Venue: Wente Vineyards, Livermore // Linens: Napa Valley Linens // Dress: Amsale, blue label // Shoes: Valentino Garavani

First published in Paris in 1818, Charlotte de La Tour’s classic Le langage des fleurs first brought floral meanings to the masses. Although meanings had long been associated with different floral specimens, the Victorians, in particular their poets and artists, used the meanings of flowers to convey messages in art, literature, and even in day-to-day settings. de La Tour’s book gathered known floral meanings rooted in ancient history and laid those meanings out, creating a reference guide that we still draw from today. While we no longer attend balls carrying nosegays that can indicate if we are unattached or not, we can definitely use the lost language of flowers to convey meaning through a simple gift.

Photography by Bonnie Tsang
Floral Styling + Text by Lauryl Lane
Graphic Design by MaeMae Paperie
Location at Palihouse, West Hollywood

Floral meaning resources:
Victoria’s Dictionary of Flowers
Wikipedia Language of Flowers
FlowerMeaning.org

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!

Photography: Shannen Norman Photography // Event Planner: Events by Evelynn // Floral Designer: Rae Florae // Reception Venue: Temecula Creek Inn // Cake Designer: Sweet Layers Cakes & Pastries // DJ: LSM Entertainment Inc. and DJ Tasos

Wishing you all a wonderful Mother’s Day!

From the bride, Kaitlyn:

Tyler and I met when we were 19 through friends, but I was dating someone at the time and he was too shy to even really speak to me. As time passed I became single and he got a little more courage. We reconnected when I was invited to go bowling with a bunch of his friends. I got there first and when I saw Tyler he had a “Hi my name is” sticker on his chest. It just said his name, Tyler Fox. A couple minutes later he walked over to me and stuck a “Hi my name is” sticker on my jacket. I looked down and it said “Beautifu Girl.” Yes, he forgot the L. We started laughing and it broke the ice for us. The rest was history. We were dating for about two years when I got pregnant with our daughter, Rory, and decided to make it official a year later. Because of our untraditional path I wanted to make our wedding perfect for us, and not focus on what we were “supposed” to do.

I took to the blogs for inspiration and I first found our venue, The Marvimon, in Los Angeles. It was so perfect and had amazing lighting it made me picture our event at night. The rest fell into place when the team and Marvimon handed over their preferred vendors list. I researched the vendors online and met with my favorites first. We got so lucky that everyone was available and we loved them all! It was almost too easy. Everyone was familiar with the venue and really listened to my ideas and suggested even greater ones. The photographer was amazing (obviously!), the food was easy and delicious, our coordinator was also from the caterer and by the end of everything I sort of wanted to marry her. She organized and organized and had a thousand phone conversations just trying to make it perfect for us, down to what snacks and drinks we wanted in our “hide out” room between the ceremony and the reception. Because Tyler and I aren’t so religious our officiant was booked about a month before our wedding date and we picked a poem for her to read before saying our vows. Our DJ was awesome and felt the crowd to keep the party rolling and knew how to slow it down for dinner and cake. For the record, I fully admit his playlist was better than mine, but that’s his job and I let him take the lead on it. He knew what he was doing!

My favorite part of the planning had to be the flowers. Stephanie from SEED Floral really knows how to arrange! The Marvimon is such an amazing space in itself that we didn’t want to take away from it with too much color so I picked a lot of white and soft pinks, I had to have those yellow craspedias though, along with a punch of dark blue, which I was so amazed by when I saw what she found. Flowers were the most important thing to me because I feel like they make each event unique and give a lot of warmth to a space. She even made a flower head wreath for our daughter to wear. My mother and now mother-in-law were so great in helping the process along and really let us stay with the style we had envisioned. My mother was not exactly thrilled with my choice of a short dress, but when I saw it on another blog I just had to have it and when I tried it on we both really loved it. We would have been lost without their experience and input, and are so lucky to have such loving families.

Flowers: SEED Floral // Caterers & Day of Coordination: Eco Caters // Rentals: Town and Country // Cake: Vanilla Bake Shop // Venue: Marvimon // Dress: Melissa Sweet // Hair: Hair by Lindsey Neavitt // Makeup: Whitney Kelsey // Photography: Picotte Weddings

On the links below, you can click to see all vendor credits and to see more of the shoot!

Sources left to right, top to bottom: 1. Kiss the Groom 2. Laura Kinsey via Wedding Chicks 3. Polka Dot Bride 4. Grey Likes Weddings 5. Lover.ly invite shot by Elizabeth Messina 6. Laura Kinsey via Wedding Chicks 7. Wedding Chicks 8. The Bride’s Cafe 9. Grey Likes Weddings

If you love the idea of learning how to shoot weddings for publication, we’ve got some exciting news! We’ve just announced the release of our next Shoot This Not That workshop, which will take place October 10th and 11th in Montecito, California. The workshop will be a two day expansion on the short two hour intro that I taught with Jasmine. Not only will we go into further detail about the concrete steps you can take to aid you in publication, but we’ll also allow you the opportunity to work hands on with editorial material and industry pros. Plus, you’ll have the rare opportunity to get in deptch feedback on your very own submissions to find out what you might be missing and how you can improve to meet editorial standards! To find out more about our workshop and all that we’ll be covering and including, check out Shoot This Not That. Be sure to nab a seat before we fill up!

Now, without further ado, a very special recap of Creative Live! Very special thanks for Jasmine Star for sharing her gorgeous images and for being such a generous teacher! Also, major props to designer Kelsey Eads of Sugarcomb for all styling! To see more images of this shoot and find out more about what went into the creative development, be sure to head over to Jasmine’s blog!

Resources — Styling and Design: Kelsey Eads of Sugarcomb // Flowers: Meghan Stoller of Mum Floral Design // Cake: Kara Burfeind of The Sweet Side  // Paper Goods: Todd Karam of TKTJ Designs // Linens & Pillows: Susan Trenery of Susan’s Couture // Hair & Makeup: Tiffany Lowry of Tiffany Colors // Fashion: Sherri Garcia of Styled Seattle // Photographer: Jasmine of Jasmine Star Photography // Bride’s Dress: Jim Hjelm provided by La Belle Elaine’s in Seattle // All accessories, hair piece, necklaces and bracelet made by Sally Crew (exclusive to La Belle Elaine’s) // Bridesmaids: Dress and headband from Banana Republic // Groom and groomsmen: complete looks from Men’s Wearhouse.

One of my favorite parts of Traveler’s Joy is that you get to register for big ticket items, like a $500 camera, and then break up the cost into multiple gifts of $100.

I really think honeymoon registries are so great, especially because you can really personalize the experience for friends and family who want to contribute to your trip! The sky is the limit, so I love the idea of adventurous hiking excursions…

…mountaintop picnics…

…or just simply extra time on the island.

Setting up your registry is SUPER quick and easy, so head here to get started. You can also read some of the members’ stories for a little honeymoon inspiration!

Photography: Marin Kristine // Venue: Ledgewood Creek Winery // The Jewelry: Eternal Eden and Rachelle’s Jewelry Box // My favor boxes: RunEllieRun // The home brew beer was made and bottled by: Kevin and Kelly Presley // The Dress was made by: Joan Brumbach (Aunt) // The corsages, boutonnières, and center pieces were made by Elizabeth Duran (mom) and Lee Baszczewski (Groom’s mom) // The “Eat”, “Drink”, and “Be Married” signs were made by Mitchell Duran (Father of the Bride) // The cake: Custom Cakes by Lindsey // Bouquets: made by the bride // Hair clips: Duchess of Dork (bride’s Etsy shop)