Archive for the ‘Real Wedding’ Category

The Couple:  Courtney and Matthew Hebert

Wedding Date:  September 18, 2011

Photography by Sharpe Photographers

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Matt and I met through a business venture. I was raising my daughter who was seven months old at the time, all by myself and going through a difficult custody situation. My daughter and I had an instant connection with Matt and after a year and half of dating we moved in together….five years later, almost to the date, we got married, he was able to adopt my daughter and as they say the rest is history.

What was the most amazing part of your day?  Everything was about the three of us and our new life together.

Ceremony & Reception Site, and Caterer:  Catta Verdera Country Club

Photographer:  Sharpe Photographers

Videographer:  XSiGHT Photography & Video

Wedding Planner:  Circle the Day

Cake:  For pictures, a small sized cake from Freeport Bakery, guests had Chocolate Bread Pudding from Disneyland restaurant.

Flowers:  Bella Bloom Flowers

Favors:  Silhouettes cut out for our guest book also became a copy for guests to take home.

Wedding Dress:  Bridal Gallery

Bridesmaid Dresses:  Miosa Bride

Hair & Makeup:  Nicole Oneta (Bridesmaid)

Invitations:  Sarah-fina Custom Designs & Invitations

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Exquisite Events & Entertainment

Photo Booth:  We had a “Future Telling Tree” to tell where we will be in five and 10 years along with the silhouettes.

Honeymoon location:  We wanted to extend our family right away and are now expecting in July so we held off on a honeymoon until the beginning of next year.

Any other of your wedding vendor(s) you’d like to call out?  Celebrations! Event Rentals & Tents for our linens.

First Dance Song:  “God Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Have your wedding be the wedding of your dreams and no one else’s. Take your time making decisions and always create a binder with sections for each vendor and aspect of your big day.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  Everything was perfect until the bride realized she left the groom’s ring at home and had to use a stand in, but all in all the day was amazing.

Photos courtesy of Sharpe Photographers.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

Subscribe to the Real Weddings Magazine Blog!

The Couple:  Brooke and Kevin Harrington

Wedding Date:  November 4, 2011

Photography by Lexigraphics Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Kevin is a Preacher and I am a 4th grade teacher. We met in college, but lived 10 minutes apart most of our childhood lives without knowing each other.

What was the most amazing part of your day?  Getting married, of course! And the food!

What else would you like to share about your big day?  I wish more than anything that my mom could have been there at my special day. She passed away a year and a half prior to my wedding due to an aggressive form of breast cancer. I knew she was watching from heaven. I could not have pulled this wedding day off without my Aunt Caroline. She did my hair, did all of the reception centerpieces and decorated the entire venue!

Ceremony Site & Reception Venue & Caterer:  Cinnabar Hills Golf Course

Photographer & Photo Booth:  Lexigraphics Photography

Videographer:  David Wineinger (My sister’s father-in-law)

Wedding Planner:  ME! And of course some of my bridesmaids, and sister… If my mom had been here, I would have passed on all the planning to her! It was her dream to plan for me… and I would have let her have at it!

Cake:  Cake Expressions made by Cero. Chocolate all the way! And a “Dodgers” groom’s cake for Kevin made by my grandmother, Beverly Wilson: carrot cake.

Flowers:  Courtney Marie Floral. We used many succulents such as hens and chicks; My Aunt Caroline made every centerpiece with flowers provided by Courtney Marie.

Favors:  See’s Candy wrapped individually in gold boxes at each place setting.

Wedding Dress:  Trudy’s Bridal

Bridesmaid Dresses:  Alfred Angelo

Hair:  My Aunt Caroline (a hair stylist in Edmond, OK)

Makeup:  My sister and me (Thanks to Clinique)

Invitations:  DIY

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  I created CDs of Kevin and my all time favorite music to play during the reception…a mix of a little of everything.

Honeymoon location:  Half Moon Bay and San Francisco

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Start early…be patient…and be grateful for any help offered.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  Purchased different bridesmaid dresses… it was COLD, but sunny.

Photos courtesy of Lexigraphics Photography.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

Subscribe to the Real Weddings Magazine Blog!

The Couple:  Morgan and Michael Motia

Wedding Date:  July 2, 2011

Photography by The Goodness Photo & Design

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Morgan and I are both trying to become doctors. Morgan wants to be one of those doctors who helps people, so she is in medical school. I am in a doctoral program in religion, so I can ramble on about fourth century church councils or French philosophy, but if you’ve got the flu, I’d go to Morgan.

We met though Morgan’s roommate who was a classmate of mine, and became friends when a group of us started watching that romantic show, 24. Morgan and I found ourselves doing everyone’s dishes. We didn’t mind. In fact, that was our style.

A few months went by and after a facial hair experiment (i.e. fasting from the razor for the 40 days of lent)—I shaved on Easter Sunday, asked her out on Monday, we went on our first date on Tuesday… and we haven’t looked back.

