Julia and Eli’s wedding is featured on Style Me Pretty today {here}.  You might also like to peek at more of the images on my blog {here}, {here}, {here}, and {here} … and {here}, too!

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.

{click any image to enlarge}

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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Well, I am finally working on a blog post about Julia & Eli’s wedding.  I mean it this time!  I’m only five months behind on that (and it’s only the second wedding of the season)!  But for now, I thought some of you might like to see this lovely flower from their wedding, reimagined by {Krislyn}.  I’m not sure what it is—but it looks to me like orchid petals + pussy willow.  I wish I could grow a garden of them …

photo: Gia Canali

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Sorry for the recent radio, or rather, blogio-silence.  We have been working hard on Julia and Eli’s wedding, and we promise to share lots more images soon.  We also have lined up an interview with an esthetician to talk about making your skin beautiful, a post about color, another about nighttime portraits, and lots more photo tips and full length articles.  We are even scheming up some new DIY projects.  But right now, on a hot summer night, all I can really think about are fireflies.  And how I wish we had them here in LA.  But Krislyn’s handmade reinterpetation of a garden full of them is pretty fabulous.

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R & A did a wonderful job conceiving their wedding. It involved lots of peculiarly-LA logistical challenges—a ceremony at the church the groom’s family attends in Downey, a reception on a chilly early-spring evening at a private home in Agoura Hills, getting guests to drive the hour-and-ten-minutes between locations—to name a few. But it came together beautifully under the direction of Heidi Mayne from Red25 (whose new site will launch very soon, so be sure to check back).

This wedding initiated me to {Krislyn} whose delicious designs have me swooning … Krislyn made the bride’s balsa wood and Swarovski bouquet (below and previously featured), the wishing tree, and the A + R vase (also below) that sat beside the tree at the reception. Lucky for me, Krislyn did florals at another wedding I photographed recently so I get to indulge (and share!) my newfound obsession.

{as always, click any image to enlarge}

I have to confess, though, my aesthetic obsessions at Rosalinda and Aris’s wedding were varied. Many are indicative of current and coming trends:

1. Krislyn (cannot be overemphasized). The design is extraordinary. And I am pro-keepsake. Aren’t we all? It’s not only “green” to double duty pieces from your wedding as home decor, it’s wonderful to have more to hang onto.
2. The groom’s modern slim fit three piece suit from YSL. May all my grooms be so well-dressed. I love that a vest gives the groom not only a perfectly tailored look, but an “alternate” look. He won’t wear the jacket all night anyway.
3. The bride’s all-over lace gown by Elizabeth Fillmore. It perfectly accented the bride’s lovely figure. The asymmetrical train was pretty fabulous, too.
4. Bare wooden dining tables, dressed with manzanita or beechwood branches and orchids.
5. Greek revival fashion, e.g., the bridesmaid dress.
6. How the bridesmaid’s bouquet accented the color of her dress. This rarely happens so nicely, and was, apparently, an accident. Katie’s Flowers in Downey had set out to make a “neutral” bouquet because they didn’t know what color the bridesmaid would be wearing.
7. All the nooks and crannies—and the Moroccan flavor—of their friend’s house, where the reception was held. I am always happy for architectural/environmental portrait opportunities. This house offered myriad.
8. Little wooden wedding sign.
9. Stone seating “cards” and table numbers.

A sweet little ceremony getaway in the groom’s brother-in-law’s Rolls Royce.

Some of the sweet reception details … I loved the variety (as I always love variety) in the centerpieces.  Manzanita or beechwood branches strewn with orchids, or wooden boxes full of them decorated each table.  Presenting old family photographs as they did, in a frame, with strings and clothespins, was quite charming.

The light changed quickly as day turned to night, so we snuck portraits here and there, as we could, amongst dancing and toasting.

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♥

A little nighttime love … As I mentioned earlier, R & A spent most of the night close together. If you want wonderful photographs of you and your beloved late into the night, do this!

This couple did an amazing job of designing a gorgeous wedding without it feeling like they were over-producing it. (I think that’s a weird diagnosis of some weddings, but probably true, now that I think about it.) They prioritized having a great party … and it paid off. They danced with each other and their guests into the wee hours of the night. For my own part, I was very happy that they made time, even as the sun set, for me to get out the clunky old 4×5 camera (see top image). I’m looking forward to seeing how these images become themselves, later on …

photo credit: Gia Canali floral centerpieces: Malibu Market & Design lighting: Images By Lighting

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{click images to enlarge}

Now that I am home, I have been working hard on preparing Rosalinda & Aris’s wedding.   I promise to share lots more images soon.  In the meantime, though, please enjoy Rosalinda’s balsa wood and Swarovski crystal bouquet by Krislyn, as it clearly takes the keepsake bouquet to a whole new level of lovely.  (And makes you want to forget about drying your roses upside down!)

photo credit: Gia Canali

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