Posts Tagged ‘Sacramento Wedding’

The Couple:  April and Matthew Fetch

Wedding Date:  October 23, 2010. This date was very special to us. It has both of our favorite numbers, it’s right in the middle of fall (our favorite season), and it was a full moon, which is supposed to mean good luck in love!

Photography by Christopher Kight Photographers

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  My husband and I met when we were 19 years old. We both worked at the same restaurant. We dated for a long time before our engagement. We both felt strongly about finishing school and establishing our careers before getting married. When he did propose to me, we were traveling through Europe. He managed to make it to the top of the Eiffel Tower (which is huge for him, he’s terrified of heights!) before he got down on bended knee and popped the question. He even managed to get someone to videotape it! It was a sweet surprise, and it’s fun to go back and watch the tape!

What was the most amazing part of your day?  The most amazing part of our day was being surrounded by our friends and family. It was so great to visit with those I hadn’t seen in awhile. We danced the night away with our loved ones, and it was a blast!

What else would you like to share about your big day?  We tried to personalize it to us as much as possible. For example, he is a police officer, and I am a teacher, so our tables were given names such as “the teacher’s lounge” or “the jailhouse” rather than numbers. Also, our DJ helped up come up with the most hysterical bios to introduce our bridal party. Our guests were cracking up and our bridal party was so surprised.

Ceremony Site:  SS. Peter and Paul in Rocklin

Reception Venue:  Sun City Roseville’s Timber Creek Ballroom

Photographer:  Christopher Kight Photographers

Videographer:  Dan Comins (a personal friend)

Cake:  Freeport Bakery

Flowers:  The Party Concierge

Favors:  We made them ourselves, they were little boxes filled with candy. We got a lot of our supplies from Michaels and The Dollar Tree!

Wedding Dress:  Alfred Angelo

Bridesmaid Dresses:  Alfred Angelo

Hair:  Jessica Edwards (personal friend and manager of Images Salon in Sacramento)

Makeup:  Ann Wagner (personal friend and manager of Estee Lauder in Roseville)

Invitations:  Invitations by Dawn

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Matt Brys from Extreme Productions Entertainment (He’s the best!)

Honeymoon location:  Jamaica! It was completely last minute, too. We found a really good deal, so we went for it!

First Dance Song:  “Making Memories of Us” by Keith Urban.  That song was written for us. It described us and our situation perfectly.

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  I am the kind of girl who wants everything to be perfect. I told myself that if I went into my wedding day with that attitude, I was going to have a miserable day. Through all of the stress, I constantly reminded myself that the ONLY important thing was that me and my husband both show up and say ‘I do.’ Everything else is just a bonus.

Was my day perfect? Of course not! It was the ONE rainy Saturday in October so I didn’t get any of the beautiful, sunny outdoor pictures I had been dreaming about, I had a blemish right in the middle of my forehead, we ran late getting ready, and so on. But, I had prepared myself to not sweat the small stuff. And because of that, my wedding day was a BLAST. My advice to you is the advice my husband gives me: the only thing that will ruin a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan. So just roll with the punches and enjoy the day! It’s your day and you’ve worked so hard for it!

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  We thought it was important to get a hotel room for our wedding night. Looking back, I would have much rather spent it at my home, where it is comfortable and ours. We would have saved money, and not had to go through the hassle of having to pack, deal with check in/out, etc. So don’t do things just because you feel like you’re supposed to, do what works for you.

Photos courtesy of Christopher Kight Photographers.

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The Couple:   Jenny and Eric

Wedding Date:  November 20, 2010

Photography by D. Elaine Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Eric and I live in Sacramento, California. We met about three years ago on the Internet! We love the outdoors and visit Mendocino often. We love the outdoors so much we decided to have our wedding on the coast in Mendocino. It seemed very appropriate for our personalities. We found having a small wedding on the coast was more reasonable and more magical than anything we could plan locally.

