New Press: Martha Stewart Weddings

Check out our adorable fall wedding on Martha Stewart Weddings! Our Labor of Love shot some gorgeous photos, not all of which made it to Martha, so we thought we'd share a few more with you here.




Dana and Quinn were an absolute delight to work with. They both currently live in LA, but Quinn is from Jamestowne, Virginia and thought what better place to have a wedding than on the historical grounds of the Historic Jamestowne archeological dig site, just up the road from the home he and his family grew up in. So, we flew out to Virginia, checked out the grounds and realized we couldn't have agreed with him more!

Jamestowne was the first permanent English settlement in America, meaning that it was the first real town settled back in the early 17th century. Complete with ruins of an old church, cemetery and the original fort, the grounds are a striking reminder of how this country began (pretty awesome history lesson to follow up Memorial Day, if I may say so myself). Smack in the middle of the grounds is a sprawling lawn, perfect for pitching up a massive Sperry Tent for a wedding reception. So, that's just what we did.






It was an amazing night full of dancing, a la Dexter Lake Club Band, delicious food with a menu created by Matt Poley of Heirloom LA and excellent service provided by Design Cuisine. The floral design by Beehive Events was to die for, a brilliant mix of gardeny seasonal colors and a touch of whimsy. They really pulled off the ultimate fall wedding without making it feel too themey or over the top. Oh, and did we mention how incredible the fall foliage was in Virginia? Every possible color you can imagine in those trees--made for the perfect wedding color palette.







For more photos and the rest of the story, be sure to check out the Martha post. Thanks again to an extremely talented crew:

Planning & Design: Yours Truly
Photography: Our Labor of Love
Videography: Hello Super 8
Florist: Beehive Events
Music: The Dexter Lake Club Band
Catering: Heirloom LA; Design Cuisine
Hair: Nicole Ternosky of Byron & Tracey Salon; Dawn Tracey
Makeup: Nam Vo
Cake: Cakes by Charlie
Stationery: Mr. Boddington's Studio
Rentals: Skyline Tent Company; Beehive Events
Transportation: A Goff Transportation
The Beautiful Tent (and the gorgeous photos of it, courtesy of Mr. Miles Hingeley): Skyline Tents

Style Me Pretty Post Today!

Check us out on Style Me Pretty today! These photos are from a wedding we did a few months back in Tulum, Mexico. Lovely photos were shot by the amazing duo Paco and Betty, based out of SF. Jamie and Justin were such a blast to work with and if you can't tell from the photos, just oh so in love. You can catch the full story on SMP.

AE Wedding in Mendocino: Kelle+Gregg

Check out our new wedding posted on 100 Layer Cake today. Here's a bit more of the back story for you to enjoy as well.







Kelle and Gregg were married on Labor Day weekend in a non-traditional water ceremony on a golden Mendocino bluff, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The couple’s children were an integral part of the ceremony, reflecting the significance of the joining of their two families. The groom was actually escorted down the aisle by his two sons, toting their younger sister in a red Radio Flyer wagon, while Kelle made her way down the aisle with her father and her favorite P!nk song playing in the background.

Following the ceremony, guests were invited to Spring Ranch for the reception. They cocktailed inside the property’s nineteenth century barn, followed by dinner in a Zephyr sperry cloth tent. They dined on Zephyr’s handmade wooden farm tables, which Natalie Bowen artfully decorated with deeply hued flowers, unique pieces of driftwood and quite a few succulents in varying shades of green and purple. To develop the color palette, Kelle drew her inspiration from the wine country’s deep reds, burgundy and plum tones, reflecting the upcoming fall season. These hues were mostly incorporated through the linens and flowers, bringing an element of color to the woodsy, ornate venue, which is decorated with some red tones of its own.

One of the really unique things about the Spring Ranch property is the owner’s incredible collection of antiques from around the world. Kelle and Gregg absolutely love his eye for vintage and thought it would be fun to tie in some of those elements throughout the wedding. So the AE Planning + Design team went to work collecting some old doors, wrought iron pieces and vintage medicine bottles and tins from the property to use as décor components. The bottles and tins were great centerpieces for the cocktail tables inside the barn, while a decorative piece of ironwork made a perfect focal point for the escort card table, with a few succulents strewn into it.

The paper materials, designed by Hello Lucky, were tied together with the couple’s wedding logo, “out of many, one,” and their RSVP cards featured pictures of their kids giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to reply. Rather than asking for gifts, Kelle and Gregg thought it would be fun to ask their guests to give their best marital advice, which was displayed on a khaki linen pinboard at the wedding reception. This proved to be a pretty hilarious exercise, which led to plenty of things for people to talk about.










