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!

First up for today is Erin (the beautiful photographer behind Lovisa Photo) and Grant’s sunny sweet wedding with simple details, a gorgeous bridal party, and lush florals! I think my favorite element, however, are the groomsmen’s suits! Fabulous! All these gorgeous images shot by Shannen Norman Photography.

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

Happy Mother’s Day, loveliest ladies! This beautiful image of the bride, Jillian and her mom comes to us from Paul Von Rieter, who beautifully captured a cherished moment we’ve never seen shot so well. To see more of this wedding, head here.

Wishing you all a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Photographers, Picotte Weddings, sent Kaitlyn and Tyler’s STUNNING Marvimon wedding over to us and we could not WAIT to share it with you! Everything from the short Melissa Sweet dress to all the stunning blooms by SEED Floral are perfect. And what is going on with that bathtub of gold hearts? Because they’ve stolen my heart, quite literally. I think one of my favorites parts about Kaitlyn’s story below is that she used blogs as the guiding force behind her planning. That’s my kind of bride!

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

Ladies!!! Have you been to Lover.ly lately? We are absolutely OBSESSED!!! My favorite feature of Lover.ly is the ability to search by color–and of course unlike any other image search engine, the images are perfectly curated and only from the best wedding sources! Here’s what we found on a hunt for pink (oh–and a tiny little peek at the ring section too. AHHH!!!)

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