A Romantic Bluffside Santa Barbara Wedding With Pink Sea Grass Lining the Aisle

Food & Drink

We wished the meals to really feel elevated however approachable and to supply

one thing genuinely scrumptious for everybody.

Dinner included Pacific salmon with asparagus risotto, roasted

asparagus, purple cauliflower, roasted mushroom and citrus beurre blanc;

citrus-herb-marinated rooster breast with potato mousseline, Tuscan

kale, roasted child carrots and Chardonnay rooster jus; and wild mushroom

ravioli with Tuscan kale, roasted mushroom and pine nut cream.

The cocktails have been one other alternative to make the menu private. Each

signature drink was named for somebody in our household. Kevin had the

Ok-Paloma, his personal specialty drink, whereas mine was the Mon-tini, a gin

martini. The Freddy P was a mocktail named for Kevin’s father, Fred, and

the Keith & Lucille Summer Spritz, a Hugo Spritz, was named for my

grandparents.

Late within the night, we opened Teddy’s Treats, a cookie buffet named for

our Cavapoo and ring bearer, Teddy. Lele Patisserie in Santa Barbara

created a choice of elevated takes on basic cookies, together with

salted chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, chocolate turtle

and sprinkle sugar cookies. It was playful and private—and a really Teddy

technique to finish the night time.

Florals & Decor

Kim Curtis of TOAST Santa Barbara went above and past with the

florals. They felt unfastened, garden-inspired and splendidly sudden,

transferring from ivory, blush and peach into richer touches of coral,

raspberry, lavender and purple. The preparations included peonies,

backyard roses, lilac, clematis and different seasonal blooms, with flowers at

totally different heights and levels of openness so nothing felt overly

organized.

The ceremony itself was intentionally restrained. Cassandra wished the

ocean to stay the point of interest, so fairly than creating a standard

floral arch, she designed a raised, angled stage overlooking the water

and sourced lovely pink sea grass to outline the aisle. I beloved its

softness and motion—it felt virtually as if it had all the time been

rising there.

For my bouquet, I particularly requested Kim to include lilac. I’ve

all the time beloved the odor, and scent is such a strong set off for reminiscence.

I wished there to be a perfume hooked up to strolling down the

aisle—one thing that, years from now, would possibly instantly transport me

again to that second.

From there, the florals grew to become progressively extra ample. Cassandra

layered them with patterned blush linens, woven chargers, delicate

china, candlelight and small inexperienced desk lamps. The lamps have been certainly one of my

favourite design decisions as a result of they gave the room heat and intimacy

and made dinner really feel virtually residential.

The palette deepened once more for dancing, the place emerald velvet draping and

lounge furnishings created a very totally different temper. I beloved the

development: the pure simplicity of the bluff, the colourful backyard

feeling of cocktail hour and dinner, and eventually the richness of the

dance ground.

Wedding Cake

We wished the cake to really feel easy and chic. Lele Patisserie created a

citrus cake layered with vanilla cream cheese filling and raspberry

swirl, completed with vanilla meringue buttercream and vanilla cream

cheese frosting.

But essentially the most significant half was on the very high.

We restored the unique cake topper from my grandparents’ wedding ceremony and

used it on ours. Seeing this tiny piece of their wedding ceremony sitting on high

of our cake many years later was extremely particular. It was one other quiet

manner of bringing our household historical past into the start of our personal

marriage.

Readings, Ceremony Music, Reception Songs

Music was vital from the very starting of the ceremony. The Santa

Barbara String Quartet performed as company arrived and all through the

processional. Kevin entered to “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys, and I

walked down the aisle with my stepfather to “Ribbon in the Sky” by

Stevie Wonder. After we have been pronounced husband and spouse, we recessed

collectively to “You’re All I Need to Get By” by Marvin Gaye & Tammi

Terrell. The quartet then continued enjoying all through cocktail hour on

the bluff, creating a fantastic musical thread from the ceremony

instantly into the celebration.

