George + Lysa's Rad San Diego wedding

If you look closely, this whole shebang is PERFECTLY COLOR COORDINATED. And yet it's totally Brooklyn-meets-San-Diego cool and supremely unfussy....

George and I been together for 10 years and when we finally decided to make it official, we knew that we wanted 3 things: Mexican food, to have it be a fun & casual affair and for it to take place in San Diego, California (where I grew up and where we met).

With that said, the important things for this bride were:

Wedding Photography

Luckily, it was through a recommendation that we found Rad + In Love. I loved Jamie and Michelle’s photojournalistic approach and the command they had of the medium. They were on the ball in getting our "must have" photos as well as sneaking us away to snap us in the perfect light.

Wedding Invitations

My talented friend, Shiva King is the one who is responsible for these insanely beautiful invites. Since our venue had elements of mid century architecture, Shiva used Illustrator to impart a clean look that is characteristic of mid century design while adding a feminine touch with the bold florals and/or color. She designed the map, flowers, our caricatures and screen printed our cat Gustave Minda onto tote bags.

[Ahem, please note how beautifully Lysa's bouquet matches the save-the-dates.]

Wedding Dress + Shoes

I saw an image of a 1930s Nina Ricci dress and automatically knew that was going to be my wedding dress if I could help it. I scoured ebay, etsy, all the vintage stores in SD, LA and NY for similar styles if not the exact one but to no avail. So with the help of a friend, I decided to design my own dress, using design elements from the vintage one and giving it a modern spin.

I design shoes as a profession and am starting my own line called Aralêzano (stay tuned!) so it’s a no brainer to design my own pair. I collaborated with my friend Juniper Rose on the embellishment, and one of the factories I worked with was kind enough to make my wedding shoes.

And so after our must-haves were squared away, everything else fell into place. We got married at the San Diego Rowing Club on a summer solstice evening. It overlooked Mission Bay, which made for an interesting backdrop with bikini-clad kayakers, a John Mayer blaring boater and a jet packer aerialist.

I walked down the aisle to Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks and we walked out as a couple to Tusk by Fleetwood Mac, all performed instrumentally by Red Pony Clock. After the ceremony, the band continued playing during cocktail hour and we recorded the entire set list as a keepsake. The recording is our most favorite thing from the wedding. This party friendly 8-piece band is awesome and if you are getting married in the LA/SD area, book them!!

After cocktails, the wedding party gave their toasts and this was also another great memory. It was funny, sweet and emotional. No matter how many times I told myself not to cry, I did. Dinner was catered by Ortega’s -- delicious vegetarian enchiladas, fish tacos, chicken tacos, beans, rice, etc; and to cut down on costs, we ditched the wedding cake and bought Julian apple pies instead for dessert.

And from the dance floor, here are three of my favorite moments:

1st dance to The Killing Moon by Echo & the Bunnymen. We were opposed to first dances, but my mother insisted and she knows best. My uncle was kind enough to choreograph and teach us the moves the day before.

The same uncle surprised us with a flash mob Gangnam Style dance, which had my cousins, my mom and George’s parents on the dance floor.

And thanks to Red Pony Clock, they got me on a chair to do the hora and I’m not even Jewish. I told you RPC is party friendly!!

Some advice: the day will go by fast, you will be pulled for every free moment you have for photo ops, you will not get to spend enough time with everyone at the wedding, and you will suffer some sort of post-wedding depression after all is said and done.

Planning a California wedding from Brooklyn wouldn’t have been possible without help and advice from our friends. Everything came recommended to us and every recommendation was perfect.

Especially, thank you to our friend Chris Wojdak, who was our coordinator & florist. She made sure we were on budget, DIYed a few things to do so, and created the most beautiful bouquet I have ever seen. She is truly Wonder Woman (It’s true! She planned the wedding while pregnant and on the day of the wedding, was running around with little Jack strapped to her).

So it’s really our friends that made this wedding all the more awesome, besides marrying my best friend.

Xx
Lysa

Your uncle is RAD.

So is that dress.

And the shoes!!! look even better on.

Basically you killed it, lady.

(Photos by Rad + In Love. Go see more over on their blog!)

Kelly's Koreatown wedding gown

I was intrigued by Kelly's mention of her "amazing dressmaker in Koreatown," so I pressed her to give us more details:

Dress maker is Ho Seok Seo (goes by Seo) at Shin Bu Bridal...

Here is my spiel for the dress...

