There is officially one week left until Christmas, my very favorite day of the year! Hooray!!!! I spent the weekend with my husband and friends crafting snow globes and ornaments, making holiday sweet treats, and going to Disneyland. How have you been spending your holidays so far? I’d love to hear about it!

Now, on to today’s post-  I have an awesome Orange County ranch wedding to share with you that was sent over by the wonderful Joe + Kathrina!  Here is a bit more about the day:

“Sean+Melissa had been engaged for four years, they were thinking about rivaling the movie “Five Year Engagement” but instead decided to get into wedding planning mode. The constant set back had been Melissa’s dream wedding, a complete DIY wedding, that included cowboy boots and a whole lot of fun for their guests. Parker’s Ranch was the perfect set up for what they imagined–the venue is part of a ranch and you have free control of whatever you want to do there. And so the planning started. They included a popcorn bar, a dessert buffet, smores, food trucks, a mariachi band and shot glasses… Instead of the traditional champagne toasts, which they weren’t very keen on, they decided instead to do tequila shots. Afterwards guests were able to take home the shot glasses. It was the perfect touch! Days before their wedding Sean+Melissa were still scrambling to get everything done, the morning of the wedding glue was still wet on some diy projects and Melissa was running an hour late. But through it all they always knew everything would come together perfectly, because they had each other and that was all that mattered.”

Vendors:

Photography: Joe+Kathrina

Venue: Parker Ranch in Trabuco Canyon

Florist: Family Friend

DJ: Island Entertainment

Photobooth: Knockout Photo Booth

Food Trucks: Ranch A Go Go +Calbi

Wedding Dress: White by Vera Wang

It’s Monday again! Does anyone else feel like this day always comes back around too quickly? Where does the time go??? But anyways, I digress- on this bright and sunny Monday I have a beautiful California coastal wedding for you, sent over by Jeremy Chou Photography!

A bit more about the day from the bride, Kerry…

“Los Angeles is where John and I fell in love. So when we began planning our wedding, we felt that even though most of our friends and family are on the east coast, we couldn’t imagine getting married anywhere else. We love all things outdoors, 1960’s era California and robots. Thus a slightly disconnected wedding theme was born.We both knew that we wanted a small, intimate celebration with our families and closest friends, with personal touches that displayed our love for good food, great friends and each other. Though we spent a couple months searching for a location for the ceremony, nothing felt quite right. Some places proved to be a logistical nightmare for out of town guests or didn’t fit our budget. Then we stumbled upon Wayfarers Chapel. The intimacy of the space, a magnificent glass and wooden structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., under towering trees, combined with the grand views of the Pacific Ocean, make the chapel seem otherworldly. John and I knew the moment we stepped onto the grounds that our search was over. Next, we enlisted my mother’s help to search for a reception venue. She took to Yelp and sent us a list of places near the chapel that had rave reviews then John and I gladly taste-tested our way through the list. We quickly landed on Zazou Restaurant in Redondo Beach. The intimacy of their private room, the impeccably prepared food, and the outstanding service made Zazou the perfect place for our celebration. Our wedding cake was not as easy to find. We tasted a lot of mediocre cakes before we discovered Jin Patisserie in Venice. Somewhere between the tenth and fifteenth vanilla cake sample, John came up with a plan to incorporate our first date (in Tokyo) and suggested green tea. Annabel was the right chef for the job – our matcha cake was uniquely us, and simply delicious. The tea-flavored chocolates we selected from Jin as wedding favors were also a big hit.”

Vendors:

Photographer: Jeremy Chou Photography
Floral Designer: Magical Blooms
Ceremony Location: Wayfarer’s Chapel
Bakery: Jin Patisserie
Restaurant: Zazou Restaurant