Alicia and Steven’s Darling Wedding

Amazing couple + Villa Del Sol D’Oro + Jasmine Star Photography + lovely Spring weather = a picture perfect wedding!

For me, it was love at first email- I had actually never physically met Alicia until the moment I handed off her bouquet. But I felt like I already knew her through all our excited emailing, and her fabulous blog, which documents every step of her wedding planning (including how she decided to hire The Treasured Petal, which I found so intriguing!)

They are quite the artsy fartsy couple: Alicia is a talented photographer and graphic designer, and Steven is a musician. I just knew their wedding would be chock full of details and sweet lovelies, and it was! I’ve never seen such cohesive design in each and every detail. Alicia made sure that everything, from her dress, to the linens, to the flowers, cake and menus pointed to her original vision for her wedding- whimsical, sweet, uber romantic, but with a little edge. As Alicia put it in our first email correspondence, “A vintage-inspired affair done in a totally modern way.”

Jasmine Star’s work is always stellar, but she and JD really blew me away with this wedding. The following pictures are from her blog- go there and check out the slideshow for more!

Their colors- to die for! White, tan, the softest blush, and deep eggplant purple. Those were actually my original wedding colors (before I changed them 5 times). After seeing it all put together, I wish I had just stuck with them!

Wowsers, her gown was incredible!

A classic creamy bouquet of peonies, english roses, ranuncula, and then some, wrapped in blush satin, ivory lace and pearl edging.

Steven wore a single phaleonopsis orchid with curly willow twigs.

A gorgeous couple! They are glowing.

It's little spots like this balcony that make Villa Del Sol D'Oro one of my favorite venues ever.

The florals were soft and touchable, with unexpected organic elements, such as succulents, pods and twigs. Below is a rough sketch of her centerpieces. Those are dried lotus pods by the way, not chips ahoys!

Little lounge accents.

Half the tables were stocked with square hurricanes covered with the most delicate tissue-thin papers, and the other half had super lush arrangements in mercury glass bowls.

Lots of white and blush peonies, ranuncula, candy bianca, tibet and sahara roses, blush spray roses, curly willow, succulents and black dahlias for a little edge. Notice Alicia's handcrafted menus adorned with eggplant rosettes with pearl centers. I told you, she's good!

Sweet peas, ranuncula, and english roses.

Thank you to the coordinator, Gabby of Weddings By Shaheen, for being so very organized and helpful!

My warmest congratulations to Alicia and Steven! I adored working with you, and I’m inspired by your kindness towards me, and your love towards one another. Makes me want to hug Joe a little tighter today when he comes home from work. Thank you

A Closer Look: Kathy and Gregg’s Wedding

This morning Kathy sent over her favorite images from her modern yet rustic wedding. This is the bride who sent me a dozen delectable cupcakes a few weeks ago which I devoured, causing me by necessity to start a “situp challenge” with Joe (200 situps and 50 back exercises every night. Or else!!!) Anyway, I digress.

Gabriel Ryan explored all the nooks and crannies at the charming French Estate, and used them as quirky backdrops for their images. I just love their vibrant, playful shots! Kerrie from Platinum Weddings by Kerrie was on point, as always.

Lime spider mums are bright, fun and not too serious.

Yummy white lisianthus, peonies, ranuncula, roses, and anenomes, with pops of lime orchids and black dahlias.

Shabby chic!

Mossy decor that's also a keepsake for their home!

So sassy!

Gregg is a lucky man!

My first married friend ever chose The French Estate for her wedding. This venue is so quaint and cozy, and feels like it could be your own front porch (if you were so lucky.)

A simple wreath hung on the door of the front porch.

Random lanterns and hanging vases adorned the cake area.

We covered hurricanes in fun, eclectic papers in shades of white, black, green and tan.

This is one of my favorite weddings to date. It was simple, fresh, and lighthearted. Thanks Kathy and Gregg for allowing me the honor!

A Simple Spring Shower

My sister is a breath of fresh Spring air- she’s adorable, outgoing, feminine, stylish, and my hero in many ways. As the matron of honor for her upcoming wedding, I was delighted to collaborate with the bridesmaids and throw a simple but lovely Spring shower for my big sis. I’m no stranger to weddings, but we all were CLUELESS about throwing a bridal shower. Planning a shower is not so intimidating once you break it down and delegate jobs according to each bridesmaid’s talents and gifts.

• We knew we needed a theme- Spring. Done.
• We knew we needed a color palette- fresh grass green, pure white and shades of girly pinks.
• Location- maid of honor’s beautiful home in Newport Beach.
• Food- Light, fresh, California fare. Everything I contributed was organic and all-natural (me and my sister are on an organic kick. Jenny has now surpassed me by making her own cleaning products. I’m not THAT hardcore!)
• Games- Not my forte, so we let the two elementary school teachers of the group come up with those!
• Decor- Lots of cheerful spring flowers in apothecary jars, including ranunculus, hydrangea, roses, viburnum and cutesy gerbera daisies scattered all over the house.

Thank you to Courtney of Joyful Weddings and Events for loaning me the Spring banner from her latest seasonal party! You are too sweet.

When the bride arrived, I gave her a fresh lei of pink spray roses. The bridesmaids all wore roses from my garden in our hair.

The beautiful bride, in white of course!

Petite jars of organic, all natural honey served as favors. Jenny and I love using honey and agave nectar in our recipes instead of processed sugar. One super yummy appetizer we served was fresh strawberries dipped in creme fraich sweetened with agave nectar. It is just delightful!