Finding a dress for an "untraditional" girl sucks. Everything is poofy, beaded, ruffley, and looks like a cupcake. I wanted something more "boho" meets "architectural-modern" and you can imagine how hard that combo is to find! I went to every bridal boutique in Los Angeles and did not see a thing I liked. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I pulled so many photos of current and vintage gowns that had different silhouettes and fabrics I loved. We were able to pull bits and pieces of various gowns together to make the dress of my dreams. I would advise any girl to go this way. It wasn't that much more expensive and I was able to have a dress that I designed made for me to fit my body perfectly. Who loses?

coupla more modest bridesmaid ideas

Lilium Dress by Whitney Deal

Custom Tea Dress by Louise Hedley 

(another rad new sponsor! WOOT!)

I'm sort of enjoying the 90's-meets-Little-House-on-the-Prairie floral dress moment we're having right now.

Fishtail braids required.

How's this for a bridesmaids dress?

Too sexy??

The Irma Vep Wrap Dress by Alexandra Grecco, $180 in the color of your choice.

You asked for shoes, and I DID NOT DELIVER

Jun 1, 2011

Dear ESB,

I'm shoeless and it is a problem. I'm getting married to the best guy ever in October and I'm wearing a re-fashioned vintage gown. My dressmaker -- a superbly talented woman who specializes in vintage textiles -- is remaking an amazing peachy-lace 1930's form fitting gown for me by using parts of the lace from my mother's and grandmother's wedding dresses. The dress is sweet and sexy all at the same time.

The problem is I need to buy shoes now. The bottom of the dress is going to be very intricate and my dressmaker needs to know exactly how high my shoes will be before she starts creating this amazing, layered, lace-y gradated-peach waterfall.

At first I was thinking low heels, some sort of suede. But then I went shoe shopping yesterday and all I was attracted to were these gorgeous sky high pumps.

Can you help me find something vintage-inspired, sexy but not vixen, preferably not white (if the dress ain't white why should the shoes be?) and comfortable?

I remain in awe of your style,
Shoeless in Brooklyn.

*****

Aug 2, 2011

i am such an a*hole. did you find shoes??

****

Aug 25

You rock for following up. I did find shoes! Magically after searching every freaking store in New York City -- clearly an exaggeration but it felt like that -- at Century 21. I hate the place. It makes my skin crawl but I was desperate. In the sale section of the shoe department (that lawless area underground) I found a lonely pair of Dolce and Gabbana champagne colored peep toe pumps.

Then by a stroke of luck while at the Brimfield Antique Fair looking for some vintage rhinestone clip on earrings to spruce them up a bit I found shoe clips. Who knew they existed? They're perfect.

*****

(some more back and forth I won't bore you with)

*****

Dec 3, 2011

Voilá, photos of the shoes, with the dress, on my wedding day.

It was by far the best day of my life. I included a photo of Elm Court, the Vanderbilt Estate where we were lucky enough to have our weekend-long celebration. Now you see what I was up against, shoes to fit this place - not an easy task. 

What I ended up with went perfectly with my husband's navy tux and pink bow tie. Isn't he cute?

Everything about the day was amazing. The party got going early and the dance floor lasted for seven hours -- credit that to our rad DJ shipped up from NYC to Lenox, MA, our groovy friends and family and the many kegs of my husband's organic beer. Photos are by our photographer friends and family -- I'm a video journalist by trade and I'm lucky enough to have many pro-photo friends who snapped beautiful photos all night long. Love was most certainly in the air that day, it was a whirlwind of awesome. 

The day was perfectly us. I wish I could do it more than once -- with the same guy of course.

all the guys standing up there are BEYOND CUTE.

did anyone even notice the shoes??

Photos by Jon D'Auria, Jacob Krupnick, Jon Mancuso and Youngna Park

Here's someone who actually needs our help

Dear ESB,

I've been reading your blog for months and though I have no idea how I found you, I heart you dearly! Come join my crew in NY soon! We'll take you to tequila trivia on sunday night which is as fun as it sounds: lots.

Anyway, to the point: My fiance and are one of those couples who like the DIY aesthetic but work 100 hours a week combined so by the time we have a free minute the last thing we can muster is the energy to craft anything worthy enough to be involved in our wedding (except we made our own invites but that's only because I had a hookup through work so that was essentially part of the 100 hrs... I'm rambling but you get the point. We're spent). We are madly in love 4 years strong but I'm starting to worry about pulling this whole shebang together with only 1 month left (Sept 10 yay!) and so much left to do.

Part of the "we're so busy" is that we're in the throes of planning Dr's visits instead of the wedding because we found out a few months ago that he has a brain tumor. WTF right? Wtf. Total shock that definitely helps keep those "what should my bridesmaids' dresses color be" dilemmas in check but it also put all planning on hold for a few months. Weeks and weeks into this stuff and we are feeling good about his ability to kick this shiz, we're optimistic like that, and both agree the show will go on with the wedding on the date as planned. At last the point: because of the crazy medical issues that arose, and needing to put those at the forefront of our attention we have seriously slacked on planning the wedding and I'm now beyond stressed.

