Colleen & Skylar :: Romance in the Redwoods

Colleen and Skylar were married this year in beautiful Woodside, California. The wedding took place at The Family Farm, an exclusive men's club, where access is limited to members only. In order to use the property for events, you must know a member, and they must agree to sponsor you to let you use the facilities. In this case, the bride's grandfather is a member so Colleen and Skylar were able to take advantage of this exclusive picturesque paradise for their celebration. Out of respect for the men's club, we're not able to show specific property photos, but we can show you all the pretty little details that made this wedding amongst the redwoods a very nice affair.

Floral Design: J Floral Art 
Linens: La Tavola Fine Linens 
Quartet: Golden Gate Music 
DJ: Brad Kinney Productions 

Cindy & Jon :: A Quintessential San Francisco Wedding

Over the Memorial Day holiday, I had the pleasure of being a part of Cindy and Jon's amazing wedding celebration. The ideal venue for this quintessential San Francisco wedding was the Legion of Honor, a bay area institution. The couple chose this venue because they wanted to be married outside, with views of their favorite running spots in the city: Land's End, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Marin. Inside, the galleries full of Rodin sculptures were the perfect setting to compliment the vintage San Francisco theme for the celebration (and let's be honest, how amazing is it to be able to dance in the presence of such notable art? Good choice!). Tables were named for iconic San Francisco streets, peacock feathers accented the floral centerpieces created by the one and only Nancy Liu Chin, and even the bridesmaids' hair pieces added to the vintage look and styling.

To give a warm welcome to their wedding guests, most of whom traveled from out of state to attend, Cindy's father made a wooden sign with arrows pointing to each location where guests came from, and noted the distance as well. And, to make that welcome just a bit warmer, the couple included mini homemade pies as dessert. Nothing says "welcome in!" like apple pie!

Congratulations Cindy and Jon. You're one classy couple.

Venue: Legion of Honor
Event Coordinator: Charmed Events Group 
Floral Design: Nancy Liu Chin Designs 
2nd Shooter: Rana Faure 
Cake Designer: The Cake Maker 
Mini-Pies: Sweet Luna Desserts
Custom Caramels: Barbary Brix
Catering: Melons Catering 
Cellist: Beth Snellings

Dina & Andy :: An Intimate Wine Country Wedding

Nestled in Sonoma, California, Viansa Winery was the ideal location for Dina and Andy's intimate wine country wedding celebration. This wedding was beauty in it's simplest form. If you're not familiar with Enchanted Weddings, you should know that Event Coordinator Jackie Jones Wilson plans and coordinates small, unique, boutique-type weddings that are a joy to be a part of. Dina and Andy's wedding proves you don't need to have a million guests to make your wedding special. You can have just as much love, support and fun with your nearest and dearest on hand to celebrate with you.

Other things I love about this wedding...

...When you see Dina as a bride, you go "Oh my gosh, she's so beautiful." And then when you put your camera up to photograph her, you see this beautiful face and jaw line and then you're like "Oh my gosh, she is drop dead gorgeous!" Seriously, she's model-quality!

...The kids! Dina's daughter and Andy's son were so happy. I loved the part of the ceremony when Dina and Andy circled with the kids and sealed their commitment as a family.

...The choice of table decor...white linens are always so classic and clean and they're beautiful in simplicity. The size and quality of orchids used to accent the tables and cake were perfect.

...And finally the food. You're in Sonoma so of course the catering is going to be mouth-watering yumminess with fresh, local, seasonal ingredients. Kudos to Sage Catering!

Venue: Viansa Winery

Event Coordinator: Enchanted Weddings

Floral Designer: Dandelion Floral Art

Catering: Sage Catering

Cake: Fleur de Lisa

Officiant: Your Ceremony Matters

DJ: California Mobile DJ

Amanda & Noah :: Happy Tears in Tahoe

The title of this blog describes the happy tears of joy that were falling from every eye during Amanda and Noah's beautiful wedding ceremony in Lake Tahoe. All the guests were so thrilled, and their happiness for the couple was touching. The intimate wedding ceremony was officiated by Amanda's uncle and the bride and groom wrote their own vows.

During the reception, the tables were set up so as to foster connecting all the friends and family, as opposed to isolating them to their own tables. The small cakes were also to encourage people to move along the tables and sample other cakes. This idea emerged since Amanda has food allergies, and since she'd be ordering her own small cake, she thought it would be fun to have lots of different flavors as opposed to the traditional cake. They were so cute and scrumptious-looking. And of course, a big hit with the guests.

Amanda's family added their own flavor to the reception with their musical talents. They decided to surprise the newlyweds during the reception with a song written by Amanda's mom, performed by her and Amanda's dad and three sets of aunts and uncles. The song outlined how the couple had met and included funny inside jokes about their relationship. 

As for the location, Amanda and Noah chose Lake Tahoe for their destination wedding becaue they wanted a fun, outdoorsy place for family and friends to visit since everyone would be traveling for the celebration. They encouraged guests to rent houses instead of staying in hotels so they could truly embrace the the laid-back Tahoe vibe.

Special thanks to all the wedding vendors...wedding coordinator Shannon Morse for being so nice to work with and floral designer Martha Bernyk. And Jennifer Bronston of Cups and Cakes must be mentioned because she created those pretty cakes that you'll see below. I know Amanda was so pleased with all of the vendors for the work they did to make her wedding day amazing.

Coordinator: Weddings by Shannon
Venue: Lodge at Tahoe Donner
Floral Designer: Martha Bernyk
Hair: Elysse Lee 
Makeup: Kari Addison 

Congratulations Amanda and Noah!!

Melissa & Yasuo :: 300 Love Letters

Melissa and Yasuo have a classic and almost old-fashioned love story. I have to thank Melissa right off the bat for writing me a beautiful essay about their romance so that I could share it here. Anything in quotation marks is written by Melissa. Here's how it starts: Melissa, a spunky, sophisticated Chinese-American girl lived on one side of the ocean and Yasuo, a young Tokyo business manager lived in Japan. They met through a mutual friend who insisted on a group date in Tokyo. Afterward, Yasuo finally mustered the courage to ask Melissa out to dinner for English lessons. "Being from different worlds didn't stop their chemistry. Yasuo pursued Melissa with daily surprises, and Melissa brought Yasuo out of his comfort zone and on countless adventures."

"But soon, Melissa and Yasuo would be separated by an ocean. Yasuo attempted to proclaim that marriage was certainly in their future, but Melissa set Yasuo on the seemingly impossible task to write 300 handwritten letters before it could happen. Though unspoken, something inside both of them knew that the “international long distance relationship” was something they could conquer together. Somewhere between moving over 5,000 miles from Japan, learning English, getting to know Melissa’s culture and family, and proposing under the Golden Gate Bridge with a Ziplock bag of cherry blossoms in hand, Yasuo completed his 300th letter to Melissa."

"On May 6, their wedding day, they both read their 300^th letters to one another as their wedding vows in front of family and friends gathered at Cavallo Point – the Lodge at the Golden Gate in Sausalito, California."

Congratulations to Melissa and Yasuo. May your love be never-ending!

Ceremony: Cavallo Point Chapel :: Reception: Cavallo Point Callippe Ballroom
2nd shooter: Kevin Meynell :: Flowers: Naco Floral Art 
Cupcakes: Lynda Vuong :: Hair/Makeup: Juan Li, Elite Stylist
Lighting: Swank AV :: Photobooth: MNM Photobooths
DJ: DJ Trixx :: Ceremony/Cocktail Music: Quartetto Fabrizio 

Melissa + Yasuo Engagement Session :: Hotspots in San Francisco