I thought it would be fun to introduce you to our Friday “Real Wedding” couple, Loni and Ross. Their beautiful destination wedding was sent to us from John Lyons (John Lyons Weddings) and he was gracious enough to share with us a few day-before shots taken at the Couples Negril, Jamaica resort!
Be sure to stop by tomorrow to see their beautiful tropical Jamaica wedding!
I was SO excited to receive this very adorable engagement session that took place right along the shores of Charleston, SC from one of our very own Destination Wedding Vendors, Kate Botwinski Photography! I have seriously fallen in love with Kate & Sam’s photography. You can see from the images just how sweet this couple is and just how much they are head over heels in love with one another!
From the Photographer: Shane and Nikki currently reside in Charleston, where they are stationed with the Air Force. Shane is a charming Air Force pilot and when Nikki busy with her career as a local news producer, she’s supporting her hubby-to-be while he is flying missions.
After seeing this e-session, I can’t wait to visit Charleston! My little sis, Holly just moved there and is in the line up to be engaged next or so we think: hint, hint Travis. ;) I can just imagine how sweet they’ll look in their engagement photos walking along the beach or sitting right under the spanish moss. Ahhh can’t wait!
THANK YOU to Kate & Sam for sharing this precious couple and your amazing photography with us today!
Every Thursday I’ll be joining a circle of some lovely ladies who are other wedding bloggers and industry professionals to bring you some wedding planning tips and tricks. We hope we can save you a little heartache and headache during your planning process and do what we can to help you prevent making the mistakes we did or have seen other brides make.
Sooo…
You’re engaged?! Congrats! You’re so excited, have screamed your head off, told all your friends and family right? You’re now already starting to think about a date, your dress, the wedding party, venues, budget, etc. But wait? Have you actually sat down yet to think about your guest list? No? Well what are you waiting for?!
This is my tip for you today: Draft up a guest list before you decide on your wedding location and ceremony or reception venue. Once the planning commences, I recommend you sit down with your sweetie and include any “influencers” aka “Mom & Dad” and write out the guest list. It may sound like common sense, but some do forget in all the excitement that a guest list can and will affect so much of your planning. Some questions to think about:
The last one- yeah that was my mistake. I never wanted to get married in Georgia (where I did most of my growing up) and wanted to get married near a beach or be somewhere with an ocean view (and not on the Atlantic coast or Gulf). Sounds picky I know. So shortly after a brainstorming session with my mom who remembered growing up near a beautiful glass chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, we knew Southern California would be our destination! And a glass chapel that sits on top a big hill over looking the Pacific Ocean? Seriously? What’s not to love about that!
Although we knew the Wayfarers Chapel had a max capacity of 100 people, we thought, no problem! We wanted a small wedding with around 80 guests so that would be perfect! So shortly after our engagement, we sent off our very hefty contribution to the chapel (its much more expensive than the “typical” church contribution). Ceremony venue booked! Woohoo!
BIG MISTAKE. It was only after we booked the chapel and got further into the planning when we really sat down to look at our guest list. I have no idea what I was seriously thinking when I thought we’d be able to narrow our list down to only 80 people, or even at least keep it under 100. We’re super close to family and have a large circle of very close friends. No matter how we sliced it and diced it our list totaled around 180 people and we’d expect around 120 to show. But the chapel would max out at 100! AHHH. Then the cost of SoCal venues? Wow- seriously wasn’t expecting the numbers I was hearing, so that translated into now having to budget for more guests too!
Okay, so fast forward about 6-8 months later after we went through a job loss, a relocation, unemployment, starting a business, blah, blah, blah, we completely scratched the idea of a SoCal wedding, postponed it for another year and decided to take our wedding to Los Cabos, Mexico. This automatically cut our guest list down to around 45 people and our wedding expenses in half.
So all this to say, ladies- just keep your guest list at the top of your list of the first things to do. It will help you decide what venues to consider, what your budget will be, and even possibly what city, state, or country you decide to have your wedding.
And just for a stroll down memory lane of when I was planning my SoCal wedding at this amazing venue, here are a few pics from my trip out to see the Wayfarers Chapel which I didn’t plan until after I already booked it. Again, I know that was slightly backwards.
Glass ceilings, old stone steps, gorgeous wooden pews, and views of the Pacific….so in love.
My amateur shots of the Wayfarers Chapel, view of the ocean, and beautiful garden:
And a beautiful shot of the glass walls and ceiling at Wayfarers Chapel from a professional, Lauren Miyake Photography:
What lessons have you learned along the way?
Looking for more tips & tricks? Check out these Thursday Tips features from these lovely ladies:
More SoCal love for you on the blog today. A sweet and classic cliffside wedding coming to us this afternoon from the amazing Karen Ziemkowski from Karen Lisa Artistic Photography!
I love the small intimate setting of the La Jolla Wedding Bowl, a highly sought after San Diego wedding ceremony location. “La Jolla” which means “The Jewel” in Spanish is exactly that! The ceremony location is a little gem that accommodates no more than about 40 guests and looks over 3 terrains including the beautiful Pacific coastline, the beach, cliffs and rocks. Um can you say breathtaking?
I’m so thankful Karen shared this pretty in pink wedding with us!
From the photographer: Summer and Ray chose to have a small destination wedding with their ceremony at La Jolla’s beautiful Wedding Bowl overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and celebrated their reception with their two daughters, close friends, and family members at Ray’s grandfather’s home in La Mesa, California.
Look at that beautiful crescent moon! Perfect way to end “hump” day Wednesday isn’t it? Congratulations to Summer and Ray who will be celebrating their 1 year anniversary on April 16th and again to Karen for sharing these precious wedding moments with us.
The Creative Team Behind the Scenes:
Photographer: Karen Lisa Artistic Photography / Floralist: Suzan M Florals /Cake Designer: Grove Pastry Shop
This wedding was submitted via Two Bright Lights!
Behind the door bathroom storage baskets
Storage/bookshelf
Fun storage idea...bucket/pail
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