Biggest obstacle: help us find good tunes to make this party a celebration of LIFE! LOVE! JOY, and that we even get to HAVE this day together. We're in the market for:

- DJ to spin tunes at the reception, preferably for no more than $1000. Wedding is at 4ish on Montauk, reception follows 6-11 or so in Bridgehampton*

Also would LOVE recommendations on:

- cheapish rehearsal dinner ideas in Montauk for about 30 people ($50 a person ideally)

- hair/ makeup people for 3-8 people (still seeing who wants this but at least it would be 3 people) who would be willing to come to Montauk and would be ok with $100 for the bride and closer to $50 per bridesmaid/mother/etc.

- sexy but tasteful stark white dress I can dance in at the reception, ideal price is like $30 but I'd go up to $100 if it's awesome and re-wearable. My dude is into my arms so a halter would be good.

We're paying for the wedding and on a budget, everyone's favorite word. We are super creative fun people but feeling totally drained and not able to make this party the awesome shin-dig we'd love it to be, to celebrate the once-in-our-lives gathering of our favorite people with. The above are the broad strokes of what's missing to make this happen. Any other recommendations would be super too...

I'm attaching my dress which I got from Bridal Garden in NYC (which I highly recommend... it's a thrift store/ sample store all in one and I combined 2 dresses for half of the price of a retail dress) in case that helps? Or maybe just because I love it, despite how it is so traditional and far from what I thought I'd want, which is why I think I'm jonesing for a shorter-funkier party dress if I start tripping all over it.

Thank you thank you thank you...

*Oh and for the record I feel like I have to make a disclaimer: I have a very generous colleague who scored us a deal on our venue as a thanks for some of that hard work, as we are very far from "hamptons" types, which is part of why I'm having a hard time finding some of these elements that will make it "us" or "us on a sojourn in the hamptons..."

*****

FWIW, I don't think you need a second dress. You look so gorg in the first one, why not wear it for as long as you can??

 ♥

what is it about blondes in WHITE PANTS?

I've got a menswear for women post coming up, but in the meantime I thought I'd torment you with this photo of Corinna & Julie.

One-of-a-kind dress by Elizabeth Dye + custom suit by Duchess.

(Photo by Evrim Icoz. See more from this wedding on Rock n Roll Bride.)

Many thanks to Christina, who will be doing the heavy lifting later.

Now you're talking, Leanne

And I swear I'm not just saying that because my wedding dress had an exposed zipper running down the front.

From the SS10 lookbook.

This custom job is pretty slammin too. I mean, if you're into ruffles.

p.s. Am I being an a*hole today? Please forgive, I just got back from a nightmarish trip to the dentist.

Illuminated Wedding Dress

And shawl. Both made from Luminex, a fiber-optic fabric imported from Italy.

Alison Lewis describes the design process (and her collaboration with the bride) on Switch.

Via Coquette

p.s. You might also like this LED wedding dress that can be converted to a lamp.

how to get a badass wedding dress without ever having to leave the house

Even before she sent me her wedding photos, I knew I was gonna have to squeeze a dress post out of Celia. A girl with vintage style who commissions a custom wedding dress? Yes pls.

I decided to have my dress custom made pretty early in the dress decision process. I had quickly considered jumping on the bandwagon and buying some fancy designer dress but as soon as I saw some of those fancy designer price tags, I was instantly turned off. My mom was gracious enough to tell me that she would work with me on the price, but honestly, spending THOUSANDS of dollars on a gown that could probably be seen on the pages of most wedding magazines and could be worn by any girl that was ready and willing to spend those THOUSANDS of dollars, seemed 1. predictable and 2. not me at all. I try not to buy my regular clothes from massive corporations, so why would I go that route when it came to my wedding day?

On to plan B: a vintage dress!! This idea was extremely appealing. I own and wear tons of vintage and one of my best friends is a vintage buyer. This was going to be perfect! Well, turns out, not so perfect after all. I have seen many girls pull off vintage wedding dresses beautifully, but unfortunately, I was not going to be one of those girls. I tried on a slew of vintage gowns, but I always ended up looking too kitschy and not classic, which is what I really wanted. After all the excitement, I was a bit heart broken that vintage wasn't going to work for me.

