Real Wedding: Kate & Jesse

When I opened the email from Amy & Stuart and saw their incredible photos of Kate and Jesse's garden wedding, I couldn't wait to share them with you. And then when Kate told me that she'd found inspiration on Snippet & Ink when she was planning her beautiful wedding, that just made my day. Dear readers - I love seeing your gorgeous weddings! It was really tough for me to narrow down the photos, so this post is a little longer than usual, but I didn't think you'd mind. Kate was sweet enough to share some details of the day with us:

Jesse proposed to me on my birthday - Christmas Eve - in the garden of my family’s Ojai, California home. Within hours of the proposal, we decided we would be returning to that garden to be married. To us, the property has always been reminiscent of places like Tuscany and Provence. From the roses and lavender to the citrus groves and ancient oak trees, we felt as though we were able to capture what we love about those places without leaving home.


Jesse and I had so much fun making our Save the Dates. We took some of my old cameras up to Ojai and shot a series of Polaroid pictures that our talented wedding planner, Emily Kelly from Unscene, Inc., laid out and printed for us.












It was 103-degrees that day in Ojai(!), so we served lavender-infused lemonade before the ceremony to help guests cool down.


Our wedding party was comprised of our parents, step-parents, and siblings, but we also wanted to honor our friends in some way. We asked our dearest friends and siblings to come stand around us in a circle at the start of the ceremony while everyone took a moment to silently make a wish for our future. In looking back on the photos, we're so happy we made the decision to do that - it was such a beautiful moment! We both would say that one of our favorite moments was hearing each others' vows for the first time. Jesse brought the house down with his, and I surprised Jesse by reading from the first love letter he wrote to me over 10 years ago.






















Instead of having our florists arrange flowers for the cocktail tables, bar, and cake table, we spent a day potting succulents in pretty containers and putting together bud vases of roses from the garden. My sister and I also went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market where we were able to buy lots of the little touches at very reasonable prices, like trays and cutting boards for the dessert table and umbrellas to shade the guests from the sun.






The Italian-inspired dinner was served family style and included panzanella; grilled peach, arugula and prosciutto salad; pan-seared sole; chicken milanese; and gnocchi with peas and sage. Mmmm...




Our parents all got together and surprised us by making medicine pouches in the Native American tradition for all of our guests - medicine pouches are something I’ve always loved and I was given one as a child. They were set on the tables with a little note explaining their meaning and how each parent contributed to it. It was an incredible surprise and meant so much to both of us.










We laid out rugs and pillows on the grass, served desserts and Chai tea, and projected an old black and white film in the garden.

Venue: private home in Ojai, California

Invitations: Lauren Spencer King, a friend of the couple

Other printed materials: designed by the couple, printed by Emily Kelly

Bride's dress / shoes: Carolina Herrera / Christian Louboutin

Groom's suit: Band of Outsiders

Floral and event design: R. Jack Balthazar

Chalkboard lettering: Jane Anne Thomas, a friend of the couple

Catering: Josh Jackson at Great Taste Catering

Cake / desserts: Jamaica's Cakes

Music: Valida

Rentals: Classic Party Rentals

Planning / coordinating: Emily Kelly at Unscene, Inc.

If only all of us were so lucky to have such a dreamy garden, I don't imagine there'd be anything but at-home weddings! Congratulations Kate and Jesse - thank you so much for sharing your charming wedding with us, and all of these fun details. And a big thank you to the talented Amy & Stuart for sending over these beautiful photos - I hope you'll be back on Snippet & Ink soon! You can see even more from this wedding in the slideshow here.

Real Wedding: Neda & Sati

As much as I love all of the pretty little details that go into a wedding (love them), few things inspire me more than wedding photos and movies where you can really see how much the couple loves one another - where you can get a sense of the joy in the day. That's why Neda and Sati's incredible wedding film is what's inspiring me today. It is utterly joyful.



Now what if I tell you this is the first wedding film by Rob, Jesse and Nick, the team at Cherish Films? No really - this is their first wedding film. Rob's story is inspiring in its own right - he left a successful job in the advertising industry to follow his heart, to tell beautiful love stories. What could be better than that?

Congratulations, Neda and Sati! Thank you for sharing your beautiful wedding with us, and thank you so much to Cherish Films for sending over this incredible film - I can't wait to see what you've got in store.

Real Wedding: Janet & Ben

Stephany at EyeSpy Photography shared this DIY summer wedding with me, and the couple, Janet and Ben, shared some of the details of the day... "We began the day with a picnic barbecue, lawn games and garden strolls on the grounds. We then gathered in the gardens for a sunset ceremony, beautifully officiated by our friend, followed by a champagne toast, strawberry shortcake dessert and dancing under the stars."

We had picnic blankets and baskets of snacks for everyone to enjoy during the day as well as seating and dining in the LuLu Belle’s Roost building, a tent for extra space and a huge deck for dancing. All of our family and friends brought yard games: ladder golf, bocce ball, washers, Kubb and croquet.


