Button Theme Wedding at Abbington Banquets

Cat and Matt's wedding is a fantastic example of traditional day that used slight touches of vintage elements and unique details.

The bride collected lots of buttons to incorporate on her bouquet, programs, and reception gift boxes.  It was a creative touch, and absolutely gave their wedding a unique button theme without going overboard with buttons. They were used on a few key DIY projects that the bride and her friends were able to manage, and was executed perfectly as a memorable theme.

Cat's classic diamonds and pearls jewelry, and authentic heirloom pieces also created a vintage feel. A flower pin handed down from her grandmother was used in the bouquet, as well as borrowed family handkerchief. The bride wore a lovely pastel peachy cream and floral detailed Maggie Sottero gown, with bridesmaids wearing short black dresses punched with candy apple red shoes and vibrant red, pink and peach bouquets. 

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The ceremony took place at Gary United Methodist Church in Wheaton, Illinois. Our favorite moments included the young flower girl handing out daisies to guests sitting on the end of the aisle, and the baby ring bearer towed in a red wagon by his big brother.  So cute!

Any time we are near Cantigny Gardens in Wheaton, it is one of our favorite locations for wedding portraits.  It is of course a lush garden park in warmer months, but is also beautiful during cooler times of year.  On this visit we were lucky enough to spot a robust turkey roaming the grounds!

For this larger reception, Abbington Distinctive Banquets in Glen Ellyn provided guests with a classic elegant setting, and as always at this venue, the service and cuisine were lovely.  The venue also provided event services including the cake, sweet table, decor and flowers. The button theme was delicately showcased with in reception details with the escort cards and guest gift boxes placed on the tables.

A wonderful moment at the reception was the toast given by the best man.  He still had this piece of paper given to him by the groom years ago when they were kids.  It was an "I.O.U." for a favor owed to him by the groom.  Note to any best men out there....if you have some kind of sentimental relic from your past with the groom, borrow this idea.  There was not a dry eye in the house.

Toast and Jam DJ Natalie opened the dancing portion of the evening with Cat and Matt's first dance to "Stand By Me," father and daughter song "You Are My Sunshine," and mother and son song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Rainy Day Wedding at Hotel Palomar Chicago

Corrine and Jeremy's rainy wedding day would have tested any couple's emotions, but this couple did not let the rain get them down.  In fact, they were perfect examples of how to accept the uncontrollable, and did not let the rain, which was quite heavy at times, dampen their spirits.  They followed our typical advice for rainy days:

1. Embrace the dramatic weather and creative possibilities it brings.

2. Have indoor options for a "plan B" during your portrait time.  Corrine and Jeremy wanted to use the CTA subway for a more gritty look, and also we called their favorite museum to get permission to take portraits there.

3. Cute umbrellas brighten up any rainy wedding day, and can actually make it fun.

4. In Chicago, often you can wait out the worst weather and still find a few minutes to go outside in between waives of rain showers.  As we say, if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes.

5. If you do get upset by the rain, allow yourself 5 minutes to pout, then let it go so you can enjoy the rest of your special day.

But, Corrine and Jeremy's wedding day was not defined by the weather.  They had a lovely modern vintage style, with the bride wearing a beautiful Pronovias wedding gown, Badgley Mischka light blue shoes, birdcage veil, and her signature white gloves.  The groom wore a J. Crew tuxedo, and bridesmaids dresses were peacock blue in shimmery satin. Their overall style was loosely based on the book and movie The Great Gatsby.

Rev. Dave Angle performed the ceremony at Hotel Palomar in Chicago, which was immediately followed by reception, catered by the hotel's Sabel Restaurant.  Alliance Bakery made the wedding cake, and Keith Davis handled floral design.

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Wedding Creativo Wedding Polaroids

When I set up our Polaroid cameras and props at Annmarie and Kirk's wedding, I literally had FIVE SECONDS to take a picture of the table before all the kids attacked! Which is proof positive that instant cameras = instant hit at weddings, especially with kids.  It is fun to see the "wow" look on the faces of children when the print comes out of the camera, and also adults who remember using Polaroid cameras from back in the day.

We offer our collection of Polaroid cameras as a fun reception activity as an optional add on to our regular wedding photography coverage. 

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Wedding Photography FAQ: What is professional image processing?

I think professional image editors (including us) must have a bit of OCD.  It takes a lot of patience and focus to get the results we find satisfactory, especially on more challenging images.  Competent and consistent image editing/processing is one way really good photographers set themselves apart from the pack.  Finding a photographer that is equally talented at processing as they are at shooting is well worth the investment that hiring an experienced professional typically costs. 