And that's when I made the decision to have my dress custom made. I knew it was the only way to get the dress I actually wanted... the dress of my dreams! The hardest part was finding someone reputable that I felt I could totally and completely trust. I came across Lindsey Nelson (who's worked for the Los Angeles Opera House) through another dressmaker who had made wedding dresses for two of my friends, but had moved to Nashville. I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but I definitely knew what I didn't want (no strapless/mermaid/satin/beaded ensemble) and I knew the look I was going for. I sent her photos of dresses and details that I loved and asked her if she would be interested in making my dress. Lucky for me, she jumped on board and said that she would come to my home for all our meetings and fittings. So, I basically got a badass wedding dress without ever having to leave my house... that's my kind of business deal! She came by a few weeks later, measured me, asked me a whole bunch of questions, brought more pictures for more inspiration, and sketched out what I knew was going to be the most gorgeous dress.


I was definitely set on lots of lace and unlike esb, I AM a ruffle person, so there was going to be some serious ruffle action. Knowing that I had loved the idea of a vintage gown, Lindsey had suggested we use vintage lace to construct all the ruffles on my dress. GENIUS! I'm pretty sure that was the very moment I fell in love with her! Over then next three months, we took a trip downtown to pick out the fabric for the main part of my dress, we bid on a variety of vintage laces that Lindsey found for me on Ebay, and had four fittings total. Everything went so smoothly and perfectly, that I even asked her to make my mom's dress and a blouse for the flower girl. In the end, I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful gown on my wedding day and I definitely couldn't have asked for a better, sweeter and more personal way to get that dress. There's no way I would change a thing.

Oh, and the whole dress (labor and fabric) totaled less than $950. I'm quite happy to say that my extra money went towards an amazing honeymoon in Europe and not Vera Wang's pocket...



*Update: tons more inspiration pics and terrific detail shots on Lindsey's blog.*

All photos (with the exception of the inspiration board) by Cathryn Farnsworth

Southern California Wedding Chic (complete with ostrich)

I could not be more stoked to feature the wedding of the lovely and hilarious Celia, of life according to celia. Here's what she had to say:

First off, I'd like to give a big fat thank you to ESB for getting what the whole wedding planning process is really about and, of course, for featuring our wedding. I thought we were kind of cool before, but now my head is swelling at a phenomenal rate... jokes.

OK, where to start? After 10 months of planning, some serious nail biting, a good amount of tears, and a few fits of rage, we got married in front of 113 of our nearest and dearest on October 10th at the Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse in Los Olivos. We rented the house for two nights and invited our families and close friends to spend that time with us. To say it was the best time of my life, would be the absolute grossest understatement. I guess there really are no words to describe how incredibly perfect that weekend was.

The day of the wedding was the most beautiful day I had seen in months. Living in Southern California can be pretty grueling during the Summer, so a 77º day is always more than welcome. I know tons of little details go so wrong at so many weddings, but I must admit that ours ran pretty smoothly. The ceremony started at 4:30 and we were married by a very close friend of ours... an idea I highly recommend if you are planning on having a nondenominational wedding. He made us laugh, then cry, and laugh again. It was so sweet and so personal. My mom walked me down the aisle and I remember feeling like I was a little kid again.

The ceremony was very short (maybe 15 minutes) and we proceeded to have a huge blowout party. I was not interested in a lot of the traditions, i.e. throwing the bouquet/tossing the garter/etc., mainly because I didn't want to feel like I was on a schedule at my wedding, and also because I really didn't feel the need to have Joseph's hands or face up my dress in front of our families. Maybe that's just me, though.


We both work in the food industry, so the food was a really big deal to us. We didn't want anything fancy, so we felt family style would be our best option. The menu consisted of Roasted Fennel and Orange Salad, White Mushroom Lasagna, and Paella from The Chef's Touch in Solvang and I don't think we could have been happier with how it all turned out. Joseph works as a Sommelier and decided to buy all different bottles of wine from Silver Lake Wine, so that no two were alike. Everyone was excited to see what bottles would be at their table. We also served three signature cocktails; a spicy whiskey one, a sweet tequila one, and a rusty nail for my dad. There was a mariachi and we gave out Mexican tin ornaments for favors as a nod to my heritage. We used terrariums as centerpieces because Joe's highly allergic to quite a variety of flowers.

Dinner turned into a big dance fest and we were so delighted to hear everyone tell us that they were having the best time. I had never in my life felt so happy or full of love. It was almost surreal. The night came to an end, although I wished it could have lasted forever, and I could not believe how blessed we were to have such a beautiful and heartfelt wedding. Totally worth all those fits of rage...



Tune in tomorrow for Celia's advice on how to get a badass wedding dress without ever having to leave the house.

And, yes, that is a ban.do headpiece. Celia visited the studio to try em on. She's fancy like that.

(Photos by Cathryn Farnsworth)