In addition to wonderful wedding craft ideas, our dear friend JoEllen designed our save-the-dates, invitations and gave us elements from the graphics to create stamps and programs. The programs contained the day's events and a map of the gardens for everyone to enjoy.


I changed into a Jim Hjelm bridesmaid dress I ordered in ivory. I added vintage embroidered lace to the dress and the same lace to my J.Crew flats. The lace was from ParisPennsylvania’s Etsy shop and though I bought it long before I bought the dress, it matched perfectly.




It was difficult to have a nice I'm-getting-married-blissful smile during pictures. I had a big goofy grin on my face the whole day. I was so surprised at how I could not control my expression at all. Big grin when everyone arrived, big grin and tears going down the aisle. My cheeks hurt and I still grinned. It didn’t always make for the most, er, perfect wedding pose, but it was exactly how I felt that day. I loved every minute of it.


My mom is an AIFD certified florist and I’ve watched and helped her design many wedding flowers. It was important to both of us to enjoy doing the flowers together. I collected antique aqua jars and milk glass, along with a few family heirloom silver serving pieces to create a mix-match of containers that we filled with Casablanca lilies, hydrangea, veronica, roses, alstroemeria, rosary vines, succulents and some leggy green beans from the farmer’s market and as many herbs, dahlias, lisianthus and succulents as we could get from our own gardens. We made table numbers out of wood slice coasters with numbers cut from various patterned papers.




My niece took her role as flower girl very seriously and did a wonderful job. She wore her own dress with my mother’s turquoise necklace and tiny flowers added to the straps.









Venue: Berwood Hill Inn in Lanesboro, MN

Bride's dress / shoes: Jim Hjelm / J.Crew

Groom's suit: Banana Republic

Music: Joel Schann during the day / iPod in the evening

Catering: Canadian Honker

Rentals: Majestic Tents and Events

Congratulations Janet and Ben! Thank you so much for sharing your charming wedding with us, and thank you to Stephany at EyeSpy Photography for sending over these wonderful photos!

Real Wedding: Michelle & Joe

I'm really excited about today's wedding, not just because it's epitomizes my idea of simple beauty, but also because Cappy Hotchkiss was the photographer, and I've been dying to get her work up on Snippet & Ink forever. Here is what the beautiful bride, Michelle, said about her September wedding:

Our wedding was a challenge to balance the groom's conventional style with the bride's more un-traditional flair. We wanted to celebrate Jewish customs, while instilling a sense of us as individuals. We were married by groom's family rabbi, but marched down the aisle to Queen's "You're My Best Friend." We said the seven blessing to commemorate a Jewish marriage while guests munched on popcorn and drank lemonade. The groom wore an awesome retro fedora for our "couple's photos" but donned a yarmulke for the ceremony. The bride covered her tattoos under the chuppah with a tallis (prayer shawl) that our mothers wrapped around both of us. We had a kosher caterer that served a vegetarian meal at the reception. We thought of our wedding as the first opportunity in a marriage to compromise and make everyone happy.










During wedding ceremonies I've attended as a guest, I get hungry and can't stop wondering when things will wrap up so I can eat. With that in mind, our caterer provided fresh popcorn and lemonade for guests to enjoy during the nuptials. I made labels that read: "Popcorn, Good for Noshing and for Tossing. Eat what you want and THROW the rest at Michelle and Joseph as they make their way down the aisle after exchanging vows." The popcorn doubled as snacks and an eco-friendly alternative to rice. The popcorn labels doubled as escort cards. If you're gonna do it yourself, make things easier, not harder. Efficiency is key.

After the ceremony we went to Yichud, which is a custom where the bride and groom seclude themselves and enjoy their first moments as husband-and-wife together. We didn't exchange our own vows during the ceremony, but wrote each other love letters that we read to one another in the bridal suite. It was so intimate and lovely. We plan to read each other these love letters on every anniversary. Jewish or not, it is worthwhile to take time to reflect and absorb everything that happened. If nothing else, a wedding keeps you busy. You won't get much privacy during the reception, so why not set aside ten or fifteen minutes to be alone together?

At first I was intimidated by having a larger sized wedding, but Joe wanted to celebrate with all his friends and family. We were able to create the feeling of intimacy. Our wedding party consisted of our parents and siblings. We took our couples photos together at a gorgeous park with only the photographer present. We shared an intimate post-ceremony drink in the bridal suite and read each other love letters. And, it turns out, the more the merrier! We had so much fun with everyone there, even I admit that I wouldn't have wanted anything smaller.

Venue: Bet Am Shalom in White Plains, New York

Bride's dress: Nicole Miller

Groom's suit / tie: Hugo Boss / Theory

Flowers: House of Flowers

Wedding programs: DIY printed at Staples

Ketubah: The Aesthetic Sense

Catering: Foremost Caterers

Thank you so much to Michelle and Joe for sharing your wedding day with us - it's such a beautiful day, and the details you shared make it that much more inspiring. Wishing you all the best for a lifetime of happiness! Thank you, too, to Cappy Hotchkiss, who takes some of the prettiest wedding photos out there.