Kim & Lanny's Elemental Love Wedding!

Man, where do I start? :) Kim & Lanny were one of those couples who just oozed love from the moment I met them - not the gooey kind of love ;), but more a steady, easy, here we are kindof love. They met in high school and had been together ever since, so maybe that was part of it. They tied the knot this past April 12th in Dreams PV and this is what it looked like...

INSPIRATION BOARD

They really wanted to incorporate being married by the ocean and an acknowledgment of their native ancestry into the wedding - it was a lot of fun to go back to some beachy roots - although we live in a very popular wedding area by the beach, we don't often do a lot of weddings which incorporate beach elements :).

THE CEREMONY

I had a lot of fun with this ceremony. I decided to do her bouquet out of green hydrangae, circus roses and orange tulips with a beautiful turquoise necklace as an accent piece for the wrap. The groom's bout were little tulips. I wanted the orange colors to really pop, so I decided to go for a more natural palette so that the strung roses on the chairs would stand out more and the chuppah with flowing sand, champagne and white chiffon fabric. We incorporated a seashell blessing ceremony into the ceremony itself, and the guests were invited to choose a seashell, to bless the couple with their well wishes and then they all went down to the ocean and threw their shells back. Since we had decided to incorporate the elements (wind, air, fire, water and we added "alma" or "soul" as a 5th element) to the entire wedding, Antonio designed these amazing hand-crafted wooden fans with Aztec and Mayan symbols representing the elements drawn on them on one side and the word "love" on the other.

THE RECEPTION

They had decided to skip the cocktail, so guests went back to their rooms for a little break, while the bride and groom continued to take pictures with their photographer. For the reception, I wanted the color to be vibrant and completely in tune with the natural beach surroundings. So, we had turquoise chiffon overlays and apothecary glass jars (which I actually brought down in a suitcase from the states!) filled with orange tulips, sand and a white pillar candle and seashells and floating circus roses. We surrounded the reception area with tall bamboo poles and hanging lanterns with candles!

The escort cards were polished rocks with each guest name and table seating painted on and table markers were large rocks placed in the middle of the table with the names painted on for each of the elements. Maracas also were painted with the elemental symbols in the bride's wedding colors of orange, sand and turquoise. Napkins were a natural sand manta and place cards had a photo of the bride and groom on one side and a fun pictionary game (the bride and groom's favorite game!) on the other side, based on the bride and groom ;). Each table also had paper and pencils so they could play the game during the reception, if they wanted :). The bride and groom provided turquoise jelly bellies as a sweet favor which we placed on each chair.

THE DANCE FLOOR

I wanted something simple but that would really look beautiful at night. I told the boys I wanted a lantern with three poles overhanging and beautiful large Chinese lanterns. I loved it! One of my absolute favorite things happened this night ... we had swapped out the bride's IPOD for our own to play "Great Balls of Fire" and I thought the song that would follow was of a similar nature so I told the boys to keep the IPOD running. But to my surprise the William Tell Overture came on - but the bride's guests, already in a circle on the dance floor, did not miss a beat and started galloping across the dance floor - each person from an opposite side galloping to meet each other in the middle and end-up on the other side. It was one of the funniest, funnest most spontaneous things I've ever seen at a wedding and looked completely choreographed - which I knew it wasn't ;). I thought they would get tired half-way through but they danced the entire song - it was awesome!

THE CAKE/REMEMBRANCE TABLE

Both the bride and groom had people very close to them pass away and they wanted their presence at the wedding. So we put their photos on the cake table with a remembrance candle for each one with the cake in the middle. The cake was, of course, from Memo and he did an amazing job of combining one of the bride's favorite design cakes with the elemental symbols we had been using through-out the event. Gorgeous!

The bride, groom and all their guests were so amazingly kind, generous and sweet - it was a true honor to be part of their beautiful day!

Coming up Kris & Luke's wedding blog, followed closely by Rose & Miguel! :)

Meredith & Spencer's Classic Elegance Wedding!

