email: events.pastore@gmail.com | phone: 267.275.3434
website: http://www.pastoreevents.com
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location: Pennsylvania | type: Event Planning | style: Classic, Eclectic, Modern, Vintage | price: $$, $
Today’s beautiful blue and yellow backyard wedding takes place at the groom’s family’s amazing waterfront estate on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Matt and Sayuri wanted a fun, casual backyard wedding with touches of elegance, and with beautiful blue florals, handmade details, and even some barbecue, that is just what they had! Lucky for us, Saleina Marie Photography was there to capture this fun backyard wedding, and I get to share it with you all today!
From the bride, Sayuri:
What (or who) helped you most in your planning process and/or on your wedding day?
My husband and I worked together throughout the entire planning process, which was usually amazing, but at times very challanging. I feel very blessed to have a husband that took a genuine interest in helping to create a celebration that we both loved. It was a truly rewarding. Luckily our wedding day vision was very in sync from the beginning! We were fortunate to have abundant amounts of help from family members, and delegated tasks early on (My Father-In-Law provided his home and resources, my Aunt hand-crafted the invitations, my Mother-In-Law hosted the rehearsal dinner and made our wedding favors, my Step-Father-In-Law officiated and my mom helped me with everything in between). It was a wonderful way to involve the family, which was extremely important to us. Also, the venders that we worked with were an amazing resource for support along the way. Alison Lum (our wedding planner/coordinator) was fantastic. She is an incredible problem solver, and her organization skills kept us right on track. My husband and I played a big role in most of the planning (which we wanted), but working with her enabled us to have piece of mind that nothing was getting over looked. Huge relief! Having her coordinate our wedding day was a life saver. It allowed us to relax and truly enjoy ourselves amongst our guests, not having to worry about anything!
What was the most important thing to you when deciding who to work with for your wedding?
Our wedding was held on my Father-In-Law’s estate, which allowed us to have very few restrictions (compared to many venues). That being said, it was very important to us to have the freedom to design our wedding in a way that felt right to us. When deciding who to work with for our wedding, we chose people who were flexible and supported us in carrying out our concepts. My husband and I both grew up on Bainbridge Island, WA and we specifically chose to use local venders. Our caterer, photographer, baker, videographer, transportation service, and florist were all made up of local small businesses. Not only did we feel like supporting the community was important, but it was comforting knowing that they did not have to commute to the island by ferry, at the height of the busy Summer season.
What was your inspiration for your wedding details and/or design?
The property has a very polished, yet rustic feeling with a Barn style house and immaculate landscaping. The basis of our design inspiration followed it’s lead. We wanted our wedding decor to make sense with it’s surroundings, and to play up it’s features. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest, wedding blogs, and in magazines to inspire new possibilities (I was kind of obsessed!). I have to give credit to our florist/designer most of all. Melanie Benson Floral was an incredible inspiration. She is a fabulous designer and floral genius, and was able to create decor options that I wouldn’t have even dreamed of. She not only understood what we wanted but she was able to materialize it beyond our expectations.
What was your favorite thing about your wedding?
My favorite thing about our wedding was getting married to my husband! He is the love of my life, and we couldn’t be happier to spend the rest of our lives together. Our wedding was such a perfect way to celebrate the beginning of our lives together with family and friends. From a wedding design perspective, my favorite part was the balance we found between informal and formal. I feel like we successfully developed an atmosphere that was literally enjoyable for every last guest who attended, creating an unparalleled energy. Amazing!
What is your best piece of advice for other brides?
The best piece of advice I can give to other brides was given to me by my photographer (Saleina Marie Photography). Take as many wedding pictures that you can BEFORE the ceremony. Although there is definitely something romantic about having the “first look” be at the alter, I was so happy we didn’t. I adored having a private “first look” moment with my husband (and photographer of course!) before all of the wedding craziness began. It felt intimate, and seeing each other eased our nerves. Also, a huge benefit of taking pictures before the ceremony (bride/groom pics, family pics, wedding party pic etc), is that your guests don’t have to wait for pictures to be taken, you don’t have to miss any of your own reception, and you will not feel pressured to hurry through them.
I love Sayuri’s advice about taking photos before the ceremony! And did you notice the blueberries at each placesetting? Such a great idea to add something extra to each placesetting- I love it!
So are any of you planning on doing your photos before your wedding like Sayuri and her husband did? What’s your plan?
I am absolutely loving these modern bridal party attire ideas that I have for you all today! Inspired by Palm Springs and flamingoes, Janice of Bellwether Events got together with some of Washington, D.C.’s finest wedding professionals to create 4 different modern bridal party looks for each season of the year! With bright, bold color palettes, and some absolutely fabulous dresses and accessories from Rent The Runway, these looks are going to knock your socks off!
We’re starting off with the Spring look- a beautiful mint and pink color palette, with some fun escort card inspiration too!
Next is Summer, and I think this one is my favorite! The pink and aqua match ELD quite perfectly, don’t you think?