What was the most amazing part of your day?   The most amazing part of our day was getting married by one of our close friends, outdoor, overlooking the ocean in front of our closest friends and family, even if it was in the rain! It is a dream come true and could not have been more perfect. Eric and I were able to spend time together prior to the wedding which helped put my nerves at ease. The food in Mendocino was fantastic, as was the view in every direction. Our room at the Brewery Gulch Inn was lovely to get ready for the ceremony and to take pre-photographs. Our photographer Diana was amazing!

What else would you like to share about your big day?  Our guests seemed to get a huge kick out of us getting married on the beach in the rain in a cypress, grove away from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Everyone treated it as an adventure and had a wonderful time. Eric and I were so happy to have a small ceremony with our closest family and friends. We were really happy to be able to provide them with a mini vacation. In doing so, it made our wedding perfect!

Ceremony Site:  Cypress Grove near Mendocino Village

Reception Venue:  955 Ukiah Street Restaurant. The reception was perfect. We closed down a gorgeous little restaurant just for our party. Peggy and Jamie were awesome, and we look forward to visiting every time we are in Mendocino for many years to come.

Photographer:   D. Elaine Photography. Diana is a wonderful person will a lovely spirit and gorgeous soul. Her photographs are artistic, and she makes you feel like family. She managed to make all of the photos look gorgeous even if they were in the rain!

Caterer:  955 Ukiah Street Restaurant

Cake:  Sharon Robinson

Flowers:  My good friend Leena Brown

Favors: We bought wine keys for everyone and had personalized chap sticks including our names and wedding date!

Wedding Dress:  Diamond Bridal Gallery

Bridesmaid Dresses:  We decided against having a wedding party. We encouraged our friends and family to wear whatever made them comfortable and happy.

Hair:  Mendocino Beauty

Makeup:Amy Wall with Mendocino Beauty

Invitations:  Wedding Paper Divas

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  My trusty iPod. (I chose a mix of music Eric and I love and listen to often. I also mixed in some favorite songs of my friends and family to personalize the music experience for my guests.) Even the catering staff was rocking out to our eclectic mix of music while cooking in the back!

Photo Booth:  D. Elaine Photography

Honeymoon location:  Mendocino was practically a honeymoon location! We have a trip to France and Spain scheduled for later in the year! We can’t wait.

Any other of your wedding vendor(s) you’d like to call out? Cafe Beaujolais was the location for our pre-wedding dinner the night before. The staff was wonderful and the food was amazing.

The Hill House Inn in Mendocino Village is where we reserved rooms for all of our guests. The staff could not have been more accommodating.

First Dance Song:  We ended up not having a first dance and are just choosing to dance through life instead.

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  I could not recommend Mendocino any higher as a wedding location. It was a wonderful and magical place to get married full of nice people, phenomenally beautiful spots everywhere you look, and fantastic high qualify food. It was a wonderful destination wedding that did not feel far away. It was effortless to plan, even remotely. Eric and I chose to have a short engagement which meant an abbreviated planning period which was stressful at times. However, I would not have done it differently. We were able to make decisions quickly and move forward with planning. It was perfect for us and the planning was fun.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  I would have bribed Mother Nature into holding off the rain!

Photos courtesy of D. Elaine Photography.

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The Couple:  Carrie and Richard Putnam

Wedding Date:  May 1, 2010

Photography by Emily Heizer Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  We met on eHarmony in 2007 and had our first date at Bella Bru. We had a lot in common and soon were traveling back and forth between Sacramento and Auburn. We both work in Roseville and decided to buy a house in Lincoln to be close to work and our families. We love to travel, spend time with family, go wine tasting, ride quads and take drives to the coast.

What was the most amazing part of your day?  For Richard it was seeing Carrie walk down the pathway to the oak tree and seeing the wind lift her veil as she walked down with her dad. For Carrie it was reciting their own vows that they wrote for each other and the emotion that comes with reading them out loud.

What else would you like to share about your big day?   We were surrounded by fun, supportive friends and family in our wedding party and had a great time. We told Emily, our wedding photographer, that we wanted to have fun with taking pictures and it showed…especially with the pictures we took on the golf course.

We wanted to cut costs where we could and decided to print our own invitations, programs, name tents and table names. Even though the task of putting together all of the items took time and effort, we were so happy with the outcome.