We deliberately saved the ceremony quick and private. Our officiant was

certainly one of Kevin’s shut buddies from faculty, who’s now a Superior Court

decide. We wrote our personal vows, and certainly one of my favourite elements of the

ceremony was asking everybody gathered to make a promise of their very own—to

assist us, encourage us and have a good time our marriage alongside us.

We additionally did our first look earlier than the ceremony as a result of we wished to

spend cocktail hour with our company fairly than disappear for

images. The climate had been unsure earlier within the day, however

proper round 3:00 the clouds appeared to half. By the ceremony it was a

completely clear, sunny 72 levels on the bluff.

For the reception, we mixed the normal father-daughter and

mother-son dances into one household dance to “Fly Me to the Moon.” My

stepfather danced with me whereas Kevin danced together with his mom, Cookie.

For the occasion, our DJs, Tendaji Lathan and Michelle Pesce, are each

well-known DJs and good buddies of ours, which made having them behind

the sales space really feel much more private. We requested them to lean into the music

of the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s—the soundtrack to the years after we and so

a lot of our company have been in highschool and faculty. The outcome felt much less

like a proper wedding ceremony playlist and extra like one of the best occasion with individuals

we’ve identified by so many various chapters of our lives.

Special Detail #1

Family was woven into the marriage in quiet, significant methods.

May 23 was Kevin’s father Fred’s birthday. Fred handed away 5 years

earlier than our wedding ceremony, and selecting his birthday for ours gave an already

significant date a fantastic new chapter. Kevin’s mom, Cookie, and his

aunt gave a stunning toast that honored our marriage and Fred, and we

named our mocktail, the Freddy P, after him.

My grandparents have been a part of the day in a number of methods as effectively. Rebecca

sewed my grandmother’s wedding ceremony band into my costume, we restored my

grandparents’ unique wedding ceremony cake topper, and the Keith & Lucille

Summer Spritz was named for them.

I beloved that these particulars weren’t essentially issues each visitor would

instantly acknowledge. Some have been merely there for us—little connections

between the place we got here from and the household Kevin and I have been starting

collectively.

Special Detail #2

Teddy needed to be a part of the day.

Teddy, our Cavapoo, is such a giant a part of our life collectively that we

couldn’t think about getting married with out him. He served as ring bearer

alongside Kevin’s nephew, which was each cute and completely

consultant of our little household.

We carried him into the reception in one other manner with Teddy’s Treats,

our late-night cookie buffet on the dance ground. It gave one of many extra

playful elements of our life a spot inside an in any other case very elegant

wedding ceremony.

Before our company got here in from cocktail hour, Cassandra took Kevin and

me into the reception room privately so we might see it collectively for the

first time.

She had “Hello Sunshine” enjoying, and it was the primary second I noticed the

whole imaginative and prescient come collectively—the flowers, linens, lamps, tables and all

of the main points we had spent months discussing.

I used to be utterly overwhelmed and began crying. It wasn’t solely as a result of

the room was extra lovely than I might have imagined. I felt this

huge sense of gratitude for Cassandra and for each one that had

put a lot care into bringing the day to life.

Kevin nonetheless jokes that it was the primary—and solely—time he noticed me cry on

our whole wedding ceremony day.

Special Detail #3

We wished our wedding ceremony memento to be one thing company would truly hold.

I didn’t wish to give our company one thing that may really feel disposable or

find yourself forgotten in a drawer. Instead, Andrea Orozco Del Hoyo of Andrea

Del Hoyo Studio created reside trend illustrations for our company.

We launched the illustrations throughout cocktail hour on the bluff, and

they instantly grew to become a part of the expertise. Guests had a fast

reference photograph taken, permitting them to proceed having fun with the

celebration whereas their art work was created, and the completed portraits

have been displayed later within the night for them to gather.

They have been an infinite hit. I beloved that everybody left with one thing

private and one-of-a-kind that they may take residence and body—a reminiscence

of the marriage designed to truly be saved.