Negar and Peter’s wedding was fantastically formal, glamorous, and richly textured in a way that very few weddings here in California ever are.  If I could think of one phrase to describe this wedding, it would definitely be, dressed to the nines.  Of course, that phrase makes a lot of sense when a fashion stylist weds a writer.

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Above: Tiny Pine Press designed and handmade these formal letterpress wedding invitations for Negar & Peter.  I love how they look like they might have come out of grandma’s wedding album … or an F Scott Fitzgerald novel.  They make me hope for a return to classical wedding design.

Negar & Peter had a traditional Persian ceremony, fireside, with a beautifully decorated sofreh. In Persian ceremonies, I love when all the girls (sisters, friends, mothers, aunts, etc.) get up and sprinkle the couple with sugar flakes.  What wedding couldn’t use a little sweetness like that?

Negar called on her gifted pals, Joseph Free and David Rogers, who are usually busy designing events for Vogue and fashion designers, to design the florals and decor for her wedding. Inspired by their handiwork, and not surprisingly, this is the wedding that made me rethink baby’s breath.  Heaps of lacy-soft baby’s breath and the warm glow of candlelight, it turns out, are pure magic. Here are a few of the intricate and particularly stellar details:

Even the wedding’s tiniest guests were dressed up and ready to party:

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We were honored to have this wedding featured in C Magazine’s C Weddings this April and are doubly thrilled that it’s being shown off on Style Me Pretty {here} today as well.

photographs: Gia Canali; venue, The California Club; invitations: Jennifer Parsons, Tiny Pine Press; floral design: Joseph Free; event decor: David Rogers; gown: Monique Lhuillier; bride’s jewels, vintage Neil Lane; shoes, Valentino

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I am ready for summer. I am.  But I do not think I am not ready for peony season to be over just quite yet.

photo: Gia Canali; bouquet: GD Designers

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photos: Gia Canali; floral design, Sharla Flock; cake topper; PubliQue Living; paper goods, Hello!Lucky and Joel Dewberry; table “numbers,” Because We Can with Hello!Lucky; lighting, Jimmy Duhig, Creative Lighting Design.

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As promised, here are some more images from the editorial floral shoot featured in the 2010 edition of Ceremony Magazine.  Designed by Michael Mantalos, Louloudi Design. Linens by LaTavola Linen. Thought you might like some cheery color yourself.

photos: Gia Canali

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As a photographer who enjoys photographing weddings, I’m all for real real weddings. But it’s so much fun to make editorial photographs of all those hypothetical (and totally attainable) picture perfect details.  On newsstands now is the 2010 issue of Ceremony Magazine with a few of my photographs from a shoot I did over the summer with Michael Mantalos, the floral designer behind Louloudi Designs.  The color palette was so lovely that I left the shoot wanting to do a painting in those colors.  I promise to share a few more images soon.

photos, except magazine cover: Gia Canali; florals and design, Michael Mantalos; linens, LaTavola

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Wishing you all a cornucopian Thanksgiving, lots of love, and good things all around!

photo: Gia Canali

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Some weddings are so marvelously right.  Julia & Eli’s was one of them. The equation might have read: happy couple + beautiful yard + perfect day + perfect night + joyous guests + “fireflies” = magical. We’ve featured bits of their wedding all summer, partly because I think this blogging real weddings thing rushes me much too much—as I prefer to turn over my photographic fascinations slowly—but mostly because we loved their wedding.  Even the intangible things, like Eli saying his {vows}.  Above, one of several Polaroid 55s I took.

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We loved the whimsical florals and decor by Krislyn.  The groom’s boutonniere was fashioned from a single (tiny) perfect echeveria ‘afterglow’.  I grow them in my garden, and in just the right light, the pinkish rims really do glow.  Below: celebrity stylists Nina and Clare Hallworth help Julia into her gown.   Sweetest up-do ever by Chris McMillan. Chris did Julia’s hair three or four times that morning before he came up with the final look, which made me realize how essential it is to allow all the vendors at a wedding time to give a top-notch performance.  (More on that later.)  I never would have guessed tulips would have been “just the thing,” but they were, and Chris’s hairdo inspired lots and lots of my photographs of Julia.

I spoke with Nina and Clare for a few moments before the reception, and asked if they had any advice for my blog readers.   They said it was so important to take time (by which they meant quiet time) to get dressed.  The way they spoke of dressing, it seemed like dressing oneself and composing oneself were the same act.

Some details from the ceremony.  The huppah was one of a kind, with peonies, branches, and a quilt the groom’s mother made by hand.  Yifat Oren & her gifted crew, led by Amy Cain, masterminded the design and production of the whole affair. Great job, Amy!

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Nina and Clare reused Julia’s veil as a wrap during cocktails and dinner.  It was not only a very inventive instantly “upcycled” accessory, but offered Julia a second glorious look for the evening. Bride’s gown, Carolina Herrera.  Groom’s three-piece suit (♥!), Tom Ford.

Above: a few images from Julia and Eli’s hora.  I love getting guests out on the dance floor (and before sundown if possible).  It’s one of the few chances we ever have in a wedding day for truly energetic and totally camera unaware photographs of everyone who came out to celebrate your tying-the-knot.

Because it was so sunny and because so much was going on in both the front yard and back yard all day, we couldn’t do any outdoor portraits.  So Julia and Eli agreed to sneak away for a quick walk after their first dances.  So worth it!

Julia felt differently about the sunshiny day.  She was thrilled to wake at six that morning and see the sun was out.  Those of you who live in Southern California will know “June Gloom,” and Julia & Eli’s wedding day was the first day after our (particularly long) June Gloom ended this year.  I laughed when she told me this: when I awoke on my own wedding day, I, too, jumped out of bed to see what the light was like, but was practically gleeful to discover a bright overcast morning!

Julia’s advice? She says to take a couple days to do relaxing things before the wedding.  On the day of the wedding, she had no stress for the first time in the planning process!

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The End.

p.s. I left lots of stuff out. I want to have photographs to illustrate my “real” posts!

photographs: Gia Canali

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