A color palette of green and yellow is perfect for this modern take on Fall…
And finally, another favorite of mine, Winter! This look is perfect for a New Year’s Eve wedding- glitz and sparkle, plus a bold fuchsia for a modern twist!
A little bit from Janice about the shoots:
The concept started out as a flamingo themed shoot. When I couldn’t find the right pink wedding dress in traditional avenues, I turned to Rent the Runway to see what they had to offer. I found so many fabulous dresses, my focus shifted to showing how RTR could be used for wedding attire and accessories. From there, the concept morphed into a modern Palm Springs inspired motif featuring four mini vignettes for each season of the year. We wanted the focus to be on the fashion, so we added a simple dessert idea and/or drink idea for each season. We also tried to think outside of the box with the flowers. The key lime, gray and pink paper products were designed to match all four vignettes.
I love how the style stayed bold and bright, but each season’s look had a different variation of colors that was more suited for the time of year. I still think the Summer look is my favorite, but the Winter is coming in a close second!
So which look is your favorite? And tell me- what season is your wedding going to be taking place during? I would love to hear!
Y’all, this engagement party from Melody Melikian Photography has tons and tons of gorgeous Hollywood glamour. From the dramatic style of the gorgeous bride (who bears striking resemblance to a certain reality TV star) to the event theme (“Let love sparkle!”), this pink, white and silver palette shimmers in the candlelight and creates the perfect ambiance to celebrate their engagement. The bride, Angine, is here to share her insight:
What (or who) helped you most in your planning process?
I think anytime I plan an event I try to envision what theme or look I am going for. Whether its a color scheme I’m really crazy about at the time, or some random piece of fabric or centerpiece or invitation design. This really helps sets the parameters. In this case I knew I wanted an open palette, a place that I can make my own. So I scouted a few potential locations and came up with Pandora on Green. The venue is beautiful the food is delicious, and my date was available! The venue happens to have a lot of white and tones of light blue. There is an entire pastel blue wall with hanging mirrors. I thought this would be a great place to showcase the cake table so with that said thats how we came up with the color scheme.
What was your inspiration for your wedding details and/or design?
I knew I was throwing an engagement party and I wanted to showcase that as well. Often time when brides have these types of engagements there is very little mention of an engagement or a ring. Usually I see more details prevalent in weddings. So with that said I wanted to do the complete opposite and I came up with the theme “Let LOVE SPARKLE!” . So I went on Etsy hunting for engagement ring invitations. I found a cute simple one that I thought I can jazz up. I bought the template and immediately went on Cardsandpockets.com. I love love, love this website. You can buy cardstock or gatefold invitations for about a dollar, then I printed my invites at my local Staples printshop for about a dollar for every two invitations. I bought some embellishments to make it look girly and viola I was done!
I followed the same idea for my other details such as candy jars, and candle holders. The jars I found from HomeGoods an affiliate of TJ MAXX. My candle holders I found each for a dollar at the 99Cent store. I got my glue gun ready and glued away any piece of sparkle I could find.
Again, I wanted my favors to portray the nature of the party so we went with Diamond Napkin Ring holders. I also purchased some diamond ring cookies off Etsy. My baker who made my cake pops was also nice enough to incorporate the edible diamonds and diamond rings I had purchased on the goodies he made.
What was the most important thing to you when deciding who to work with for your party?
I think there are so many wonderful vendors out there that have such great talent. But for me, I try to distinguish which one of their talents works best with the theme that I am going for. For my engagement party, I chose Melody as a photographer, I love her style, the simplicity, and the great orientation to detail. It was exactly what I was looking for and she captured every last bit of that! For flowers I went with Petals LA. They do an amazing job creating whimsical arrangements that bring a lot of romance to the event. And again my baker Rafi who is such a talent, he can create any look I may need.
What was your favorite thing about your party?
All of it. This may sound a bit pretentious but I loved all of it! I loved all the little details from the drink stirrers and food toppers which I made myself, to the dessert station, and to all my vendors, family, and friends.
What is your best piece of advice for other brides?
Slowly plan ahead! If you are slightly as techy as I am, create a folder on your desktop dedicated to the event that you like. Then start searching websites like a madwoman for ideas that appeal to you. Then start adding pictures to your folder. You can also do this if you have Pinterest by creating a board. This helps you get organized, and this helps you eliminate ideas that don’t flow with the theme!
Once you have an idea down, set Etsy as your homepage! Just joking but, you can search Etsy for so many crafty things. I’ve come to realize that certain items can be quite pricey, but many sellers now sell DIY items so you can create a similar look for the fraction of the cost. You can try discount stores, flea markets, and arts and crafts stores in your area.
First of all, I’m obsessed with Angine’s gorgeous dress and that amazing engagement cake. Secondly, can you believe the majority of the details from this event were DIY? I love that they took the “sparkle” theme and created little projects and knick-knacks that really branded the event as an engagement party. How about you? Are you planning to brand your party? Let me know all about it in the comments below!
XOXO,
Carlee
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