you’re looking for, check out search tools like Here Comes the Bride, the local venue list at The Collection, or simply cruise around Engaged & Inspired and other blogs for leads. I recommend seeing no more than 3-4 sites in one day to avoid venue-overload.

And now for a little visual fun: photos of a few of my favorite venues by some of my favorite photographers!

Beaulieu Garden Located in Rutherford, this beautiful private estate is full of magical features like a sunken garden, fountains, and vine-covered arbors. This venue is perfect for couples wanting an elegant, extremely private, al fresco setting for their big day (and for those with a decent-sized budget.)

Photo by Larissa Cleveland

Photos by Larissa Cleveland

Photos by Larissa Cleveland

The Carneros Inn For those of you skeptical of hotels as wedding venues, this modern-meets-rustic oasis will win you over with its impeccable design (no crazy carpets here!), beautiful layout, and private-feeling event areas. One of my favorite spots.

Photo by Carlie Statsky Photography

Photo by Carlie Statsky Photography

Photo by Carlie Statsky Photography

Annadel Estate Winery This is one of the most intimate and beautifully raw settings I’ve come across in Wine Country. The vine-covered ruins are the centerpiece of the property, and they’re beautifully complemented by a large lawn and barn.

  Photos by MEF Photography

Calistoga Ranch For smaller weddings, this gem offers several different site options, including a beautiful lawn area overlooking a small lake on one side and a valley on the other, a gorgeous pool area, and a cozy wine cave.

Photo by Sabine Scherer Photography

Photo by Sabine Scherer Photography

Photo by Sabine Scherer Photography

Gundlach Bundschu While I haven’t personally planned a wedding here yet, I’ve visited the wine tasting room many times and have fallen in love with the ceremony site. Conveniently located near Sonoma, Gundlach sits on a hill overlooking beautiful hills and vineyards.

  Photos by Jessica Burke Photography

 Coming up next: TBD! Email me your topic requests, or post them in the comments below.

Dressed to the Nines {bachelorette party on the brain}

I think the one thing no one really talks about with wedding planning is that most brides (at least those getting married in a "popular" area like Wine Country) have planned all of the big things (venue, caterer, dress, DJ, photographer) 9-12 months before their wedding. So, there's this lull where all you have is Pinterest and a bazillion wedding magazines and blogs to make you think of the omgsupercute details you should have at your wedding. Let's just say that choosing a caterer was a bit more fun, and less stress-inducing than the details lull. While I still have a few months, and it's not exactly part of my wedding planning, I am feeling totally excited by the idea of a no-holds-barred night out with my favorites to blow off some of that wedding-induced steam. I have been bitten by the bachelorette bug hard, and with all the cute Valentine's Day dresses all over the place, it's a miracle that I haven't bought 15 potential bachelorette dresses!  Here are some of my faves:

From Rent the Runway (1, 2, 3):

From Asos.com (a favorite of mine for party dresses) (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9):

From bebe.com (which seems primarily meant for bachelorette parties, no?) (10, 11, 12):

Double Take: The Decision to Have Two Ceremonies

If you had asked me 6 years ago (after attending my first wedding) if I would have a church wedding, I would have without a doubt told you yes. You see, my fiance and I both attended parochial school for the majority of our schooling and so as a young girl I thought that's what most people did.

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Well fast forward a few years and my fiance and I actually started talking about what our wedding might look like and the word church rarely came up. We pictured an outdoor ceremony, just like the one were planning. So maybe it's Catholic guilt or maybe it's just our nature, but we knew having a religious ceremony was important to us too. Since we were unable to find a priest to agree to marry us outside, we've decided to hold two ceremonies. The first, in the church with only our immediate family and bridal party on the Thursday before our big day and the second, on a Saturday, outdoors, followed by a terrific reception. This is a sure fire way to confuse your wedding guests :)

Love the look of quaint little chapels but also think grand, eye catching churches are gorgeous.

If I was having a church ceremony only, I think I would have loved one of these numbers above. Definitely more formal than my dress for my outside wedding.

I can't help but be smitten over weddings under trees. This is comfortable and so natural for me.

{rehearsal dinner, turned} Welcome Party

From the moment we booked our wedding location, we knew we wanted to have a 'welcome party' as opposed to the traditional rehearsal dinner. Mainly we just wanted more time to spend with all of our guests - it isn't too often you have all the people you love in one spot! And with many people traveling to our destination for the weekend, we wanted to thank them by having a second party!

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Because we decided to have a larger party and invite everyone who is invited to the wedding, we had to keep it more low-key than we would if we were hosting just our immediate family and wedding party. In other words, we couldn't do a full-on sit-down dinner. And that is fine with my fiance and me since we will be having the sit-down dinner the next night.

Luckily we found a bigger venue that also happens to be a winery (score!) and we found our exact vision of the food we wanted - a traveling wood fire pizza oven. When we found the place that had a traveling brick oven, we knew we had to get them for our welcome party. It was just what we were looking for - casual and cost-effective, but, at the same time, quality, local ingredients, delicious, fresh food, and a fun vibe. If you are hosting an event in the Columbia Gorge, I highly recommend checking out Solstice Wood Fire Cafe!

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I love rehearsal dinners/welcome parties because it's like a mini wedding, minus all the pressure! You can make it what you want. Go all out, or keep it casual. It gives the bride and groom a chance to greet guests and catch up with everyone before the wedding. It's a great way to ease into the wedding weekend and get into the relaxing frame of mind for the big day. And, the way I see it, the more time your guests have to get to know each other before the wedding, the more fun they will have the day of, right?

If you haven't noticed, I'm almost as excited for our welcome party as I am for the actual wedding.

What are you doing the day before the big day?! If you are having a 'welcome party,' how did you cut back so that you could host a bigger group?