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!)

Gorgeous California Mountain Wedding

This one needs no introduction.

Kelli, take it away:

Our wedding story started a year before the actual event. Brian and I had just been reunited after an 8-month separation (he was in various Air Force trainings and I was working abroad in the Republic of Georgia). Shortly after picking me up from the airport, he proposed on top of our favorite mountain in San Diego, I said “yes” and we hit the road for a trip up the West Coast. Along the way, we stopped at the Sacramento court house and tied the knot. It was perfect.

The Air Force sent us to Omaha, Nebraska. When planning our "real" wedding/reception, we decided because we were so far from home, it was most important to us to get our families and friends together and spend a leisurely weekend in the place we fell in love -- San Diego. 

Because we live so far away from California, I relied a lot on my parents and sister Jessica to scout locations and help with details. I used Etsy, Pinterest and of course, ESB for ideas. I knew I needed Rad + In Love to do the photography after seeing the Badass California Mountain Wedding they shot...and even more so after meeting Jamie at my favorite coffee shop in my old ‘hood in San Diego! It was a no-brainer. 

We chose the Pine Hills Lodge in Julian (in the mountains east of SD) for our venue because of the rustic, low-key setting. I loved that there were cabins on the property so we could have the whole place to ourselves for the weekend and our guests wouldn’t have to worry about driving home after the wedding. That weekend was like living in a little village filled with our favorite people in the world -- complete with nights under the stars and a leisurely Sunday brunch. 

The wedding itself was a family affair with everyone pitching in. My parents picked up buckets of wildflowers at the local farmer’s market and everyone spent that morning making arrangements and wreaths while drinking coffee and chatting on the patio under the trees. 

My dress was Rachel Zoe and it was the perfect combination of Disco-Edwardian I desired. My bridesmaids chose their own dresses -- I just asked them to keep in mind vintage-inspired details like buttons, lace, sleeves, soft colors...etc. I think the results were perfect. The groomsmen were asked to go with a country gentleman-type look -- NAILED IT! Brian pieced together his look from ASOS and Etsy and...looked dayum fine. 

The ceremony was my favorite part of the day. My MIL and mom walked me down the aisle -- and because I was leaning on them I didn’t eat it in my wedges like I feared. 

(I also took all the ESB’ers advice and got my damn dress hemmed - thanks, everyone!) The shoes I ended up going with were on clearance at Free People - and broke on the dance floor... I guess that’s what I get for bucking ESB’s suggestion?

For some reason I thought because we were already married in the courthouse a year before, our second ceremony wouldn’t be as emotionally intense. But, it was just as meaningful as the first ceremony... 

This time my dad officiated, my SIL Mariel and Papa did readings and our favorite songs played. And of course, I got to say my vows again to my perfect man in front of our people. I was overwhelmed.

Our stunning cake was made by my sister’s MIL Linda McLennan -- and was not only beautiful, but she even baked it with our favorite flavors: one tier was red velvet for Brian, and one tier was funfetti for me! It was topped by a 50’s cake topper given to me by my Nana. 

We spent the rest of the evening eating BBQ, toasting and dancing. I think I danced for 3 hours straight. I had hoped the evening would deteriorate into a crazy dance inferno and I got my wish!

After the DJ called it a night, we hung out under the stars just drinking and laughing until the wee hours of the morning. 

Overall, I was extremely touched by the effort everyone put into celebrating our marriage. We had people flying and driving in from all over the country. To see everyone we love from both sides of our family come together for us was truly awesome, especially after not seeing most of them since our move to the Midwest. We will hold onto those memories of our perfect sunny day in the mountains forever -- and especially so during our second Midwest winter. 

♥ ♥ ♥

Photos by Rad + In Love. (Check out more details + gorg portraits from Kelli & Brian's wedding over here!)

HERE'S A FUCKING ELOPEMENT FOR YOU

Since y'all gave Abby so much shit for calling her adorbs little wedding an elopement, Jamie thought you might like to see these pics.

These two eloped for real. No joke.

Here's what Kelly had to say to say about her sweet, quiet, lovely San Diego City Hall ceremony:

Tony and I had been talking about eloping since the day we met. Which was just 6 months ago. We kept talking about it, and finally, Tony decided to propose, twelve days before our ceremony. We found matching Frank Gehry bands, waited the nine days to pick them up in our sizes, and then scheduled an appointment at City Hall. This was on a Tuesday, our appointment was set for Thursday.

First! Before anything, all we really cared about having was a photographer there to document this special day for us. Our families live on opposite coasts, so we decided to just double our photographer as our witness to make it fair. And Jamie, from Rad + In Love, saved the day.

The day before our elopement, we found his outfit at H&M and my dress from Anthropologie.  Our Big Day was very normal, and no one knew we were getting married! We woke up, made breakfast with our two sons, dropped them off with Grandma, and met Jamie at The Pearl Hotel in San Diego to get ready.

