Our last wedding of 2016

Well, this was a special one, for many reasons and a wonderful way to end a great 2016. Our young bride is a cancer survivor and working with her and her mom over the past year was a pleasure.  Nicole was in charge the day of with Teri helping as well, so Cindi was in great hands with my ladies while I was living large in Sydney with old friends, thanks ladies.

From the get go we planned on the ceremony being indoors (it was the end of December), and the venue chosen was the Hotel Irvine which happens to have a lovely tent out the back (with a great ceremony lawn if you did want to do the ceremony outdoors) and a great courtyard for cocktails.  So above you see the portion of the tent we did the ceremony in

Displays that do get noticed…… we love a pretty placecard table and this pic doesn’t really do it justice, oh well.  The candy display was in the wedding colors and had special candies the bride and groom both liked and some from South Africa where the bride and a good portion of the guests came from, Kim who does these beautiful displays was my fave vendor find towards the end of 2016

And now the dining/dancing portion of the tent

Such a pretty color palette along with bling and candles.  We pulled together a wonderful vendor team to make Cindi’s dreams come true.  Thanks to Frank Salas/photo for the pics and always being wonderful to work with from our perspective and to our couples and their friends and family, Parallel Media for being unobtrusive videographers – we so appreciate that, to EBD floral/Karla as always you make my couples so happy when they finally see the dream vision become a reality, to La Tavola for the bling linens so thick and scrumptious, to my fave band always, Full Spectrum/Adam Jackson, thanks for being awesome we love you and the band and by the end of the night so do all the couples and guests, and to Flawless Faces for beautifying all the lovely ladies. Finally to Ebi and the team at the Hotel Irvine, thank you for being so great to work with.  We look forward to working with you many many times in the future.

So while the wedding was being setup and during I was getting pics texted to me by frank so I could see how well things were coming along, and he sent me the one above with our bride and groom on the ‘ice rink’, love it.

A great wedding was had by all involved and there to experience.  This wedding reminds us of why we love what we do.

Till next time

Lisa

714 305 7112

http://www.lisasimpsonweddings.com

pinterest  lisasimpsonwdgs

lisa@lisa simpsonweddings.com

instagram  lisasimpsonweddings

Add a comment March 5, 2017

Hyatt Huntington Beach Celebration

Ashley and mom booked me for a small service but did check in with me along the way when they needed advise/referrals etc.  Such a small world, when we met to interview mom as talking about a friend of theirs/a chef who would be attending the wedding, I asked who it was, and it turned out to be a chef I worked very closely with during my years with Disney, he was as passionate about the food being excellent for the weddings/events as I was about the weddings/events being fabulous.  As the wedding got closer they realized they wanted me there earlier on the day to keep them on track and get them the church on time, it certainly meant a smooth day for them and they knew all was well at the hotel while they were over there.

I’m not a fan of headtables being on a riser and you can see why here, unless you cover the stage the hotels black stands right out and it also makes you see a bit unapproachable to guests.  Ashley’s colors were gold, so this was one wedding where the hotel banquet chairs worked/were more comfy than chivaris.  Thanks to Flowers by Allie by doing a great job with the florals and the many many candles and to Monico Décor for the rental linens/draping.  They booked Bruce Battleson to dj/mcee which made me happy, haven’t seen Bruce for a while, and to Flawless Faces for beautifying all the ladies.  And of course to the team at Hyatt HB, as always a pleasure to work with from beginning to end.

Till next time

Lisa

http://www.lisasimpsonweddings.com

pinterest    lisasimpsonwdgs

instagram   lisasimpsonweddings

714 305 7112

lisa@lisasimpsonweddings.com

Add a comment February 3, 2016

Two day wedding/Ritz & St Regis

I just love it when I can incorporate my two fave locations in S CA, and so lucky I actually get to do it quite often.  Tala and Raj were doing a two day event, incorporating two cultures and traditions.  We chose to do the Indian Celebration/day at the St Regis and day 2 for the Persian Celebration at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna.  Lucky guests getting the best of the OC for the celebration of this fab couple and really lovely parents.

As you can see Tala wanted different colors to the traditional Indian wedding colors (my Indian weddings are rarely traditional colors), we used the existing rotunda at the cere site as the mandap structure and it worked really well.  Our groom arrived on a Rickshaw for the baraat, in the picture above the guests are congregating for the milni.  The tables on the Grand Lawn is where the guests went for lunch after the Indian ceremony was over.  Now what you don’t see/know is there was a threat of rain for the ceremony/lunch time, so the night before we draped a portion of the dinner room as ceremony backup and with the chiavaris I have to say it looked awesome.  The decision to move inside had to be made as 7am, so who could sleep right, I was up at 4am driving downtown Dana Point and the roads was slik, hmmm.  At 6:50am up again looking out my hotel window, talking to the florist who was at the property, and we made the decision to stay outside.  I saw father of the bride while I was having breakfast at the hotel and he said to me, in or out, out I said, he smiled.  And again, on my watch, all was good, in fact it was quite warm/hot towards the end of the ceremony and luncheon!!

Then the evening sangeet.  We reused the draping we were doing as ceremony backup and moved it (again the importance of vendors who work together a lot and will do things spur of the moment when needed/will make it work for me).

On Day 2 we had a bridal party, and how elegant they look.

Great shot of the back of Tala’s gown on Day 2, and the sofreh with a pretty spectacular backdrop!!

Tala was not a Persian bride wanting large/big florals, for the ballroom everything was low for the reception/dinner/dance for 300, when you do low florals in such a big ballroom they get lost in pictures, but believe me the room looked beautiful, elegant and calm, just like our bride.  We had the space in the Grand Ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna to do a mix of long and round tables which is always fun.

Thanks to Frank Salas for the above photos, to White Lilac for being a great partner for two days and creating such beauty, David Medill/videographer great to meet and work with him for the first time, Flawless Faces for beautifying the girls for both days, and to my favorite Persian officiant, Shahrzad Ardelan – I refer her to everyone and am always sad when a couple doesn’t go with her.  To the teams at both St Regis and Ritz-Carlton Laguna as always, we create beautiful dream weddings together, I appreciate you all.  xoxoxo

Till next time

Lisa

http://www.lisasimpsonweddings.com

lisa@lisasimpsonweddings.com

pinterest  lisasimpsonwdgs

instagram   lisasimpsonweddings

714 305 7112

Add a comment January 18, 2016