We’ve road tripped across the country and have had our fair share of other adventures, but you’d be most likely to find us sitting on a couch, watching TV, talking about life, or, well, studying. Truth be told, we’re probably at our best sitting in a coffee shop reading material full of words that the average person has never heard (khôratic pyelonephritis), enjoying great coffee (we’ve been all over the country exploring coffee shops), and looking up a little too often to tell a story, to make a joke, or to just say hi.

After a little more than a year of dating, we were engaged June 22, 2010 and were married July 2, 2011 at The Citizen Hotel in Sacramento.

What was the most amazing part of your day?  Morgan will tell you that nothing will ever compare to walking down the aisle with her mom and dad to me and the people we love most (the bridesmaids and groomsmen). Walking into a room full of all the most important people in our lives wasn’t bad either—it is the only time we’ve ever been able to have that many people in our lives in a room for a night.

For me the five minuets or so between the “you may kiss the bride” and when the room cleared out and we started pictures was incredible. It was chaotic, everyone was happy (it was a short ceremony, so people didn’t get bored), people were trying to congratulate us, we were bouncing up and down with excitement. And then pictures started—which was great because we were taking pictures when we were as happy as we had ever been.

What else would you like to share about your big day?  Just as we were about to walk into the reception, Morgan peeked into the room, got a look at our cake and screamed. She was crying walking down the aisle; she was glowing after seeing the cake.

Ceremony Site & Reception Venue:  The Citizen Hotel

Photographer:  The Goodness Photo & Design (Lisa and Geoff were incredible before, during and after the reception)

Caterer:  The Grange

Cake:  Freeport Bakery

Flowers:  Blooms by Martha Andrews

Favors:  DIY. Each table had a “theme” based on something about us (coffee, med school, etc.) And each guest got a favor in line with the theme (coffee beans from our favorite coffee shop, a first aid kit for med school)

Road Trip – CD of music

Pizza Night (our Friday night tradition) – Homemade pizza sauce

Coffee – Coffee beans from our favorite shop

Sushi (every Tuesday for the first year we were dating) – Chopsticks

Vegetarians – Mini tomato plants

Dishwashing (how we met) – Dish soap

Baseball (Mike) – Crackerjacks, baseball score card

Harvard Divinity School (Mike) – Moleskin notebooks

Medical School (Morgan) – First-aid kit

Running (Morgan) – Shoe laces

California – Rainbow sandal keychains

Wedding Dress:  David’s Bridal. Altered/detachable black straps at Alterations by Melody.

Bridesmaid Dresses:  We had them get any black cocktail dress, necklaces were from Etsy.

Hair & Makeup:  Ashley Alice Artistry

Invitations:  The Goodness Photo & Design (They were amazing! They did our place cards, logo and thank you cards as well)

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Extreme Productions Entertainment

Photo Booth:  The Goodness Photo & Design

Honeymoon location:  We flew to Paris, then got on a cruise in Copenhagen (Denmark, Norway, Germany, Russia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden), then finished in Geneva, Switzerland.

First Dance Song:  ”Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” by Ingrid Michaelson

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Do personal things. Our favors took a lot of time, but our guests loved them, and (more importantly) they were a reminder of why we were getting married. Or to say that another way, have fun planning. The year of our engagement Morgan was a first year medical student in Scranton, PA, and I was finishing my master’s degree in Boston, and we were planning a wedding that was going to be in California. It was a lot of work and logistics but we made it stress free by having fun with it.

Making our day special meant doing something special for the people we love. We put a lot of thought into the food, candy bar, cake, DJ, photobook and favors because these were the things that our guest were going to enjoy. We didn’t want people to feel like we took them coming (especially across the country) for granted.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  We choose to have a served dinner, which I think worked great at the wedding because everyone got to eat at the same time. We hate the waiting in line for buffet food. But it was really difficult the week before trying to make sure we have everyone’s meal correct and it made doing the seating chart that much more difficult.

Photos courtesy of The Goodness Photo & Design.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

Subscribe to the Real Weddings Magazine Blog!

The Couple:  Ashley Cooper and Paul-Michael Sosa

Wedding Date:  October 22, 2011

Photography by Capture Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Ashley and I met while working at UC Davis several years go. After a year of friendship we started dating and soon fell in love. We love exploring California together and can’t wait for our next adventure.

What was the most amazing part of your day?  During the middle of our ceremony, a couple of birds decided to hang out in the tree above us and sing us a song. It was pretty awesome and made the ceremony feel magical.

What else would you like to share about your big day?  We decided to take a set of dance lessons before the wedding and even did a single lesson with our parents for the Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dances. It was great because we were able to work out our first dance gitters during the lessons so when it came time for the wedding, we rocked it and had a blast.

Ceremony Site & Reception Venue:  Wilson Vineyards

Photographer:  Capture Photography

Caterer:  Fresh and Quick Catering

Cake:  Timothy’s Bakery

Flowers:  Raley’s (DIY bouquets and centerpieces)

Favors:  Honey from Sola Bee

Wedding Dress:  Miosa Bride

Bridesmaid Dresses:  Nordstrom

Hair & Makeup:  Reflections Salon

Invitations:  DIY

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Pro Mobile DJ

Honeymoon location:  Bali, Indonesia

Any other of your wedding vendor(s) you’d like to call out?  Our officiant, Rev. Jeri Murphy. Dance Lessons from Barbara’s Dancing Tonight and Spotlight Dance Studio.