We wanted our guests to have fun so while we were taking photographs, our friend Aaron Deter had a trivia game contest about us as a couple. The winners of the trivia were the first ones to start the buffet line.

Ceremony Site:  Serrano Country Club

Reception Venue:  Serrano Country Club

Photographer:  Emily Heizer Photography

Caterer:  Serrano Country Club

Cake:  Bella Bru Cafe

Flowers:  Flourish

Favors:  Wine Glasses

Wedding Dress:  Bridal Mart

Bridesmaid Dresses:  The bridesmaids used their own dresses

Hair and Makeup:  Jennifer Gilchrist

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Matt Brys with Extreme Productions Entertianment

Honeymoon location:  We spent 18 days in Italy. We took a 14 day cruise around Italy and also spent time in Rome touring on our own. It was an amazing vacation and something that we have always wanted to do.

Any other of your wedding vendor(s) you’d like to call out?  We had family friends Janet Arnold and Ann Ince of Ann’s Flowers put together the centerpieces and other side table decorations. They incorporated flowers that were in my bouquet into the decorations and also purple lights to match the colors we had infused throughout the wedding. The decorations were amazing and we loved them!

First Dance Song:  The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  Research and price out different locations for your event. We wanted a place that we could feel comfortable and be the only wedding that day at the facility. The staff at Serrano was amazing and accommodated each and every request we had.

We also created a wedding Web site that gave information about us and our gift registry. We wanted gift cards or bon voyage gifts we could use on our cruise. We had information on the Web site on how to contact the cruise line to give us a gift. It was a great tool in getting out information for our guests.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  We wouldn’t do anything different however we would’ve liked to have a longer reception. With an open bar and an adults only reception, the party was just getting started when everything came to an end.

Photos courtesy of Emily Heizer Photography

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The Couple:  Marissa and Matthew Korbel-Bowers

Wedding Date:  August 22, 2009

Photography by Emily Heizer Photography

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Matt and I had been dating and living together for nine years when we got married. When people used to ask us why we weren’t married, we’d shrug and say that we couldn’t imagine it would make much of a difference. We already lived together and were very committed.

In April of 2008, Matt asked me to marry him while we were on a totally luxurious and romantic trip to Calistoga (that he’d planned himself). Obviously, I said yes. And immediately, we agreed that things felt different. We couldn’t put our finger on what, exactly, had changed. But being engaged was wonderful.

We knew we wanted a weekend-style wedding where all our friends and family could show up and relax. We were so excited when my parents (who live in Mount Shasta) called to tell us about McCloud. It has the perfect, small-town atmosphere, and the location is so breathtakingly beautiful, we knew our wedding guests would enjoy spending a weekend there. And they did.

What was the most amazing part of your day?  For me, it was probably standing under the chuppah, surrounded by all our friends and family and exchanging the vows we wrote for each other. Hearing Matt tell me all the things he loved about me made me laugh out loud at times (like when he said he loved my sense on humor and my “cognitive abilities”), and made me cry, too.

Matt’s favorite part was stomping on the glass at the end of the ceremony. He said it was amazing to hear all our friends and family shout our “L’Chaim” and clap and cheer for us. It really marked the end of our ceremony, and the beginning of the party. And we really had quite a party.

What else would you like to share about your big day?   We are really happy that we decided to create a weekend of events instead of focusing all of our time and attention on one evening. It set a very relaxed and happy tone for the whole wedding, since we weren’t running around trying to spend time with 100 people at our reception. We got to talk to nearly every guest at some point over the weekend, and spend quality time catching up with family and friends who traveled far distances to be there with us.

One of the most creative things we did was organize a wedding recessional parade, complete with musical instruments and an accordion. After the ceremony, Matt and I led our family and friends down the main street of town. We laughed and talked and it felt great to be walking with everyone over to the party.

