I just happened to look at my blog’s stats yesterday… And noticed a new referrer. And clicked through. And realized that Kara’s Party Ideas – one of my favorite party planning blogs – featured Desmond’s Circus-Themed 1st Birthday Party!!! I just submitted it earlier this month and thought, “Well, it’s worth a shot!” And they obviously liked it!!! I.am.so.excited!!!! Go check it out and leave us some love in the comments!!! 😉
Thank you so much, Kara, for the awesome feature!!!
I am so grateful for my amazing clients! It’s because of them that I can say that my first year of business has been an incredibly successful one. And it’s because of them that I can say that I am almost booked through the summer!
It’s incredible, really, to think that with a minuscule marketing/advertising budget and clients who have found me primarily through referrals, word-of-mouth, and Yelp, that I’ve been lucky enough to find amazing, incredible, wonderful clients. Clients enough that I’m thisclose to being booked solid until the end of the summer.
I have room for up to three more weddings during the first six months of the year. Just three more weddings! So I thought I’d run a special.
Through January 15th, anyone who books a wedding with me during the last two weeks of February, first two weeks of March, or last two weeks of May will receive a 10% discount off any planning, coordination, or design service.
If you or a friend are planning your wedding during those times, please contact me to take advantage of this special deal!
And of course, I’m still booking weddings in August 2012 and beyond, so e-mail me for availability! 🙂
I absolutely adore this couple. I enjoyed every second of working with them, and I hope we can continue to be foodie friends! 🙂 Unfortunately even though they’re completely gorgeous, they’re also camera shy. So they’ve asked me specifically not to feature any photos showing their faces or those of any of their guests. As a result, today’s blog post will only feature photos of the wedding details! Never fear, though – they’re beautiful!
This Rancho Palos Verdes wedding was all about Los Angeles. From the food trucks which served guests dinner and dessert to the table names, made from photos of street signs in the couples’ favorite neighborhoods, the laid-back personal style of this couple and their love for their city was evident throughout. The wedding’s overall feel was handmade but modern, relaxed and celebratory, and the couple was sure to include lots of fun and thoughtful elements. They wanted to make the day comfortable and fun, with an emphasis on family, friends, and food. The wedding itself took place in the groom’s parents’ home, with the cocktail reception, photo booth area, and food truck service in the front yard, the cake in the dining room, and the dinner in the back yard. This entire wedding was put together in just under three months, and the bride and groom’s amazing family members all pitched in to help out.
An enormous thank you to the amazing Heidi Ryder for sending me these lovelies with such a quick turnaround time (and for re-sending them when I needed it!). The full vendor list is below.
First, the program. The wedding invitation (which is now featured here) was a colorful cut-paper affair (the guestbook, below, matches it). But the bride wanted the rest of the wedding day details to be modern and understated, with the look of being handmade. Yes, these ideas can coexist. I’ll show in a later post how we tied the whole thing together, but for now, isn’t this pretty?
One of the groom’s aunts put together all of the flowers for the day (including corsages, boutonnieres, a crown for the flower girl, and these lovely bouquets!):
The ceremony was at a local church; following the ceremony, the bride and groom took photos on the beach while their guests mingled at their cocktail hour, which featured a fun photo booth area.
The morning of the wedding, as we were setting up the photo booth area, I decided that there needed to be something a little more special in the background, so I whipped up some tissue poms. They added just the right touch!
A friend of the bride’s had created papercut art for their wedding invitation; she used elements of the original artwork, plus the kraft paper used in the other printed materials for the day, to create this amazing handmade guestbook!
To welcome guests into the reception, the bride asked for a chalk board. I made this out of a spare cupboard door, and created some artwork to mimic the birds on the wedding invitation and guestbook.
We used belly bars in the front yard to allow guests a space to stand and eat, and the bride requested menus at each table. The mother and aunt of the groom spent a weekend putting together countless succulent pots to decorate the tables for both the cocktail hour and the reception. Each pot was filled with a mixture of plants. The pots in the back yard all matched, while the ones in the front yard were unique. It’s little elements like this that I just love.
The back yard was transformed from a simple grass area into the perfect party. Ambiance AV provided white globe lights to make the space magical.
The same very talented friend of the bride who created the invitation artwork and the guestbook put together this fun seating chart!
You may have noticed the table names on the seating cards. For anyone not familiar with Los Angeles, they’re the names of neighborhoods in the city. The bride and groom are UCLA alums, and have lived in the city for years, and they just love where they live. They made table names from photos of the street signs in their favorite neighborhoods – the resulting table names were a big hit!
Another of the groom’s talented aunts baked and decorated the walnut wedding cake with cream cheese frosting. It was incredible!
The bride and groom are huge foodies and knew that they wanted to feature food trucks at their wedding. They contracted with Kogi for a dinner of Korean tacos and Coolhaus for a dessert (yes, there was cake and dessert!) of ice cream sandwiches, including brown butter and bacon ice cream!
E+D, thank you so much for letting me be a part of your special day! I adored all the fun little details, the personal touches, and the love that you put in to every single element of your wedding!!
Thank you to the team of amazing professional vendors, below:
I was at Disneyland on Tuesday (and, um, I’m going back tomorrow for a bachelorette party… no, I didn’t plan it that way) and walking down Main Street U.S.A. started getting my creative juices going. I created this inspiration board for an old-fashioned Fourth-of-July party that would also be appropriate for a summer birthday or wedding. I can imagine serving a beautiful picnic lunch and making homemade ice cream in a vintage hand-crank ice cream maker (ok, actually, that would be really difficult, as cool as it would look!), and listening to a Barbershop Quartet or an old-fashioned band. The perfect setting for this party would be a pretty green park – especially if there were a gazebo where you could hang the bunting!
Born on the Fourth of July Inspiration Board - Events by Elisa
Image credits (clockwise, from top left): Bliss Weddings Market, 4 In a Bar, Giggleberry Creations, Bouquet Bridal, Elizabeth Anne Designs, The Darling Bee, Jasperdo’s Flickr Stream, My Finer Consigner, North 60’s Flickr Stream, Events Wholesale, Pool and Patio.
Maybe it’s the dismal weather we’ve had today: clouds, wind, and rain… Maybe I’m just really looking forward to summer… But my latest inspiration board creation is sort of inspired by Tuscany and Provence, and features a gorgeous sunny yellow color contrasted by deep blues. I’d love to plan this party for a bridal or baby shower, or a birthday party!
Sunflowers and Lemonade Inspiration Board
Image credits (clockwise, from top left): Hostess with the Mostess, Tickled Pink, Kara’s Party Ideas, Recipe Bloom, Country Living, Dit49’s Flickr Photo Stream, Wrapped in Happiness (but the photo was taken by Charlotte Geary), A French Tablecloth, Pink Cake Box, The Sweetest Occasion.
Events by Elisa 