100 Layer Cake

12 Jan

Real wedding: Beth + Ben

Proof that you don’t have to wear a white dress to feel beautiful and special on your wedding day. Instead buy an amazing Lanvin, throw in a pair of YSL heels and you’ll look completely stunning and have a killer outfit you can wear forever. SMARTY PANTS, Beth. You look ravishing. Oh wait, AND she had the wrap custom made using fabric she bought in Paris, while she was there hunting for her YSLs. We die.

Ben (a British astronomer, fancy!) and Beth (a psychologist) knew they didn’t want a traditional wedding. Instead they wanted a stylish party to celebrate with their friends. They definitely pulled it off perfectly.

Their ceremony and reception were held at the historic Huron Substation in LA, a private residence that once housed equipment to convert high voltage energy from Edison to power for the LA Railway Yellow Cars in the early part of the 20th century. Neat, right? Now it’s available for filming, special events and a very select number of weddings per year. Apparently if you choose to be married in a couture cocktail dress, they give you priority.

As an homage to Ben’s Britishness, Alex Catering created an entirely British menu with things like Scotch eggs, Welsh Rarebit, and Shepherd’s pie.

The wedding cakes were a mixture of family recipes and plus a traditional English Bride’s cake that Beth made herself. The cake calls for fruit steeped in rum and Beth started steeping the fruit not too long after Ben proposed. How cute is that?

Congratulations Ben and Beth! You guys look maaaarhvelous.

Design and Coordination: Amber Events

Photography: Carolyn Troadec for Troadec Photography

Dress: Lanvin from Kirna Zabete

Wrap: custom made from fabric the bride found in Paris, with the help of Camille de Pedrini and a recommended tailor in Glendale.

Necklace: Camille de Pedrini

Flowers: Holly Flora

Site Management: J Loop Haro of Tact Event Management

Catering: Alex Catering

Bar Service: CFR Mixology

Music: Dubgypsy Entertainment

Makeup: Kellie Jo Grandy: kellyjograndy {at} mac {dot} com

33 comments

11 Jan

Vendor Spotlight: Cheree Berry Paper

categories Pretty Paper, Vendor Spotlight

Buenos dias, bonitas! We have a really cute feature for you to start off the week. Most of you must already be familiar with Cheree Berry Paper, yes? Her studio is a little St. Louis gem, turning out some of the most beautiful paper goods in the industry. And if you SOME HOW missed Cheree’s wedding in Martha Stewart, make sure you spend a little quality time with it on Martha’s site. The paper (of course) is especially divine.

While Jillian was in St. Louis for Christmas, she popped in to Cheree’s studio for a visit… and look how cute it is:

Adorable business cards, check.

Inspiration everywhere…

New invites for a New Year’s Eve wedding this year. And Cheree’s blue tights (we love).

Aren’t they such a cute group?

Now a little about their studio and their process. And quickly before we let them take it away, you don’t have to be a St. Louis bride to hire them to create your invites. Cheree Berry designs for couples literally all over the world, with the help of our friend the internet and it’s hardworking cousin email. Which means you could have pretty paper made just for you by these lovely ladies no matter where you live!

And now a little bit about their company and their process:

“One of the best parts of working in the wedding stationery field is that each of our couples is completely different. This truly allows our days to be filled with creative brainstorming about how to translate a couple’s unique personality into paper. It also allows us to do what we do best – make sure each invitation is filled with touches of unexpected details. We want opening a Cheree Berry Paper invitation to be an experience – like opening a paper present. This means that each invitation must have something that you might not notice at first glance…

It could be a sweet phrase under the reply envelope flap that says “Betsy said yes. We hope you did too!” Or it could be non-traditional wording for the reply card. For beach weddings, we are loving “Yes, we’ll be there with shells on!” It might be a tiny spider hidden amongst a floral pattern or the couples’ initials hanging on a tree branch. All of these details are what we think sets Cheree Berry Paper apart from the rest.

We also get a lot of inspiration from our couples’ wedding themes or venues. For instance, one of our current couples is getting married on May 1 and it has been a blast exploring their “May Day” theme – spring flowers and ribbons and May poles! Another couple was married at Per Se – think New York City elegance and fine dining. Their save-the-date was directions for “how to open a champagne bottle” with little gold foil bubbles floating out of the bottle. As for the invitation, the back of the invitation was covered in a real cork backing.

We love brainstorming with couples about their ideas, but we also love to have creative freedom to explore our own ideas as well. This involves some trust on our clients’ part, but our hope is that all Cheree Berry Paper couples feel as though we are on the journey with them to make their wedding stationery as special and unique as they are. We hope that many of our couples think their stationery suites went above and beyond what they imagined in the beginning of the planning process. We also love having the freedom to make design suggestions to couples. For a recent Halloween wedding, we suggested a cobweb-themed ceremony program and for a New Year’s Eve wedding, a bag filled with confetti acted as the escort cards.

Our inspiration comes from so many sources, but more often than not, it comes from our clients! We love hearing the excitement in the bride’s voice during our very first conversation with her and we love seeing the pictures and the happiness in our couples’ eyes when it is all said and done.”

Thanks so much for having us over, Cheree! Make sure you all visit her site to see her pretty work if you haven’t yet.

photography by: Scott Clark Photo

flowers by: Bloomin’ Buckets Floral Design

16 comments

8 Jan

bits from here and there

categories Bits + Pieces

100lc_10810

{top to bottom, left to right}

NYC postcard save-the-dates from our reader Nicole. She purchased a big stack of these cute vintage postcards at the Brooklyn Flea Market and made her own stamp for the info on the back. crafty!

Breathtakingly romantic dresses from Elizabeth Dye {via Unruly Things}

Take a peek at this sweet Alice in Wonderland inspired wedding. The stylings are amazing!

Erin Jang’s lovely invitation suite available through Bella Figura

Delicate floral paper wreaths

16 comments

6 Jan

Martha features a same sex wedding

categories Bits + Pieces, Real Weddings

Now, we’re not in the habit of getting all political on this blog, but we thought this was a noteworthy occasion and one that shouldn’t go without applause. In the Winter 2010 issue of MS Weddings, there is for the first time to our knowledge, a same sex wedding! If that’s not a statement about the way the wedding industry feels about such a sensitive topic, we’re not sure what is! Go Martha (and team)!

Congrats Jeremy and Andrew, though clearly you did not send this to us, nor are you reading our blog. But congrats on your lovely wedding anyway. And hooray for letting people love and legally commit to whomever they chose.

42 comments

5 Jan

Real wedding: Sam + Bret

categories Real Weddings

Actually it’s a New Year’s elopement. So cute! Sam sent us a few photos yesterday and we thought it was a super sweet start to the new year.

The story goes that the second half of the year was a crazy time for both Sam and Bret. And on top of everything, each time they saw their families, they had to field the inevitable question, “when are you getting married?!?” (because they were already engaged.) So guess what they did? They took off on their own and eloped in their home state of Texas. Adorable.