Ceremony Site:  McCloud Guesthouse

Reception Venue:  McCloud Mercantile

Photographer:  Emily Heizer Photography

Wedding Planner:  The Bride and Groom

Caterer:  Helena Darling Catering

Cake:  Dane and Johnnie Nichols Custom Wedding Cakes

Flowers:  Barclay Botanical

Wedding Dress:  Amy Kuschel Bride

Bridesmaid Dresses:  I asked my bridesmaids to choose any dress in navy blue jersey that they liked and would wear again. Two of them bought theirs at American Apparel, one of them bought hers at J. Crew, and two of them bought theirs at Butter by Nadia.

Hair:  DYI

Makeup: One of my bridesmaids, Alysha Umphress

Invitations:  Designed and printed by Matthew Korbel-Bowers (the groom). Assembled and mailed by Marissa (the bride)

DJ/Entertainment/Band:  Matt and I made two playlists, and basically hit “play” on my laptop twice: once after the toasts, and once after the cake. It was awesome! I was a little nervous about not having a DJ, but everybody danced and had a great time.

Honeymoon location:  We still haven’t taken our honeymoon, but our plan is to go to Paris.

Any other of your wedding vendor(s) you’d like to call out?   Not really “vendors,” but I took major inspiration and solace from the fine ladies on indiebride and offbeatbride’s message boards. Everything from ceremony readings that were totally appropriate for a couple that had been together for a long time, to non-matching bridesmaids’ photos, to photographers (that’s how we found Emily).

First Dance Song:  Into the Mystic by Van Morrison

Any advice you’d give to our readers who are planning their weddings right now?  We approached our wedding with a lot of DIY spirit. We made everything from the invitations to the reception play list to the place cards. We bought our own alcohol (vodka, whisky and gin), mixers and wine, and hired bartenders to serve it. We decorated the tables and designed the reception layout.

On the other hand, we tried not to micro-manage, and instead let people run with what they cared about. For example, my mom wanted to make place cards for the front row seating of the ceremony. My instinct was that it was unnecessary, but I didn’t worry about it, and there’s a whole bunch of pictures of our family members wearing their ceremony place cards and smiling.

Our close friends helped us set up the reception hall, and we let them decorate the tables with the supplies we bought. We took music requests on our wed-site. We basically tried to listen to the people in our lives that have gotten us this far. And things worked out even better than we planned because we were able to get out of the way and let the cool, spontaneous, creative stuff happen.

We took all our pictures before the ceremony, and I would totally recommend doing that to anyone willing to refrain the tradition of first seeing each other at the ceremony. Matt and I planned a sweet little “first look” in our suite. When I was all dressed, my bridesmaids went and got him. We got to enjoy seeing how awesome each other looked in a setting that was a little more intimate. Plus, we didn’t have to miss any of our reception to pose for photos!

Speaking of the reception, one of the best things we did was skip the passed hors d’oeuvres. Instead, our caterer created a snacking plate of cheese spreads, hummus and roasted olives with sliced breads. The bar was open, and the snacks were on the tables when everyone arrived.

We did this because we’d experienced the low-blood-sugar-crazed waiter ambushing, and quick intoxication that passed hors d’oeuvres style created at other weddings. So many of our friends thanked us (we still hear compliments on that a year later). Everyone said it was really relaxing to come in and be able to eat a little something right away.

Finally, I would encourage every couple to look at your various religious and cultural traditions for ideas, but not be afraid to alter them to fit you as a couple, or toss them out altogether. We did a lot of “our” version of traditional Jewish wedding things, but our ceremony was performed by a Unitarian universalist minister, and had no Hebrew at all.

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance?  I would have printed directions to every wedding event and had them available at all the hotels where our guests stayed. Cell phone reception was a little spotty in the mountains, and it was stressful to be fielding calls from lost folk at the beginning of some of the other weekend events. Luckily, the wedding itself was right in the center of town, so nobody was lost.

Photos courtesy of Emily Heizer Photography

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Another real wedding loaded to our Real Weddings Magazine Web site!

Congratulations to Featured Real Wedding couple Alison & Alan who were married on February 13, 2010 at the Loomis Assembly of God with a reception at The Blue Goose.

Click here to read their story, see their slideshow of photos from Capture Photography, meet their wedding dream team and more!

Photo courtesy of Capture Photography.

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