Hyatt HB – Indian Wedding

So this was the second child of this family that I was honored to do a wedding for.  The funny thing is I was at the Hyatt HB doing a wedding when they were doing their site visits with hotels and bumped into me and said, we think we will do it here and look here you are, lol.

We did the ceremony on the CA Courtyard Lawn which with the canopies and guest count pretty much maxed the lawn out, but it worked.  Then cocktails were held on Huntington Ballroom balcony, then into Huntington Ballroom we went.

A wee room by the catering office is the perfect spot for the bride to watch the baraat from.  Raj came in on Daisy the horse who we use a lot.

My fave Indian Priest/officiant Shukavek officiated and as always did a great job.

We draped the service wall of the ballroom, it makes such a difference, and they loved the round dancefloor when i mentioned it, so we added that in too.

Special Occasions handled the baraat and all music/mceeing and kept the dancefloor full as you can see.  Thanks to Matei for some of the pics above and some are mine.  Thanks to the Hyatt HB as always for helping me get things done!! xoxo

Till next time

Lisa

xoxoxo

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Hyatt HB – CA Courtyard&Vista Blrm

Loved the Ficksman family, all were involved and it was a fun ride.

They got to do the Lighthouse Courtyard ceremony location with Vista Ballroom which is not normal, and you then have a choice, direct to the lighthouse/bridge or angle to the sunset or to the south, they chose sunset and boy during the ceremony was that sky beautiful.

Great job Flowers by Cina in managing to have the blue show through in the flowers, as that was their main color.  For once the canopy was a true chuppah being used for a Jewish ceremony and we used my fave very flexible Rabbi Ian from San Diego, he is a gem.

thanks to Joe Latter for the photos and always being great to work with, TMMPRO for the draping/lighting/chiavaris/chargers/B&G sofa and my fave round dancefloor, Naples Strings for cere/cocktail music and Peter/Vive Entertainment who understands and now asks if I am draping so he should bring his façade and white covered speakers, so everything he has disappears into the look of the room, yay!!  And to Viral Booth OC who always waits patiently for us to get the Grand Entrance done before they can come into the foyer of this ballroom and setup for the after dinner Photobooth surprise.  And of course, as always, to our pals at Hyatt HB, together we make wedding dreams come true

Till next time

Lisa

xoxxoxo

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Hyatt Hb – CA Courtyard & Vista Wedding

Bobby and his bride Julianna and his sister happened to be doing a site visit when I was doing a wedding at Hyatt HB, saw what we had done and booked the Hyatt and me on the spot.  Love that right!!

Beautiful wedding with elements along the way, a 100 white dove release at the end of the ceremony which is always a wow, their first dance in fog/dry ice, special B&G chairs, a dance performance by Karmagraphy Dance Troupe and great colors, white & blue with just a pop of yellow.

Florals and napkins by EBD, thanks as always Karla/Will & Tammy

Doves by my only dove lady ever, White Flite

Draping, dancefloor+decal/chargers/stage cover/chiavaris all by my guys at TMMPRO. Photos above by Jim Kennedy/always a pleasure to work with him & his teams, Design Visage for hair/makeup-never a late bride!! Harp for ceremony & cocktails by my fave Wendy, and dinner/dance music/mceeing by Nick/3D Sounds, and as always, our partners at Hyatt HB since the day the hotel opened, we love being there with you all xoxoxo

Till next time

Lisa

xoxox

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Beautiful Ritz Laguna Terrace Salon wdg

When i showed Rachel her ballroom she gasped.  I said ‘it’s like a beautiful garden’ and she said ‘that’s exactly what i wanted and i didn’t even realise it’  thanks to Square Root for nailing it.  Look at that ceremony setup, stunning.

We did a mixture of rectangle and round tables in Terrace Salon and tons of candles.

It was a beautiful destination wedding for sure!! Thanks to Brett Hickman for the pics, it had been a while since we had worked together, good to be back, Hoo Films Video, Design Visage for hair/makeup, not only did Square Root do the gorgeous florals but they also did the linens/dancefloor/stage covers/uplights and TMMPRO did the chiavaris and the band/sheart&cake lighting.  Downbeat LA provided strings for the cere/cocktails and kept the dancefloor going, they were excellent.  Thanks again to the ladies & gentlemen at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna, always a pleasure to work with you to create these memories.

