Grey Likes Weddings

A few weeks ago, I had the incredible opportunity of attending an “Edible Auditing”, hosted by the most chic caterer, Room Forty. Alexa of Sterling Engagements designed the entire event, and I was absolutely bowled over! I sat with some of the industry’s best wedding planners and ogled over all the genius and inspiration ideas! Are you ready for some spectacular pretties and ideas (all shot by the absolutely wonderful Ryan Garvin Photography)?

First up, check out the beautiful invites design by Prim and Prixie:

Vibiana is the most stunning possible venue in existence!

All the florals by Shawna Yamamoto Event Design were jaw dropping. I loved that the decor was very inspired by the food! You can see a Kale arrangement, and an artichoke below. There were also bunches of rosemary and mint scattered along the table. We even received herbs to plan as part of our favor.

Room Forty also has a mixologist on staff who creates custom drinks for pairings! This “Orangerie Punch Bowl” cocktail featured hibiscus, jasmine and even included an edible flower as a garnish!

I love how Room Forty serves their food! And it’s hilarious on the right–do you see all of us shooting the food with our phones??? It was just so beautiful!

Below are my two favorite elements of our TEN course meal! On the left is just the garnish for a delicious soup. The actual soup part was poured at the table out of a beautiful pitcher! What fun! On the right is a whiskey cocktail that had real smoke wafting out of the glass. What an amazing experience to really grasp the smokiness in the whiskey. I’m not much of a whiskey lover, but it was an amazing cocktail!

All the napkins embroidered with lace and place mats were created just for the event by Dahlia of Designer Specialty Linens.

We enjoyed live classical guitar from ESPIMUSIC Entertainment. It was amazing!

A little gift box to take home, which was delicious salad elements, home made vinaigrette and a recipe!

Below left is a shot of Steve, the force behind Room Forty, and me after our meal. I was so full, I barely made it home!

It’s always amazing to share with you the best of the best in the industry, and give you a chance to see what vendors can dream up if you give them room to dream with you! These are also amazing vendors to contact if you are in the industry, or a bride planning a wedding!

I’m super excited to announce that I’ll be making a guest appearance on Creative Live tomorrow with Jasmine Star! I’ll have the chance to discuss what editors are looking for when it comes to getting your weddings published. We’re going to get into the nitty gritty, have a great time, and even give away something super amazing! Be sure to join us starting tomorrow! Check out the course outline here and head here to tune in LIVE for free!

That’s right, my wonderful photographer friends! We’re teaming up with our rad friends over at Miller’s Lab for another giveaway! You can win a spot to our next Shoot This Not That Workshop on November 2nd in Orange County, California. All you need to do is tweet! Send a shout out to @MillersLab, @GreyLikes, and @STNTWorkshop. You can copy and paste the tweet here:

“  Hey @MillersLab, send me to @STNTworkshop with @GreyLikes. Just RT to enter!  “

If you’ve already signed up, not to worry! You can still enter and win back your tuition. To find out more about the workshop, check out the site here. Can’t wait to see you in November!

To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is tweet once a day! We’ll announce our winner next week! Good luck!

I am so so so so excited to officially announce that we’ve set a date for our next Shoot This Not That Workshop. Our first one was absurdly awesome. You can see recaps here, here, here and here (oh…and here and here too!). Our attendees LOVED the experience and learned tons…like, TONS! Not to brag or anything, but you can read what a few had to say here.

If you are a photographer and want to see more of your work published (thereby booking more weddings in the process) then this workshop is a must! For our second time around, we’ve decided to offer a one day option, which we think offers even more value and makes it easier for you to join us. We let our mailing list know first, so several spots have already been snapped up. There is limited availability, so definitely reserve a seat asap!

We hope to see you in OC on November 2nd!

*Images above by Trever Hoehne and styled by Summer Watkins.

Happy Thursday!

Today, I wanted to share a little sneak peek into what we have planned for our Shoot This Not That Workshop. First up, I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be teaming up with The Collection Event Studio. This is a team of gals who offer a VAST array of resources for any bride getting married in wine country. They are the perfect compliment to our workshop and I absolutely cannot wait to work with their team of vendors! When we met over skype, I felt kind of like a bride planning her wedding, wandering aimlessly without any resources. All of a sudden, here is this insanely awesome network of vendors ready to jump in and make everything come to life. If you are getting married anywhere near northern California, call these girls!

With the guidance of Emily and Shaunna of The Collection Event Studio, we’ve landed upon an AMAZING venue for our photo shoot and wine dinner. Our mock wedding shoot will seamlessly turn into a wine tasting dinner, featuring a custom wine and food pairing. Scribe Winery will be hosting us and I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to unleash photographers on this place that is so full of gorgeous details.

Images from a collection of images by Ellie Grover, Lori Paladino & Rebecca Gosselin. Top left image via Food and Wine Magazine.

I’m also really excited that we’re working on the opportunity to bring on the talents of Lidia of La Fleuriste. Her work is incredibly inspiring, so it will be a thrill to team up!

Images above by Jose Villa. Bottom left image from a collection of images by Ellie Grover, Lori Paladino & Rebecca Gosselin.

We’ve got other culinary destinations (read: more great stuff to shoot!!) planned as well. One that I’m really excited about is brunch at Fremont Diner…a wine country staple. This place is full of down home charm and again, full of so many opportunities to shoot AND eat.

Bottom two images on left by Carlie of Deliciously Organized via Enjoy Events Blog.

On top of all that, we’ve got some fun goodies for our photographers once they arrive. One that I’m particularly excited about is a giveaway from Totally Rad Actions, who will be giving away some goodies to our attendees!

All in all, we’re gearing up for a monumental occasion that will be monumental…both for photographers as well as brides–we’ll be coming back with loads of inspiring images and vendor resources! We still have a few slots left, so if you’re a photographer and want to join in for crazy learning, gorgeous inspiration to shoot, and way too much good food, now’s the time!