Standing with just my Husband, a Judge, and Jamie was awesome. The quietness of us vowing our love to each other was unreal, I was so at peace!

Being married is SO fun. We are soo incredibly lucky to have had Jamie backing us up that day and document it for us. Our elopement was really for solidifying our love and commitment to each other, and I think the day portrayed that perfectly.

Photos by Jamie of Rad + In Love. (There are so many more beautiful photos over on their blog. Go check em out.)

Alt Photography Workshop + POOL PARTY (Sponsored by Feather Love)

Feather Love (aka Noa), one of my fave photographers and hands-down the biggest rabble-rouser ever to write a guest post for esb, is doing a workshop in San Diego on June 28-29.

I'll let her tell you more:

Technical photography workshops are awesome, necessary, and extremely productive – but this is not one of them. Here are six reasons why my workshops are different:

1) I’M NOT A ROCKSTAR

I am not a “rockstar photographer.” I’m just a person who is sometimes totally full of shit, but I also spend a lot of time working on myself as an artist and I really really care about my work. My focus is on the quality of work we put out there, and most importantly our personal relationship to that work & what it can teach us. I am honest and revealing and have no intention of pretending to be someone I am not. I am not going to tell you how to skip the hard part & become a successful photographer overnight – QUITE THE CONTRARY.

(Photo of Feather Love in her studio by her husband Stuart)

2) FOCUS ON THE ARTIST

One of the main subjects I cover in the workshops, is how critical I believe it is to connect with our work & put ourselves into our art. Often times, photographers will focus on finding more expensive equipment, or spending hours looking at the work of other photographers in their industry for inspiration. As artists, we need to put ourselves & our experience into the work we are producing in order to create something that stands out & resonates with us. A majority of people who attend my workshops are photographers, but because I focus on The Artist, I often have other creative business people in attendance too – like bloggers, calligraphers, magazine editors, writers etc.

(Some of Feather Love's images from past workshops)

3) BREAKING THE RULES

My work is certainly not for everyone. I focus more on what intuitively clicks inside me while I’m shooting than I do on perfection in composition, lighting etc. In fact, I often do what would be considered “technically wrong” in order to get the results I want. I have seen a million pretty photos, but it’s often the blurry, strangely-cropped, under/over-exposed images that stand out for me the most. Why? Because I can personally relate to them. Because they reveal something deeper, more beautiful, more honest, more human. Let’s just say that if I had to choose between Ansel Adams and Diane Arbus, I’m going with Arbus.

4) ROUNDING IT OUT

Besides my more philosophical lectures, I also cover real-world examples from my experience, discuss experimentation, how to get the clients you want, self-branding and many other practical subjects. I leave ample time for Q & A to structure each workshop around the attendees. I invite incredible guest lecturers to focus on subjects that are vital in running your own creative business. For example: Anne Sage on the important role of social media in self-branding (Bay Area + San Diego Workshops), Chloe Aftel giving a hands-on Polaroid class that will blow your mind (Bay Area + San Diego Workshops), Emma Case on not compromising (London Workshop) etc. These are artists & creative people whom I admire and respect and have learned so much from.

(Images from previous workshops: first and last image by Feather Love, all others by Woodnote Photography)

5) THE AFTER PARTY

Yes, we spend a few good hours discussing all sorts of deep, intense and important topics – I pose vital questions that we need to ask ourselves… blah blah, BUT I also believe in not taking stuff too seriously. If we’re going to work hard, we’re going to relax and/or play hard too. Some of my workshop after parties have included:

glamping sleepover in a giant beach house overlooking the ocean with musical guests Tim & Nicki Bluhm (video by Bay Area workshop attendee Sara Wilbur Photography)

dirty-hip-hop dance parties (London & Italy video by Son Of Shark Pig)

… and sometimes celebrity guests! The beautiful Sarah Carter will be our model for the San Diego workshop.

Wine & friends, plus clean & tasty gourmet food is of utmost importance! (Nicole of Gjleina is catering!) … And we will also be taking some hard-core pool breaks.

6) CONNECTION

I love how people keep in touch after my workshops – they become friends, ask for help reviewing an edit, travel across the country to hang out together, do awesome photo projects together, or even start a Facebook group specifically for all the people in the workshop they attended, including me. It’s RAD.

I am so extremely super-excited about my upcoming 2-day workshop on June 28th & 29th at my house and studio in San Diego! You can learn all about it HERE. Find out more about my workshops, content I discuss, videos & interviews with me, attendee testimonials and more HERE.

(At top: Photos by workshop attendees Shutter Sam & Brosnan Photographic, plus Feather Love's images of A B & The Sea in her pool & Anne Sage in her studio)