Till next time

Lisa

xoxox

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Another beautiful Plaza – Ritz Laguna wdg

Coco and Jacob, I and everyone that worked with them loved them.  Whatever she wanted he was going to make it happen.  She is a sweet English Rose that acts and is in entertainment and he an LA guy working in the entertainment industry, and they also just opened a lovely tea shop in LA

A ceremony backdrop hard to find anywhere and the same backdrop from the cocktail/Plaza Room balcony where I get to do my signature curved sofas there, because it makes sense, lol, and each bride customizes them with cushions they will use at home. Coco also ordered personalized napkins we used for dinner and gold flatware which they would be able to use after in their tea shop, smart girl!!

TMMPRO did the draping/dancefloor+decal/lighting&benches, EBD did the beautiful floral, Bishop Brian officiated a lovely catholic style service, Design Visage prettied up the ladies, not that Coco needed that, Naples Strings provided the ceremony&cocktail music and Angel from Elevated Pulse did an excellent job in the Plaza Room with mceeing and dinner then dancing music, and Luxe Linens provided the linens in the Plaza room.  We have Viral Booth OC open up after dinner in the foyer, and as always that was a huge hit.  Always lots of thanks to the Ritz Laguna team, together we make wedding dreams come true xoxoxo

Till next time

Lisa

xoxox

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Monarch Beach Resort Wedding

Well as my bride from this May wedding last year and I were just discussing (we dm all the time still), our biggest problem was the rain which had us move their ceremony indoors, but if it was this year the wedding would not have happened in May probably.   We had a great time pulling this wedding together, many meetings at their home in Santa Monica as they travel a lot and catching them with time was a bit tricky, most of their guests flew in and spent 4-5 nights at the resort, so we also orchestrated an event the night prior at Club 19.

So as i mention, we had planned an outdoor ceremony on the Grand Lawn with the chuppa that had been created by Square Root from an inspiration picture our bride had been carrying around for quite some time with her.  Now we got to make it happen.  Thanks to Square Root for exceeding her expectations with the whole event, as always!!

Sometimes things work out and with the ceremony being indoors the hotel team and i decided to use their dining table chairs to really fancy up the ceremony and then their crew moved the chairs to the dining tables after the ceremony, flawless.

The guests enjoyed hors d’oevures and cocktails in the ballroom foyer, all were nice and warm for both ceremony and cocktails due to us moving it in, and i will add, it had been raining on and off but at the time the ceremony started in the ballroom it poured down.

We had my fave round dancefloor and their custom decal (thanks TMMPRO) that matched their logo on all their papergoods, along with 2 curved sofas from Hire Elegance from San Diego that nestled around the dancefloor perfectly .  We had a mix of rectangle mirror/gold tables and round tables.  The sweetheart table was a rectangle for 4, the groom’s sons sat with them, well for a bit anyway, lol.

We had a great back corner setup for when the guests entered the ballroom, but during dinner while they were all busy enjoying the awesome meal prepared by the chef’s at MBR we had a Photobooth operator come in and setup their camera in front of it for after dinner.

The only thing we had to give up due to the weather was a dove release that was planned for the end of the ceremony, but the guest’s were none the wiser!!  Thanks to Joe Latter for the pics and always being so easy/great to work with xoxo

till next time

Lisa

xoxox

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Aliso Viejo Country Club wedding

Ahhhh, my lovely Rebecca and Kurt.  I really enjoyed them, they were both accountants and were the ying to the yang of each other.  They picked this venue loving the views.  I had been here to a couple of events and had even brought some couples here to consider the venue but this was my first wedding here.  You can have the ceremony either direction, facing the rose vine wall or the golf greens/valley, Rebecca wanted the rose wall, it did look lovely.  The banquet room is a rectangle which is good but there are poles in the center which restricts how you can set it up and how it looks, they opted to drape the poles which softened it for sure, and we placed the tables at the back closest to the bar, lol!!

the venue was lovely to work with and drove our B&G & photographer all around the course so Rebecca could get the pics she knew she wanted from the beginning.  Turned out the venue girl and our B&G lived in the same apartment complex in AV!!  I also got to see one of my brides from a Fashion Island Hotel wedding the year before, that is always fun to catch up, her groom was working but she brought her fun sister I remember well.

Thanks to Design Visage for getting the girls ready at home, Peter/Vive Entertainment for providing all the music/sound systems needed in all areas, Karen’s Flower (no insta or website) for doing a beautiful job at the ceremony and in the dining room, and to Sweet Traders that setup a dessert station that was a huge hit!  At the end we did something that a lot of our couples have us do, an In N Out run, so those left at the end got to grab a burger on their way to their car or hang out by the front with the B&G before they left for their wedding night at one of the five star hotels on the coast!!