And it wouldn't be a shower without the obligatory favor puns! "Meant to BEE", "Love is sweeter than HONEY", and "the Birds and the BEES"!

Thank you bridesmaids for making it a super sweet day!

Annaliza and Cory’s Winery Wedding

Annaliza and my husband Joe reunited via Facebook (I’m still holding out!) They were in high school band together, during those strange teenage years when Joe rocked a ponytail way longer than mine. As they caught up online, Joe told her that his wife (moi) owns a floral studio and that she should check out T-Petal for her upcoming wedding. Turns out, she had already stumbled upon my website online and was already planning on contacting me! Another coincidence- she had already booked MY fabulous wedding photographer and good friend, Trista Lerit, to shoot her wedding at one of my favorite venues, Falkner Winery in Temecula. Needless to say, I’ve been anticipating this wedding for many months.

Their color scheme was ultra dramatic- rich shades of burgundy, wine, and deep purple contrasting with shots of chartreuse and fuchsia. The look was abundant, overgrown, and wild and moody. We wanted guests to feel like they were at a lavish destination wedding far far away in Italy.

Here is a peak of the photos, courtesy of Trista Lerit. Not only is Trista an absolute delight to work with, but she takes the most striking, unique, colorful images. I knew she would capture all the love and joy and energy perfectly.  Sidenote: I actually had the pleasure of grabbing sushi with Trista and Angel yesterday.  There is never a dull moment when we are all together.  Lots of laughs, gasps, giggles, shrieks, and of course, dog talk   Trista loves her Shi Tzu Mochi as much as I love my Pesto and Basil.

The sheer fabric on the arch was billowing oh-so beautifully in the wind.  The ceremony spot at Falkner is just breathtaking.  You stare out onto rolling hills of grapevines and other wineries in the distance.

I love Annaliza’s megawatt smile! She looks so happy and a little bashful in the picture.

Cory’s face is so gleeful as he gazes into Annaliza’s eyes.

A perfect kiss shot. Love the sweeping train and the angles of the trees in the background.

From left to right: Sweet chair accents, a huge manzanita tree for the escort card table, a closeup of the tree (those fuchsia zebra striped roses are called Pink Intuition), and at bottom, a wine box overflowing with florals for the sweethearts.

I spent months stopping by different bevmo’s asking if they could spare any wooden wine crates. Sometimes, if I asked nicely, they’d give them for free! We filled the crates with hurricane candles and a lush mixture of florals.

I’ll end with this heart warming photo.

Please check out Trista’s blog for more stunning images!

Thank you Annaliza and Cory for always treating me like a good friend, with kindness and respect. I hope we can double date soon since you live so close! You can give me all the hilarious details from Joe’s high school years Have a spectacular life together!

Let’s Catch-up!

Mondays are generally my catch-up days. I try to do as little business stuff as possible, and focus on cleaning my house, grocery shopping, paying bills, taking my dogs hiking, etc. Since I’m in a catching-up mood, there are a few things I promised to blog about and never did, so here it is in a condensed version!

1. I picked a bridesmaid dress for my sis’s wedding! Actually, I picked 2. Then I returned 1.

The elegant tadashi dress is gorgeous but needed to be taken in a little, which meant time and money to get it altered.

This Nichole Miller dress is a mini dress on the model, but it comes down to my knees! I really am a shrimp!

Even though the first dress is loads cuter, I went with the Nicole Miller for a few reasons- the price, the re-wearability factor (not sure when else I can pull off a tight lacy black dress), and the fact that it fit like a glove. I will be busy enough with flowers and matron of honor duties, I don’t want to worry about altering my dress.

2. My house is coming along! There is still much to be done, but here is an artsy fartsy look at the living room. You can just barely see the curtains I sewed and the beautiful botanical prints on the wall. Joe will be taking pictures of our favorite features in our new home, so I’ll get back to you with those.

3. DIY Hurricanes: Here are the DIY instructions I promised for the book page hurricanes I made for Julia and James’ wedding. Super easy!

• gather up some old books. Poetry books, old love stories, books that tie in with your theme or have special meaning to you as a couple. Picture books look especially sweet!
• choose some pages, and scan them onto your computer.
• resize them so that they will fill up the entire page in landscape when you print them.
• print them onto vellum paper (Joann’s has 50 page packs for less than 10.00).
• wrap around small cylinder vases (I used vases that were 8.5″ tall, or shorter, and 3.5″ in diameter). Use vellum tape, or clear double stick tape to secure.

An excerpt from Little Women.

These hurricanes are ideal if your venue forces you to use LED candles instead of real flames- the vellum paper camouflages the LED candle perfectly, and all you see is a warm glow illuminating the book pages. So romantic!

4. A sweet surprise: This morning as I was blending my signature smoothie (banana, ice cubes, splash of OJ, splash of soy, and agave nectar) my dogs started barking uncontrollably at someone outside. I looked out the peephole and saw a woman carrying 12 luscious cupcakes from Divine Desserts. For me? Thank you Kathy and Gregg! I had the moistest, creamiest chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting for breakfast (I forced myself to drink the healthy smoothie first.) I had a sugar high the whole day!

5. Thanks Jasmine! I received a disc of all the images from my Anytime session with Jasmine Star. I will share my favorites soon, but this picture just cracked me up:

This picture shows that Pesto (left) and Basil (right) really do share the same goofy features.  Their floppy liver lips, googly eyes, black button noses, concerned expressions, slight double chin, even their facial markings.

Good, I feel all caught up now!

This week I’ll be working on an aqua and orange wedding in Pacific Palisades. The look is sleek, modern, and lush with subtle beachy details. Can’t wait!