Oh wow - where do I begin? I had the great pleasure of working with both Meredith and her mum as Meredith shared her and Spencer's vision and her mum wanted to put in little special touches which Meredith wanted, but didn't want to go over her mum's budget. The end result was an absolutely spectacular wedding - elegance, surprises, little touches and lots and lots (and lots!) of love!

WHERE: Hacienda Camino del Mar

CATERER: Andres from ByB

CAKE: Memo from Charme

PHOTOGRAPHER: The amazing Eric (who has yet to send me pictures, btw!)

(all pictures down below are by our awesome staff photographer, Soco!)

THE CEREMONY

In order to accommodate older guests who might have a hard time getting around on the beach, the decision was made to keep everything up at this amazing, beautiful villa. I decided to flip the ceremony space and also utilize it for the reception area which meant, in Mishka terms, that we could WOWZER the area because, hello, we would be using it twice! Honestly, Meredith & Spencer are such a laid-back, easy going couple that their love for elegance and simple beauty did catch me a bit by surprise - but I absolutely loved everything they sent me and it didn't take me long to figure out what we needed to do!

We spent hours stringing roses and carnations together and then hung them up above the ceremony area. We also hung them up almost entirely above the area next to the pool, as we were planning on putting the reception tables there after the ceremony. We placed gold chivari chairs off to the side, and the boys painted these really beautiful paisley maracas with their initials on them which we placed on the chairs, along with "shake me at the kiss" tags.

In memory of Meredith's grandfather, we placed his photo along with a carnation garland and, of course, the cherry on top was a paper mache replica of their dog, Tim whom the couple has a penchant for dressing up in funny costumes and taking pictures of him ;). We also had some Skype action going on - for the groom's brother whose plane was not cooperating in getting him to the wedding and for Meredith's Grandmother who was unable to come - love Skype!

The bride's bouquet was a mix of ranunculus, lisianthius and carnations, dotted with beautiful gold rimmed crystal accents in a gold accented holder. The groom had a ranunculus and a carnation with a gold crystal accent.

THE COCKTAIL

After the ceremony, we moved everyone into the casita for cocktails and appetizers. Cocktail tables were draped in shades of turquoise blue chiffon and adorned with a small carnation arrangement. We had a small lounge with pillows in blue, gold and a few lace pillows. I absolutely heart heart these colors. We found-out that the local University of Hawaii pub (where the couple are going/ have gone to school) was named Manoa and some awesome family member took a picture and sent it to us so we could replicate it but in the bride and groom's colors and named our cocktail/dance area after it ;).

THE RECEPTION

Back to the main Hacienda we go where we've set up round tables with elegant turquoise blue overlays with small gold crystal accents on the corners. Large white and cream carnation arrangements in the middle were surrounded by gold painted candle vases. Gold napkins stand upright tied with the place cards which hid various hot salsa bottles, a nod to Spencer's love of all things hot and spicy! Strung twinkle lights only complete this romantic look, along with the floating multi-colored lanterns floating in the pool.

THE DANCE FLOOR

I know I know - I keep heart hearting my dance floors but I can't help it! This was simply "wow" with over 30 gold lanterns with pillar candles and hanging glass turquoise and white hearts floating over the area - seriously romance floating everywhere! Judy (mer's mum!) surprised the couple with an amazing live Cuban band and a DJ for later in the evening.

THE CAKE

And, of course, what event would be complete without an amazing Memo cake! We had to bring everyone to the roof because Judy had one more super awesome surprised for the couple - fireworks! Seriously, I WANTED it to happen but could not have planned the timing better - as soon as they cut the cake, off went the fireworks - heart heart heart all over the place (and I was having a heart attack, slightly worried that it wouldn't happen JUST LIKE THAT - woohoo!). They ordered a different flavor from any cake we've had before - a vanilla and pineapple cake and it must have been good because they ate it all up!

Absolutely AMAZING way to start off this New Year and working with this special couple (and their daughter - the cutest flower girl ever!) and the love they shared for each other and their family - well, just heart heart hearts!

Next up - a slightly belated shout-out to a beautiful maraca bride and some new brides who have said their "i dos" this past weekend .... then, in a few weeks, we have Ghadeer & Pancho's nuptials at the beautiful Casa Serena!!