Till next time

Lisa

xoxox

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Plaza Room wedding – Ritz Laguna

I was in Spain while Nicole was back at the Ritz Laguna orchestrating this lovely intimate wedding at our fave location, Monarch Bay Sunset Lawn and the Plaza Room.

They had a royal table for family and then 2 rounds on each side of the dancefloor for guests. Linens/napkins by Luxe Linens, Florals by Shelby Nolan, Ceremony/cocktail music by Naples Strings, Dinner/dancing music & mceeing-Jeff/Moondance Mobile Music.  Thanks to Joe Latter for the photos.

Thanks to the team and our partners at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna for making Debbie’s wedding dreams come true.

Till next time

Lisa

xoxox

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Plaza Room – Ritz Laguna

Well as you may be able to tell I am using shelter in place/Coronovirus time at home to get caught up on 3 years worth of blogging, yes, how it got to that long i have no idea, well i do, i do it all myself, i don’t pay a company as many others do.  So it’s up to me to chase photographers for pics, then compare them to mine then find the time to sit down and do the post in-between actually planning and doing weddings!! So I had seen where i must have got busy mid 2017 and just stopped and never started again, whoops.  So i am now on track and will be all caught up by end of April, including travel posts, so by May where fingers crossed we are back to planning meetings/tastings/site visits and then June weddings start again, I can then just keep on top of the photographers after each wedding and post as I get the pics, well that is the plan!! lol  This wedding was one year ago tomorrow, so i have done well right??!! lol

So the point of this post is to let you know what is going on if you are suddenly getting notifications of posts and it’s like, what??  And to show a different look setup in Plaza Room at Ritz.  I was actually in Italy so Nicole oversaw/orchestrated the event.  The ceremony was held at a church and we only handled the reception/dinner-no dancing, part at the hotel.  I liked the use of colors and feel this wedding had, thanks to Wildflower Photo for the pic and Rogers Gardens did the floral.

Till next time

Lisa

xoxoxo

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Hyatt HB – Huntington Ballroom

I do a lot of cultural weddings, now what does that mean? Weddings that are for couples that their family history/background is not American, they have come from other countries – sometimes the couple came here when they were young, or they are 1st or 2nd generation born here, sometimes as with me one of the couple is American and the other is not so you incorporate traditional elements from the culture not represented, and sometimes they are couples coming here from other countries wanting an ‘American style’ wedding celebration.  I love it, my ‘job’ is never boring and you learn a lot about how others live/interact and most of all celebrate.

Sarah and David had a beautiful sunset backdrop ceremony with a style i had not seen before, they sat at a table at the front with the Islamic officiant.  See, learning something everyday.

The cere and ballroom looked beautiful thanks to EBD Floral as always, and TMMPRO for covering the stage/draping and the lighting.  They had a caterer that created this fruit display which everyone expects to see/have, but i have never seen a display like this, it was incredible.  Our bride was married in a jade green gown/traditional and then changed into an ‘American style’ white gown for the reception – she looked fabulous in both.

Thanks to Arash/Rugger Productions for the ballroom pics, Design Visage for hair/makeup, and to Viral Booth OC for the Photobooth that we surprised the guests with after dinner/they setup in the ballroom during dinner in one of the corners, so my guests had no idea until they started seeing people with pics, it was a hit.  Now the fun part of being a planner is especially with cultural vendors they tend to be a bit more, walk to the beat of their own drum, so not going to mention them but just say that when they were supposed to be in the ballroom for doors opening they were no where to be found and when i finally got the band leader on phone they had left property.  The father of the groom was livid but we had no choice but to wait.  Bride and Groom were aware and where normally with a non-cultural vendor this would be your last gig with anyone who ever heard about it, no one was allowed to let the band have it for delaying doors opening because they did not want to upset them/have them not do a good job or want to leave, and during the event guests were saying how great they were and they were going to hire them for their wedding (bride told me this) and thus we have the vicious cycle where vendors behaving badly, because guests and normally our couples don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, get to live and work again and probably keep behaving badly.  Crazy but true and this is not the first time I have dealt with naughty vendors for sure and i know it won’t be the last unfortunately.

till next time

Lisa

xoxox

http://www.lisasimpsonweddings.com

lisa@lisasimpsonweddings.com

714 305 7112

Add a comment April 12, 2020