If high quality wedding (and portrait) photography is a priority for you, and something you're able to make as one of your top wedding expenses (around 10-15% of total budget), this is one wedding cost that most couples do not regret later when they receive outstanding wedding pictures that they cherish for generations.

Overall, Wedding Creativo aims for images to have a polished look, without being over-processed or gimmicky, especially for portraits.  Our goal is for images to NOT appear re-touched, but rather look more natural.  We think the pictures below show a good example of processing work we did for a wedding day portrait.  We took this on a gray rainy day in front of the legendary Wrigley Field, which unfortunately had tons of paper, garbage and cigarette litter all around.  (If Chicago had some kind of sidewalk cleaning crew, our jobs would be so much easier, ha ha.)

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Saint Andrew and W Chicago Lakeshore Wedding of Michelle and Steve

The city of Chicago played an important role in Michelle and Steve's courtship, so they wanted the city to have a significant role on their wedding day, especially with their portraits. We helped them plan an extended schedule with sufficient time at several of their favorite locations and city backdrops. 

From the skyline, to the zoo, to Steve's beloved Wrigley field, and even the porch steps of their Wrigleyville home, we had a whirlwind tour around Chicago.  For any couples interested in this kind of "city safari" for their wedding day, keep in mind that for sure you need to see each other before the ceremony to have enough time necessary for the extensive traveling.  For this many locations you'll need to dedicate a significant amount of time, at least a few hours of your wedding day schedule, for going around to multiple locations and then time to take portraits and walk around at those locations, especially if the bridal party is also coming along on a trolley or party bus.  Another option is to have a lengthy multi-location session on another date following your wedding. We're always thrilled to do creative portraits with our couples at amazing locations, and we always help plan and schedule that part of the day for an organized and optimally relaxing and fun experience.

Michelle and Steve had a modern style autumn wedding, with black and hot pink colors.  The cake had an elaborate fondant ruffle design to match the cute flower girls dresses.  The ceremony was held at the beautiful St. Andrew Catholic Church with a chic evening reception at W Chicago Lakeshore hotel where the guests were surrounded with views of the city skyline and Lake Michigan.

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Wedding Photo of the Week: Have Fun No Matter What

Attention wedding shoppers...be sure to bring loads of fun on your big day! 

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With all of the months (often well over a year) of hard work involved with planning your wedding, it is easy to become overwhelmed with the process and forget that this whole thing is about having a special celebration with your sweetheart and all of your favorite people in the world. 

We always tell couples, no matter what, just have fun.  Marissa and Alex were great at espousing this attitude.  Drenching thunderstorms rolled through right at the time we were scheduled to head out to the park for their bridal party and family portraits.  While we waited out the storm (and on the way to plan B), the couple decided to make a stop at a store for some quick refreshments. Let's just say we all got swept away with having way more fun than anyone should have in a supermarket.  But, the bottom line, they didn't let the storms ruin their wedding day fun.

Expect the unexpected, and often when we improvise off of the planned schedule it can be one of the most memorable parts of the day.

Wedding Photo of the Week: Alone Time

While the mini party following the ceremony on the trolley with the bridal party is always a fun, we also like when the limo ride to the reception is just for the newlyweds.  It is really romantic, and nice to have some alone time before celebrating the night away with family and friends.

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Van Gogh Inspired Wedding at St Ignatius and Hyatt

Marla and Greg were inspired by the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh for their traditional Chicago wedding.   The swirling night hues of purple and blues with twinkling yellow stars seen in the famous paintings, "Starry Night" and "Starry Night Over The Rhone" were incorporated into a varieity of details for this wedding.  From the bouquet flowers to the blue and yellow tea lights hanging from the manzanita branches around the reception, the theme gave everyone the sense that they were in a real life version of the paintings, which the couple had on display as guetst entered their reception held at the Hyatt Regency Woodfield.

There was also a promenent Spanish influence, as the bride's ruffled dress, lace veil and traditional Spanish ceremony at St. Ignatius church reflected her family heritage.  The happy couple live across the street from Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, so we also went to some of their favorite spots around the park for portraits before heading to their lovely reception.

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Wedding Photo of the Week: Bandages are Wedding Essentials

Essentials for the wedding day survival bag: bandages.  Without fail every wedding needs them.  If you do love shoe fashions, regardless of the pain, check out our post from earlier this week on 2011 wedding shoe trends.