First Dance Song:  “Oh, It Is Love” by Hello Goodbye

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Take off one to tw days of work right before your wedding to get all the last minute stuff in order. Once family starts coming into town, they all want to visit and you’ll realize you have no time to do those final touches.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  Our entire wedding was a magical evening with all our close friends and family members. We wouldn’t change a moment of that day.

Photos courtesy of Capture Photography.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

Subscribe to the Real Weddings Magazine Blog!

The Couple:  Abby and Kevin Smithey

Wedding Date:  July 16, 2011

Photography by Jocelyn McGregor Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  We worked for the same company, and he was helping out at my location for a day. We kept in contact, and when I left the company, he insisted on taking me out. We have been inseparable ever since! I think what makes us work so well is that we truly enjoy each other’s company, and we are incredibly close to our families. It makes life so much easier when your families are so amazing! There is never a dull moment, he always makes me laugh!

What was the most amazing part of your day?  Other than marrying Kevin? Being around so many people that mean so much to Kevin and me. It’s a rare thing to have everyone special in your life around at once. It made the day that much more magical.

What else would you like to share about your big day?  That it was a BLAST! Kevin and I, along with our family, worked so hard to make sure that our guests would always be entertained. From wedding trivia to amazing drinks and an incredible DJ, our guests (hopefully) had a fun, laid back day with us. It’s everything we ever could have wanted.

Ceremony Site & Reception Venue:  Abby’s parents’ backyard

Photographer:  Jocelyn McGregor Photography

Videographer:  Mike Compton, a family friend

Caterer:  Carmelita’s Restaurant and Catering. The food was sooooooo good. Nothing like a nice, spicy enchilada or a fresh tamale to start your married life off right.

Cake:  Annie Blundell, she is up and coming people. Watch out, her cakes are delicious!

Flowers:  The previous owners of Petals & Paws florist, Rick and Jan Kerr, did all of the flowers. Words cannot describe how important this was to me. I grew up visiting the flower shop with my mom, and I would always get to go behind the counter and help them with arrangements or play with their two dogs. It was a DREAM come true that they agreed to do my wedding. It meant more to me than they will probably ever know!

Favors:  Instead of favors, we had trivia sheets placed at every table, and guests got to play against each other to see who would get to go first to eat dinner. Our families are not only pretty smart, they are pretty competitive, so it was fun to see them rack their brains for answers.

Wedding Dress:  House of Fashion. I knew it was my dress the moment I saw it in a magazine. It was the first one I tried on (I only tried on five), and it fit like a glove. I felt so beautiful in it!

Bridesmaid Dresses:  Ann Taylor. The bridesmaids were pretty involved in their dresses. I really wanted to make sure that they felt beautiful and comfortable in their dresses. The color was so hard to find! These dresses were perfect in every way!

Hair:  Hair Gone Wild not only did my hair, but they did my bridesmaids, mother-of-the-groom, mother-of-the-bride, and my aunt’s hair. My mom and I are really close to them — they ended up staying and partying with us for the wedding. They are so innovative, kind, and talented — I was lucky to have them make our hair pretty.

Makeup:  Michelle Kinkaid did my makeup, as well as my bridesmaids, mother of the groom, and mother of the bride. She was such a joy to work with. I honestly cannot say enough great things about her! She made me, along with everyone else she worked on, feel more beautiful than I have in my entire life! I would recommend her to ANYONE looking for a great makeup artist.

Invitations:  DIY. I ended up putting the invitations together myself, with the help of some of my family. My mom and I purchased the materials and had everything printed by Stephanie at The Paper Garden. It was a great way to get something different and original, and it was cheaper than having them made.

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Our DJ was a family friend of my mother’s, who graciously donated his time to mixing some fantastic music for our day!

Honeymoon location:  Alaska! Kevin and I love cold weather, so it was a no brainer to head up north to Alaska! We cruised Carnival and had a great time!

Any other of your wedding vendor(s) you’d like to call out?  Rent Rite party rentals worked very well with us around providing tables and chairs. They had everything we needed, and were relatively cheaper than anyone else around.

First Dance Song:  “Green Eyes” by Coldplay

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  It’s easier for me to say now that the event is over, but really try your best to not get caught up in the stresses of everything. Throughout the whole process, take a step back and look at what you are putting together! You will not remember the stresses you are feeling once it’s over, you will have great memories of a fantastic time in your life. Enjoy every minute.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  The day went off without a hitch, it was perfect from start to finish, so I can’t say that I would change a single thing about it!

Photos courtesy of Jocelyn McGregor Photography.

Check out the Real Weddings Contest Page! Great bridal loot for real Sacramento-area brides!

Subscribe to the Real Weddings Magazine Blog!