Planning and Design: Yours truly, AE Planning + Design
Photographer: Kate Webber
Florist: Natalie Bowen
Catering: Jessica Lasky Catering
DJ: DJ Sol
Paper Materials: Hello!Lucky
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals, Zephyr Tents, La Tavola Linen
Hair and Make-Up: Neja Cosmetics
Croquembouche: Mendo Cakes

New Buffalo Wedding

As 2010 comes to an end, we're excited to share our biggest wedding of the year with you. The wedding was held over three gloriously sunny days in New Buffalo, Michigan this past August and is the epitome of summer elegance. Inspired by the setting of the Great Gatsby, the bride and groom wanted their wedding to feel like a step back in time, reflecting sophistication and simple charm.





The couple exchanged their vows in the backyard of the bride's family home, overlooking Lake Michigan. Guests were then driven in golf carts decorated with pom poms to the reception, which was held inside a Sperry tent on a private golf course in New Buffalo. Everything was stunning, from the handmade wood tables to the sisal carpeted flooring to the bubbly candlelight leading the pathway to the tent.

Lynne Jordan and the Shivers lit the dancefloor on fire, with their epic combination of motown classics and modern hits.



We'll unfold more photos of the details over the next week, so we hope you'll check back throughout the week to see more of this beautiful wedding.




Happy Holidays from the AE team to you and yours!

Event Planning and Design: Kelsey Sheofsky and Danielle Rowe, AE Planning + Design
Photos: Thayer Allyson Gowdy
Paper Materials: Olive-Route
Tabletop Settings: Small Masterpiece
Tent: Sperry Tents Great Lakes
Flowers: Danielle Rowe
Catering: Blue Plate
Rentals and Lighting: Kehoe
Linens: La Tavola

Vancouver Destination Wedding

We recently planned this amazing wedding in Vancouver. It's still up in the air who is going to publish this wedding, but we are obsessed and so we thought we could show you the behind the scenes for now. We are dying to show off the pro photos and you'll have to keep checking back for those, as they will end up here on the blog once they've been published.




Vancouver rocks. First off, I had to be literally dragged back onto the plane after the wedding. I fell in love with Vancouver and in the 72 hours of the site visit, I managed to bike all around the island, run every trail I could find and hit every health food store in sight... Meanwhile, Kelsey laid back and researched where to eat and drink.






The Olympics were taking place at the chosen venue (the Vancouver Convention Center) up until a month prior to the wedding, my team was unable to get into the space to see it until the wedding month. So, all of our designs and the floor plan were based on drawings without any real vision of what the room looked like. Once we got into the venue to see it, we made a few tweaks and changes, but found that the vision we had in mind worked wonderfully with the space. By bringing in an earthy, natural, outdoorsy feel, we were able to transform the convention space into a modern oasis.






Our plan was to ship in linens from California, but because of strict customs rules, we were afraid the linens might get stuck in customs. Thus, we decided to pack and carry 225 lbs of linens in our suitcases, paying hefty overweight charges and powering through extremely sore arms and backs to get them to Vancouver. Of course, when we arrived to the venue, the linens had shifted and were completely wrinkled, requiring us to spend the entire day before the wedding steaming them.

In order to staff appropriately for a wedding of 250 guests, we hired an amazing local producer her friend to assist with set up, which was helpful on a number of levels. It's always great to have a local on-site for weddings.

With tons of research, we were able to find the best rental company, a super accomodating lounge rental company and a really flexible florist who took great art direction.

DJ Blue rocked the dance floor as he always does... Seriously, always.

Friends and family came from all over Canada and the States. And although it rained the day of the wedding, people were still beaming with happiness.






We were so bummed to leave, but will definitely be back. Vancouver, you better watch out! We are waiting and doing rain dances for our next Canadian proposal.



xoxo,
Alison

New Press! Martha Stewart Weddings

Check us out in the winter 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, there's a lovely feature of the wedding we planned and designed for Jodi and Jon last winter on the slopes of Sundance Resort. The wedding was really unique and beautiful, with both the bride and groom hitting the ski slopes in full wedding gear. Grab a copy off your local newsstand to read the full story about this adorable couple that shares not only fourteen years of friendship, but a great love of skiing.











These photographs were shot by the amazing Thayer Allyson Gowdy.