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Wedding Photo of the Week: Taking it Easy

We always try and keep the portrait portions of the wedding day as painless and stress-free as possible. But some days, especially hot summer days, it can be a challenge for bridal parties to muster up the energy and enthusiasm during the portrait time.

It is never a good idea to be overly ambitious in the limited time frame we have for portraits on any wedding day, but especially not when when temperatures are soaring and bridal party patience can be limited.  With a good and realistic game plan in place, we are able to do plenty of creative as well as traditional portraits at a relaxed pace and also keep stress levels down.  We work with each couple well in advance of the wedding to come up with specific ideas, but also tips specific to the time of the year.  For example, for summer weddings, it is also a good idea to have plenty of water and a few salty snacks available on the trolley (or other transportation) to help replenish folks after the portraits are finished.  The best transportation companies always provide water and other drinks, but it doesn't hurt to grab a few extra bottles, some salty nuts or other snacks, and even a roll of paper towels to throw in for good measure.

Creative Spotlight: Zuzu's Petals

Every time a bell rings a bride is happy with her bouquet and flowers by event florists Natalie Willett and Dan Mitchell at Zuzu's Petals.  We have enjoyed their work for quite a while and wanted to spotlight the lovely job they recently did for a wedding we photographed in June for bride and groom Megan and Luke.  We love peonies, so we especially enjoyed the Zuzu's Petals floral work for this wedding. We'll have a full feature about this beautiful day coming soon.

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Anniversary Gift Idea: a unique moment framed

Kyle and Steffanie recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, (congratulations you two!) and to commemorate the special day, Kyle contacted us about a month in advance about making a special print for his lovely wife. 

Instead of a traditional wedding day portrait he picked out a small special moment that meant a lot to Steffanie.  You see, while she was getting ready on her wedding morning, this cute monarch butterfly landed on the window right in front of her.  It sat there for a few minutes giving her a big smile while she was getting her hair and makeup done.  It was a magic moment for her, and thankfully the little guy stayed on the window long enough for us to catch him grinning.

The best part about this story is that Steffanie contacted us a few weeks later wanting to order this same picture! We had to come up with an elaborate rouse to try and stall her to not spoil Kyle's surprise, which I knew was going to be disappointing at the time, but that soon enough her husband was going to get lots of kisses on their anniversary and that she would understand what the deal was.  We all had a great laugh, and most of all, it was great to see how these newlyweds were so in tune with each other's heartstrings.

It is always wonderful when something unexpected happens to make a wedding day all the more special, and these little surprise moments are sometimes the things that people remember most about their day.  It is a great idea to have something like this as a unique way to look back on the wedding, and makes for a fantastic anniversary gift!

Kate and Christopher's Italian and Latin Style Chicago Wedding

Kate and Christopher planned a wedding that perfectly balanced Italian family traditions and a love for Latin culture.

The day started with the bride and her bridesmaids getting ready in a suite at the Blackstone Hotel.  This place has a great history in Chicago, going back to 1910.  While the renovations made in recent years under Marriott's ownership were well done, we always thought it was cool that the Presidential Suite once had a hidden passageway behind the fireplace for secret escapes.  That was turned into closet space after 2007, but we like to imagine that it is still there.

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Makeup can be the one area in particular where brides can underestimate scheduling, but having reliable professionals, such as the great folks at Beauty on Call, will have everyone looking lovely and ready to head out of the door on time.

The hotel suite decor complimented Kate's choice of vibrant colors of orange and yellow.  They were incorporated into her bouquets as well as floral and reception decor, which were by event designer and wedding coordinator Barbara Medina of Just Say Yes Events. 

The groom wore a Devni Michaels tux and bow tie and gifted his bride with her wedding day jewlery, and also had the wedding rings made by private designer Galo Zapata.  Very impressive Christopher!  For the womens wedding fashions, the ever popular JCrew gowns were worn by the bridesmaids, and the bride found her perfect dress, a stunning Mikaella gown, at Wedding Bells in Barrington.

Groom Christopher agreed to break with family tradition a bit, so the couple could have a spectacular "first see" moment and plenty of time to go around to a few different locations for portraits before the ceremony. Here at Wedding Creativo Photography we suggest this as optimal for most couples who can let go of the tradition of not seeing each other until they meet at the alter.  In our non-scientific observances over the past two decades, we can safely say that skipping this tradition has NOT brought bad luck to couples. Rather, it generally makes the day feel much more relaxed and reduces stress levels when you can avoid having to squeeze in all of your portraits in between the ceremony and reception.  We've mentioned this on the blog before, but think it is a point worth repeating.

