Archive for the ‘Sacramento Wedding DJ’ Category

The Couple:  Crystal Golightly and Noel Figueroa

Wedding Date:  May 19, 2011

Photography by White Daisy Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Noel is a native New Yorker born and raised in Brooklyn. I (Crystal) am a Bay Area girl who moved to NYC in 2004 shortly after graduating college.We met in 2005 at a local bar/restaurant in Williamsburg Brooklyn where we almost instantly knew that we’d just stumbled upon one that we’d share the rest of our lives with. After few months of dating, we very quickly moved in together and have been together ever since!

What was the most amazing part of your day?  Having all of our family and friends together in one place since we are all scattered across the country!

What else would you like to share about your big day?  One of my girls from the Bay Area and the best man found love at our wedding! They may actually have some wedding bells in their future as well.

Ceremony Site & Reception Venue & Caterer:  Estate Restaurant

Photographer:  White Daisy Photography

Wedding Planner:  Kellie Whelan, who was just amazing!

Cake:  Sweetie Pies Bakery

Flowers:  The maid-of-honor, Elizabeth Fletcher, who did some amazing things with flowers that we purchased at Trader Joes, Whole Foods and a local florist. (she is also a great blogger evasaidit.com very cheeky, urban and hip!)

Favors:  DIY. An eclectic mixed “tape” CD of salsa, pop, r&b and reggae finished off with a photo of us.

Wedding Dress:  Mihca Cho, a local NYC designer

Bridesmaid Dresses:  Mori Lee (purchased from various bridal boutiques throughout the country)

Hair & Makeup:  Knotty Hair Salon

Invitations:  Wedding Paper Divas and Paper Source. I did a LOT of DIY.

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Raquel and Bolero y Más

Photo Booth:  No photo booth, but we bought some pretty disposable cameras and let everyone go wild! It was a great to develop the photos and see what every one did when we weren’t hanging out with them!

Honeymoon location:  Planning to go to the Dominican Republic this year, we’ve had a bit of a crazy year with new jobs and a puppy!

First Dance Song:  “At Last” by Etta James

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Have fun and don’t stress out. If you are true to yourself, your likes and your taste, you will have a great time. For us it was really important to keep it simple since we live in NYC and were planning this day from 3,000 miles away. I knew that I wanted a low-key intimate, yet beautiful, day so what better place then Sonoma?

When I came across The Estate and read the history of this 100-year old Victorian house I was mesmerized! I actually didn’t see the property until about three months before the wedding. Not only was the location gorgeous, but it was very convenient because we were able to buy out the restaurant which included coordination, cocktail hour, dinner and wine, and even a dessert course.

A few years back I went to a wedding where they served Champagne as the guests were entering the garden ceremony and I knew that I NEEDED that. So we served Prosecco as our guests waited for us to arrive. It turned out great because not only were we late (I forgot my veil), but also because we knew our friends were getting a little tipsy so if we happened to trip or giggle it would be okay.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  I would have liked to slow the whole thing down and enjoy every single moment. Everyone told me to take a moment look around and absorb it all — that was probably the best advice and I wish I would have done that more.

Photos courtesy of White Daisy Photography.

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

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The Couple:  Maureen and Bryan Fulkerson

Wedding Date:  August 13, 2011

Photography by Fisher Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Bryan and I are both very active and enjoy running, rock climbing, mountain biking, camping, tennis and hiking. We gave up TV when we moved into our new home shortly after our wedding and haven’t turned back. We use the time we would be spending watching “junk reality shows” and Iron Chef America, to explore self-growth on a quest to ensure lifelong happiness. We’re big on relaxing and enjoying life!

What was the most amazing part of your day?  For me (Maureen), I loved the procession. Since we didn’t have wedding parties, our procession was just our families and it was so heartwarming and meaningful to me to have each member of my immediate family be a part of the day.

Bryan liked that we didn’t give into society’s pressures of tradition or the “cookie cutter wedding.” We did things just the way wanted to, which included him wearing a polo shirt under a seer sucker suit (which he looked amazing in). Our day was truly a representation of us.

What else would you like to share about your big day?  Bryan made part of the centerpieces for the tables! Since he didn’t have a real opportunity to meet many of my hometown friends and family (we live on the East Coast and them on the West Coast), he thought it would be a great idea to introduce him and us through stories and photos. He put together pictures and brief stories on card stock and then I decorated them with ribbon and some scrap-booking supplies. They turned out great and made for good conversation starters for our guests. The stories brought old friends and family up to speed on how Bryan and I met and shared a lot about our life together.

In addition, the same person, Donna Jones, who married us also married my mom and my step-father in 2001.

Ceremony Site & Reception Venue:  Private Residence

Photographer:  Fisher Photography

Wedding Planner:  Maureen worked with her mom, sister, Mary-Beth Fulkerson (who is married to Bryan’s brother) and Jan Fulkerson (Bryan’s mom) to plan the details. Bryan thinks he managed the whole operation. Shhh, we won’t tell him! : )

Caterer:  DIY. We made all of the food with lots of help from family and my mom’s amazing garden. The menu was made up of our favorite foods to include baked brie, bruschetta, Caesar salad, pasta salad, turkey, beef and veggie burgers. We even did a bride and groom burger — the Beefy Bride Burger and the Gobble-Gobble Groom’s Burger, each complete with their own special toppings! It definitely showed our sense of humor and creative sides. Bryan wrote out the menu on a large chalk board which was located at the front of the serving line.

Cake/Desserts:  Pleasant Valley Grill. Again, in a step towards the nontraditional, we ordered four different round specialty cakes from the Pleasant Valley Grill made by one of the owners, Christine Meyers. We used the coconut cake (a family favorite) for our cake cutting because it was the only cake the color white. My aunt made candied lemons to decorate the cake. Having four completely different cakes gave our guests lots of choices, although I heard from several people that they tried all four!

Flowers:  DIY. We ordered all of our flowers through Sam’s Club.

Favors:  DIY. Small jars of honey with a piece of cloth that matched the center-pieces and secured by a yellow ribbon. Bryan’s mom sewed the fabric pieces that went under each jar of hydrangeas for the centerpieces and cut out the swatches to be used for the honey jars.

Wedding Dress:  J.Crew

Bridesmaid Dresses:  BCBG

Hair & Makeup:  Laura Schumaker at Blondie’s Salon.

Invitations:  DIY. Bryan and Maureen used an invitation kit and a template to create and print their own invitations. Maureen wrapped each with ribbon before sending them off.

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Mountain Event Productions

Honeymoon location:  Bryan and I returned to Virginia immediately following the wedding so I could start a new job as a school counselor so the honeymoon was postponed. This summer we have a three-week road trip planned up and down the east coast which we are both really excited about.

First Dance Song:  “You Are the Best Thing” by Ray Montagne

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Try not to get caught up in creating a glamorous wedding that breaks the bank just to impress others. Do things the way you want, use your imagination, and, of course, hire a great photographer who understands your style and make sure you give them plenty of opportunity to shine — smile and keep smiling!!

Also, consider a long family-style table! We made a last minute switch (my mom’s idea) to swap out eight round tables for long rectangular tables which we shaped into a “T”. The top of the “T” was the head table. This turned out great and made for an intimate feel!

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  I wish I could have slowed down time! The day goes by so fast, try to relax and soak it all up!

Photos courtesy of Fisher 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:  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:  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!