7.12.14 {The Venue}

Living in California is unlike any other.  Although I have never lived anywhere else, I have traveled to almost every state and experienced what each one had to offer.

Yes California is overpopulated, and the traffic is unlike anywhere else.. well besides New York, but that's beside the point.  The weather here is amazing pretty much 90 % of the time.  It rarely rains or gets cold.  I've had huge Eskimo-style jackets hanging in my closet just begging my attention, but the weather hasn't called for it.  I knew I wanted a summer wedding, but in the past few years August and September have been miserably hot, so we opted for a July wedding-- that way the kids are out of school and it's easier for most to take off work (Since they were coming from all over) and make a vacation out of it.

We couldn't have asked for better weather.  It was warm, and clear blue skies with few clouds.  Around 80 degrees.  We chose to have our wedding near the beach, less than a mile away.  We also knew we didn't want our ceremony location to be next to a pool (like most we looked at were) but we knew we wanted it to be at a hotel, that way the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception would all be at the same location to make it easier on guests.

I fell in love with our ceremony location the moment we stepped foot on the property.  It was a private location on the backside of a peaceful green golf course.  The palm trees swayed in the crisp breeze, the gazebo had an open top to let the beautiful sun shine through, and another bonus-- they had turf grass.   I don't know about you, but when I attend weddings and they make you stand in grass...not an easy task for ladies in heels.  Just saying.

I knew I had to have a memory table at our ceremony.  All four of my grandparents are no longer with us, so I wanted to have their photos displayed.  A few months before the wedding my Uncle passed away which was really hard on us.   We were the closest to that family, and were extremely saddened by our loss.  I knew he wanted to be at our wedding, and to know he was there in spirit is very comforting.



Our ceremony was a dream come true.  
The colors and decorations came together so beautifully. 

We chose to have our cocktail hour central to the hotel.  We had it in the atrium which had a beautiful fountain.  

We also had our reception at the same hotel, on the opposite side of the venue. 
Three locations, yet on the same property.  Pretty rad.

We had a candy bar and photobooth.

Leading into our reception hall, we displayed our guestbook and seating chart so guests could find which table they were to be sat.

The tables were adorned with high and low centerpieces. Some with  manzanita trees with hanging crystals and some with fresh bunches of florals. Of course the boxes that contained them were rhinestone wrapped. 

My favorite part was the Tiffany blue undertones with a a mesh-lace overlay.  Not only that, but there was a chevron pattern in the lace overlay that I noticed as soon as we chose it!  Which if you didn't already know, is one of my favorite patterns.

Our DJ also provided us with our names on a gobo that we had displayed on the wall behind the head table that overlooked the dance floor.

We had the florals that were on our gazebo at the ceremony transferred to be displayed on our head table.  We also had custom menu designs with our wedding monogram logo that I designed. We also had our head table lace overlay slightly different than the guests tables. All the chairs had a tiffany blue cushion to match the tablecloths.

Coordinator: Candice Sanders
Hair & Makeup: Airbrushed Brides
Florist: Jenny B Floral Design
Photographer: Memories by Michael
DJ: Jason Jass - Visions Entertainment
Videographer: Dan - Plug Video
Officiant: Don Johnson

If you missed the first few recaps you can catch up below:

{ Getting Ready }

{ Pre-Ceremony }

{ The Dress and Details } 

:: Wedding Wednesday ::

(Linkup ANY Wedding-related posts!)

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also linking up here and here