Kate and co. kept cool with an ice cream cone in Grant Park while waiting for family members to gather at Buckingham Fountain. That's right, there is time for ice cream when we can do portraits before the ceremony!

The ceremony was held at Our Lady of Pompeii Shrine, the perfect place for a traditional Italian style wedding. In many small towns in Italy, it is a long-held custom to begin the wedding day with the betrothed and their families walking from their respective homes, through the village, to meet together at doors of the church.  Kate and Christopher incorporated this tradition by having their families walk from opposite sides of the street and meet at the steps of the church, along with 140 family and friends who waited for their arrival on the church steps.  Let's just say the Italians were doing "meet-ups" for weddings long before the internet even existed. And of course, with our photography studio having an Italian-born owner, we love this tradition.

For the reception, it was a "family style" affair with rustic Mexican cuisine and atmosphere at Zapatista in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood.  Kate and Christopher also shared an important cause that is close to their hearts with their family and friends by making a charitable donation in lieu of wedding favors to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

Chicago Engagement Portraits: CTA Session

We take a ride on the CTA "el" elevated trains for this Chicago engagement session.

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Wedding Photo of the Week: Here's to Alcohol

Today's featured photo is from a wedding after-party at the bride and groom's neighborhood bar.  It makes us think of the great wisdom of Homer Simpson: "here's to alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems."

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So how do you stock a great wedding bar?  Here are five questions to ask yourself to help you get started:

1. What style of wedding you are planning?  The libations should be appropriate for the event.  A black tie affair deserves campaign toasts.  A casual summer beach party will thrive with your favorite beer brews.  You get the idea.

2. Who is attending your wedding?  You know your family and friends best, and while you won't be able to please the tates of everyone, a general focus on having options that will appeal to the majority of age groups and general tone that you want to set at your reception can be carried with your alcohol selections.

3. Who is driving home? Keep in mind that there will be guests that will be designated drivers, or simply don't consume alcohol, so be sure to have plenty non-alcoholic options too.  Soft drinks, flavored sparkling waters, cranberry and other fruit juices are standard beverages to have on hand.

4. Do you want to keep to essentials or have a wide range of options for guests?  Sticking to beer, wine and soft drinks can reduce costs, but for some couples that may be too limited for their preferences.  You could add one signature drink to add personality and a little more variety, or go with a basic full bar to have more selections, but still keep choices within reason for a wedding reception. 

5. Is the bar an area where you want to splurge or keep costs down?  Either way we think hiring a professional bar tender is a good idea if you don't already have one provided by your catering company, and is really the best way to plan and stick to the wedding bar budget no matter how you decide to stock it.

Why?

A.) pros will make consistently great drinks, and quickly, because it is second-nature to them.

B.) if you really want to save money, a professional will be able to advise on the right amounts to stock up on for the number of guests you are having, so you can avoid buying too much or too little of any supplies.  You don't want to run out of anything significant in the middle of your reception. 

C.) during the reception a pro will know how to handle portion control to correctly pace your supplies throughout the evening, and can also be careful with over-serving any guests.

We think hiring a professional bartender is one of those areas that really pays for itself, and goes a long way in making beverage service all that more enjoyable for you and your guests.

Creative Spotlight: Great Wedding Cakes Summer 2011

We are always in awe of the elaborate and unique details of wedding cakes.  Today we would like to highlight some great cakes and the creative folks behind these edible works of art.  These selections also show some general trends we've noticed in wedding cakes, other sweets, and cake toppers (or lack thereof) in the last year. 

By far, the biggest trend we've seen with wedding cakes in the past year has been elegant "clean" designs, usually with fresh cut floral embellishments, such as this cake above by Oak Mill Bakery.  The Polish are internationally known for their amazing sweet treats, and owner Bogna Iwanowska-Solak definitely brought that wonderful baking heritage with her to Chicago when she opened her family's first bakery here in 1986.  Today they operate six stores in Chicago, Niles, Harwood Heights and Arlington Heights.

Amy Beck is known for her elegant custom cake designs, often using floral elements, whether they are created with sugar or real flowers.  She used cascading violet and yellow orchids for this fantastic wedding cake.  Earlier this year we were excited to see that Amy opened up a new store on Racine street, just a few blocks from our studio.  Welcome to the neighborhood Amy!

