Showcase: LeeAnn and Geoff’s Shabby Chic Wedding!

I feel like LeeAnn is one of my biggest cheerleaders. She has been so full of enthusiasm, encouragement and compliments since the day she first emailed me an inquiry.

She described her ideal wedding as elegant, playful, and feminine with antique touches. Being a self-proclaimed girly girl, I like to think that feminine and playful are my forte, so our styles meshed wonderfully. She chose a palette of fresh green, creamy ivory, and soft tangerine. Some of the motifs we incorporated were delicate chandalier prisms, graceful curly willow branches, lots and lots of satin ribbon, and flowers that were fragrant and super fluffy, like petally garden roses and poofy hydrangea.

Coordinator Paola of Just Chic Events was calm, organized and very helpful that day. There were THREE incredible photographers capturing all the wedding goodness- Jason Q. Tran, Jonilyn, and Natalie Williams. Such a dream team! The following pictures are from Jason and Natalie’s blogs, and they perfectly capture the emotion, beauty and warmth of the day through their timeless images.

What is shabby chic? The look is antique, slightly worn, showing it’s age (hence the “shabby”) but in a completely fashionable, elegant way (hence the “chic”). According to Wikipedia, “It is a soft, relaxed, feminine, romantic way of decorating that looks comfortable and inviting.” Just in case you weren’t sure! My husband looked at the title of this post and gasped, thinking I was insulting the couple!

The Ayres Hotel in Manhattan Beach is the perfect backdrop for a shabby chic wedding- with it’s crystal chandaliers hung about, quaint cobblestone courtyard, and beautifully aged antique furniture and tapestries galore. I seriously love how this hotel is decorated, and hope my future home looks something like it!

The first look- you can just see their hearts beating! LeeAnn looked so elegant in her Monique Lhuillier Camelot gown and Twigs and Honey hair accent.

Her bouquet was just yummy. The most fragrant gardenias and freesias ever, white garden roses and majolika spray roses, orange queensday and jade roses, star-shaped bouvardia, and crisp green orchids all wrapped up with her late grandmother’s embroidered handkerchief. The perfect touch.

The altar arrangements were lush mounds of hydrangea and roses, and were just dripping with italian ruscus and seeded eucalyptus trailing down the distressed pedestal. Roses were pinned to the greenery to look like they were falling to the floor.

LeeAnn purchased these petite chandaliers to hang from the trees. (Picture taken by LeeAnn’s friend.)

The flower girl was way excited about tossing the petals. Looks like the ring bearer couldn’t resist getting his toss on! (Picture taken by LeeAnn’s friend)

The joyous walk back down the aisle. It’s hard to see in the picture, but the chairs had big clusters of hydrangea with 12 strands of different color and texture ribbons trailing to the floor. When they blew in the wind it looked so breezy and romantic.

Early on in the brainstorming process, I sketched out some centerpiece ideas for LeeAnn. We settled on some variation of the bottom right arrangements. The teeny placecard arrangements was just a wild idea I had- I’m still longing to use the 3″ tall mini ceramic urns I found. Wouldn’t it be cute if each guest received a mini urn arrangement with their names on it? Should I just move on to the next picture? Ok.

Some table details: We alternated between tall vases of hydrangea, roses and hanging amaranthus with orchid dotted curly willow, and short corset wrapped vases with roses, orchids, bouvardia and tulips.

A closer look at the short centerpieces. (Taken by LeeAnn’s friend.)

This couple did a lot of kissy kissy! That’s a good sign, isn’t it? LeeAnn is holding the darling toss bouquet.

Such a sweet picture. Piles of white hydrangea lined the edge of their sweetheart table.

Thank you LeeAnn and Geoff for your kindness and generosity. You are a classy couple, and treated me with such love and respect. May you have a blessed married life together!