When someone from the event design world gets married, we pour ourselves a fancy cocktail and prepare to have a little swooning session while going through every image and detail. Of course, when the photos are coming from Jose Villa, and the wedding belongs belongs to Cortnie, the talented planner & stylist behind Canvas and Canopy and very admired name around our office… well, you just know it’s going to be a stunner.
The wedding took place on the beaches of San Diego, but wasn’t your typical sunny San Diego beach wedding. In fact Courtnie even hoped for a foggy, overcast day to really create a unique and ethereal vibe. With a huge storm warning on its way, she got what she wanted and the shipwrecked vibe, a washed ashore, nautical, ethereal almost ghostly feel came to life with the help of good friend and coordinator, Carolyn Chen of The Special Day.
One of our personal touches that appeared on the invitations, menus, programs, and cakes were the silhouettes of bears. My nickname for both Donny & our dog Bubba are my bears. Even the ringBEARers wore lapel pins with bears on them, and my bouquet had a necklace that had a bear locket wrapped around it with photos of Donny and Bubba inside.
Ahh! Loving her Jimmy Choos.
Let’s talk about THE dress! Amaze, right? Cortnie wore a custom gown created by Joan Shum. From Cortnie… I basically just told her I wanted long sleeves, a gorgeous textured skirt and I wanted the color to be a mixture of blush + beige. A color I later decided to coin as ‘bleige’. I tried my wedding dress on for the very first time the week of the wedding and it was perfect. Joan came down on my wedding day and even dressed me! The gown matched the colors of foggy day and sand perfectly and could not have been more elegant.
I wanted to channel the giant bouquets carried by brides in the 1930’s and 40’s, so I asked Studio Fiore to create a really textural and ‘undone’ giant bouquet.
Now this is how you bring a chapel to the sea!
The ceremony was by far the most important aspect of the wedding to Donny and I. We spent a great deal of time talking to officiants and were referred to JP Reynolds. We met with him and clicked immediately. We have families from different religious backgrounds and he was able to tie their backgrounds together while weaving the history of our relationship into the ceremony so perfectly. He came up with really creative ways to involve all of our family members too. He made our ceremony extremely touching and special.
Guests were taken down to the beach by Pedi Cab with large signs on the back that had our bear logo and our favorite Dr. Suess quote “oh the places we’ll go” on the backs of them. As guests neared the ceremony location there was a rustic wooden sign that said “Little Chapel by the Sea” with my nephew Thomas standing next to it and handing out programs from a vintage silver tray. Then guests walked down to the sandy beach in which we had Lucite ghost chairs for them to sit upon. I loved the idea of ghost chairs on the sandy beach bc literally nothing was blocking the gorgeous view.
The ring bearers, flower girls and Cortnie walked down the sandy aisle to a song that Donny wrote and sang.
They printed the bear and boat Chinoiserie print that Kristy Rice drew onto giant long scrolls that spilled to the floor and wrote each guests name on them.
Kristy Rice of Momental Designs mounted acrylic table numbers onto wood pieces to tie together their modern/rustic feel of the reception.
Our head table was literally floating! I designed our head table to be hanging from a structure with nautical looking ropes so that it was floating. I had found an old ship on Craigslist and my talented friend from Urban Barn (a vintage furniture store), strung it with crystals to create a ‘ship chandelier’ we hung from the center of the structure, over the floating table. Again it was surrounded by the Lucite ghost chairs to keep the feeling of it floating. Studio Fiore created a beautiful floral runner that hung off both ends of the floating table.
Huge congrats to Cortnie + Donny on such a gorgeous wedding!
Photography: Jose Villa Photography / Event Design & Styling: Canvas & Canopy Events / Event Planning & Coordination: The Special Day / Floral Design: Studio Fiore Design / Vintage Furniture Rentals: Found Vintage Rentals / Calligraphy: Laura Hooper / Vintage Dinnerware, Glassware & Flatware: Casa De Perrin / Modern Furniture Rentals: Hire Elegance / Table Linens: Wildflower Linen / Event Containers & Props: Canvas & Canopy Events / Event Stationery: Momental Designs / Wedding Invitation: Printed Palette Ink / Wedding Cake & Cookies: Cupcakes Couture / DJ: The Flashdance / Mixologists: Snake Oil Cocktail / Hair & Makeup: Alexis K Brows / Bride & Flower Girl Hair Pieces: Lo Boheme / Canopy Bed Ceremony Structure: Designed & Constructed by Canvas & Canopy Events / Custom Floating Table Designed by Canvas & Canopy Events & Constructed by The Timber Library / Catering: Toast Catering / Lighting: San Diego Events Lighting / Bride’s Custom Wedding Gown: Joan Shum Brides / Shoes: Jimmy Choo / Grooms Suit: Theory / Grooms Shoes: Salvatore Ferragamo
You can see more of this wedding over at Green Wedding Shoes.