Bride Krys added a single pink peony to top her wedding cake to go along with her peony-theme wedding.  Central Continental Bakery, a north-west suburban bakery that has been making wonderful wedding cakes since 1922, detailed the design with words such as "family," "friendship," and "love" to express the things in life that the bride and groom most cherish.

Mary Winslow's small bakeshop, Take the Cake, specializes in intricately detailed custom designs and cake flavors, always with a look of timeless elegance. This white petal wedding cake perfectly complimented the petal details on the bride's wedding dress, as well as her all-white reception decor.  We can only imagine the patience and focus it took to make those delicate frosting rose petals.

Couples that hold their weddings at venues renowned for their cuisine may also find the cake included in their package.  As part of Chicago's fantastic foodie group of Levy Restaurants, Fulton's on the River offers their compelling Reid Murdoch Wedding Package, which includes a custom designed wedding cake.  This one above incorporated the couple's pink and green wedding colors and their last name inital for the silver and diamond cake topper.

Maggie Roeder Cakes is a boutique that places equal importance on the taste of the cake as the design.  For this reception, the bride and groom built an experience for their guests around gourmet cuisine and a cake made with top quality ingredients.  Overall, their reception decor was minimalist, which was well complimented with the clean monogram design topping this cake.

For their vintage-style barn wedding, this bride and groom went with several small "old-fashioned" cakes.  This was for a destination wedding in northern Michigan, with cakes made by Robin Smith from that area.

Wedding cupcakes have become very popular in recent years, but for this "ice-cream" theme reception the couple added a unique twist.  Along with their ice-cream sundae bar, they also had cupcakes made by Luscious Layers Bakery, which were designed with typical sundae toppings, such as sprinkles and cherries.

Cake wasn't going to satisfy the sweet tooth for this bride and groom, so instead they got a double-decker banana cream pie, as well as several assorted "home-style pies" from Hoosier Mama Pie Company.  The bride Elaine (who earned her Master of Fine Arts degree while planning her wedding!!!) made the bride and groom toppers using clothes-pins and her awesome crafting talents.

We haven't been seeing as many traditional cake toppers lately.  While we totally appreciate couples wanting to do something different, we're kind of starting to miss seeing cake toppers.  Perhaps folks could consider bringing them back, but in new and unique ways.  We went on Etsy.com to create this collection of various items, with most of them not intended for use on cakes, but perhaps they will inspire couples to think outside of the box for little works of art or personality pieces to top their cakes and sweets.

Wedding Photo of the Week: Staying Cool at Summer Weddings

It's summertime in the city, which means fun in the sun for the most part, but on a wedding day soaring temperatures can be miserable for folks in formals.  For our featured photo this week we look back to Candice and Robert's wedding when the bridal party was lucky to run into an ice-cream vendor along the lakeshore.  He offered some sweet relief to the near 100 degree heat and high humidity.  Everyone in the bridal party got a cool treat.

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As we head into summer wedding months, here are our top 5 tips for staying cool at hot summer weddings:

1. Stay hydrated:  the top way for everyone to stay cool is to drink water.  Especially for outdoor weddings it is important to have plenty of cold water for guests throughout the entire time.  You could get creative by using old-fashioned picnic coolers placed around various areas with water bottles on ice.  Be sure to have a recycling bin for those empty bottles!

2. Wear cool fabrics:  consider light fabrics made of natural fibers for your formal wear.  Looser fitting clothing will help.  We love seersucker suits and dresses...we'll be saying more about that later this week!

3. Humans sweat:  there is no way around this, unless you are my partner Giorgio.  He is the only human I know that never sweats.  For everyone else, guys can carry a handkerchief in their back pocket and gals can keep blotting tissue papers in their purses.  Lower maintenance lighter makeup is best for the hottest days.  It is also a good idea to bring a few travel size deodorant sticks for women and men in an all-purpose "wedding day survival" bag.  Trying to fight what naturally happens during summer will always be a losing battle, so it is best to just plan for the inevitable.

4. Block the sun:  wearing sunscreen is a must, especially if you'll be outdoors for long periods of time.  A bad sunburn is not something anyone should experience on a wedding day.  Parasol umbrellas can be a stylish way for the bridal party to keep cool and also fun for pictures.  And, if we learned anything from William and Kate's royal wedding, hats can also be a fashionable way to keep the sun at bay.

5. Think of winter and go slow:  if it is going to be extremely hot, over 90 degrees, we will generally recommend couples take it easy and avoid being out in the sun too long during portrait time.  Extreme heat is just as bad as a thunderstorm when it comes to portraits.  As much as the bridal party will try to be good sports, no one likes having their portrait taken when they are hot, sweaty and exhausted in the heat.  For our couples with summer weddings we'll suggest cool - literally - indoor alternatives if the heat is going to be dangerously high during portrait time.  When we are outside in higher temperatures, we try to keep it as painless as possible, and remind folks to keep thinking about frosty the snowman and how much we all love Chicago winters, and that in just a few months the ice and snow will return.

Happy summer!

Photo of the Week: Dance Rehearsal

We had a great time last month at Corrinne and Jeremy's wedding.  For our featured photo this week we share one of our favorite moments from their day as they practiced their first dance.  More pictures from thier wedding will be featured soon, and we'll be back to regular blog posts next week...we've been busy bees and have lots of fun weddings and inspiring ideas to share soon.

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Black Belt Punch for Wedding Dresses

Belted wedding dresses are always wonderful, but today we would like to highlight the stunning black-belt look.

When dress designer Vera Wang's Fall 2010 line came out last year and featured many dresses with a black sash, we knew it would not be long before we started seeing brides sporting black belt dresses down the aisle.  

Last November our bride Kallie actually had two belts, one for daytime and one for evening to go with her lovely Sassi Holford "Chloe" dress:

We love the black belt look and hope we see more of this trend this year.

Black belts and sashes for brides:

Bridal Gowns by Tadashi Shoji
Belts by Diesel

Bridesmaids dresses with sash belts:

Bridesmaid Dresses at eDressMe
Cocktail Dresses by Cynthia Rowley

A New Leaf Chicago Wedding of Craig and Snow

Before Snow and Craig's intimate wedding at A New Leaf in Chicago, we spent the afternoon touring the city with them for pictures.  We started the day off with the couple getting ready at The Drake Hotel.

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Snow and Craig were attracted to the creative portraiture work that we do here at Wedding Creativo, so we planned the schedule and locations for the afternoon after discussing their preferences and aesthetic tastes.  Every couple is different regarding how much time they want to dedicate to portraits.  Snow and Craig planned for a brief wedding ceremony with only two bridal party members, but it was just the two of them going around the city for portraits, so we were able to stop at more locations than if they had a large bridal party to transport around.  They also made sure to schedule a few hours for their "city safari" so that we could be more creative and go at a relaxed pace.  One of our favorite parts of doing portraits before the ceremony is coming up with a creative idea for the "first see" or "reveal," which is a private moment between the bride and groom when they see each other for the first time on the wedding day. 

Since it was just the four of us traveling around, we also suggested the idea of getting a classic car for transportation.  Snow and Craig loved that idea, and contacted Classic Chassis on our recommendation.  They selected a vintage 1940 Cadillac limousine. The car has a name - Godfather II, and it is a beauty.  We love driver Pete! He is a sweetheart, knows the city like the back of his hand, is relaxed and cool, and is one of our all-time favorite chauffeurs.

The groom wore a grey suit and tie, while the bride's color accents were light blue and white with her calla lilies and wildflower bouquet.  She also wore red patent leather shoes in honor of her family's cultural tradition for the bride to wear red.  The ceremony and reception were decorated with with white and blue hydrangeas, brown manzanita branches, and simply elegant brown and light blue linens.  The wedding cake featured the bride and groom's monogram and minimal detailing in brown, and was made by Maggie Roeder Cakes.  For the ceremony, the warm glow of candle light provided the ambiance for their intimate gathering of family and friends.

For their readings, the couple chose passages from their favorite books.  Snow's was the Dr. Seuss classic Cat in the Hat.

Hearty Boys, one of our favorite catering companies, provided the delicious dinner, sweet table and linens. For the cocktail hour guests snacked on scallops wrapped in bacon, mac and cheese squares and spiced figs. The main courses included steak, chicken, and sweet pea tortellini, which was amazing and the dish many of the guests were raving about.

Their ceremony was filled with lots of humor, and on the whole, Snow and Craig chose simple, yet meaningful, unique ways to celebrate their marriage.

Snow was also one of the first brides we noticed bringing back the patent leather shoe trend.  We've been seeing lots of brides wear them lately in a wide variety of hues.  Her burgundy red heels were stunning, and inspired us to create this fashion board featuring some hot patent leather styles.

Pumps by Pour La Victoire
Platforms by Fendi