::: The fairytale Western wedding of Lauren Bush and fashion heir David Lauren :::

What a love story...the sweetest and most thoughtful proposal, as quoted telling US Vogue,

"One night a year ago this month, Lauren Bush didn’t think it the least bit odd when David Lauren suggested they meet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at some new pictures before attending a holiday dinner nearby. Because they met at the Costume Institute gala in 2004 and have celebrated that anniversary by attending every Met gala since, the museum is one of the couple’s favorite sentimental places. When Lauren arrived at the place where they had agreed to meet, no one was there except David. The artwork he wanted her to see was not the museum’s latest Old Masters acquisition but photographs of the couple that spanned their seven happy years together, blown up and displayed around the room. “I created our own exhibition of our life together,” David says. “And I got down on my knee and proposed. Then we went outside and took a carriage ride with a clarinetist and a saxophonist following us.”

Ever the traditionalists: Lauren and David pose for their formal wedding portrait, taken by famed fashion photographer Norman Jean Roy

Lauren, 27, and David, 39, were married over the Labor Day weekend last year at his family's 17,000-acre Double RL ranch in Ridgway, Colorado, before some 200 guests - intimate by fashion-industry standards.

David described the event like "a beautiful movie...like you were riding across the Old West and you stopped in at a wedding.”

 Lauren arriving to the ceremony

  

With the Rockies and rolling cattle fields, decorating wasn’t a big concern. “You could put out paper plates and confetti, and it would be gorgeous,” Lauren is quoted in their interview with US Vogue, smiling, “but we didn’t quite do that.”

Lauren wore a long sleeve embellished dress with tulle, lace and crystals. The look was completed with a headpiece around her forehead and a long veil. The dress was worked on by 100 craftsman spending 3,000 hours hand-embroidering the pearls and small flower motifs.

 

 

I just adore her whole look - simply stunning!

I love the quirky touches of the bridal party too, they all wore cowboy boots and Lauren wore blue socks in keeping with tradition to have something of the colour as a token of goodluck.

To have your dress designed by your new father-in-law who is one of America's leading fashion designers.....a dream come true I would say :)

Ralph and his team worked on both his daughter and daughter-in-law's dresses, though he took the time to consult with his former protege Vera Wang when approaching the dress for his Daughter Dylan's big day.

Both dresses were spectacularly unique and fit with the varied setttings of each ceremony. Most importantly, both were not overwhelmed by the dresses, allowing them to wear the dresses and not have the dresses wear them.

Lauren met Ralph just 2 months before the wedding - for the first time in the designer's studio.

"I walked in, and there were these beautiful illustrations of the look's we'd discussed with my face on them" ....pinch yourself moment! "It was like a dream come true."

The legend himself..

The nearly 200-year-old barn where the reception was held was decorated with flowers that were “all white, creams, and blues, and really fragrant,” Lauren says. “Wild roses, lily of the valley, Queen Anne’s lace, and delicate gardenias.” (Her original vision of using wildflowers fell by the wayside after she realized they perish too quickly after picking.)

Guests of honour: Former President George Bush and his wife Laura

Hope you enjoyed reading about their amazing day or just loved the visual of her stunning gown and headpiece that I am in la-la-LOVE with!

You can read more about the wedding on Vogues website.

Stumbled upon this wedding via Amour Amour - thank you :)



Love and sunshine,
Amy
xx

::: A Vintage Love Story in Sayulita, Mexico - Tori & Austin :::

Earlier today I blogged about Myka, one of the creative partners behind Sitting in the Tree Events...this is the wedding of her partner in crime, Tori. And it is just magical...la la LOOOVE what she created for her never to be forgotten day...

In the words of their amazing photographer Sarah Yates, "Tori and austin's wedding in sayulita, mexico was pure magic.  Colorful, fun, full of love and life- it was perfection from start to finish.  Tori is one of the most creative people I know and their wedding was such a reflection of that."

...and now you can hire the magic duo to make your wedding just as beautiful!

Tori's words from her own personal blog post, "Pure magic with my 60 favorite people, my amazing friend, Sarah Yates, capturing it all, and the raddest of the rad, Michael Antonia, providing the soundtrack (and helping us finish off some tequila). We danced, drank, soaked in the sun, befriended a dog or two along the way, and slowed time down for a night on a rooftop high above the town. Other world-ly. And I wanna go back and do it all over again. Now."

 

 

ohhh my!!! In love...

Tori speaks of her wedding details (via SMP) Margaritas, fish tacos and a vision of vintage Mexico inspired our Sayulita Wedding. We were in search of a town where time slowed and fishing boats, surfers and dogs littered the sand. Nothing too perfect or pristine – a Mexico that is still full of authentic charm, dirt roads, women making churros in the town square, lush landscaping and not a tour bus in sight. An unconventional destination wedding in a place people wouldn’t normally go, yet would fall madly in love with once they arrived. A place of memories tied distinctly to our union. We fell in love with the idea of Mexico years ago on a trip for a friend’s wedding and knew we would someday be married there.

Our love of all things vintage inspired everything from our handkerchief invites to my bouquet and the boutonnieres. We spent a month designing and printing our wedding invitations on fabric with a home printer, an iron and some freezer paper. We wanted our invitations to arrive in the mail looking like small packages of love letters.

I found my dress hanging in a Nordstrom Rack (after purchasing a glamorous Karl Lagerfeld in the beginning stages) and had two of the same dresses combined and reconstructed adding torn chiffon to the train to create something whimsical and girly. I fell in love with the tea-dyed lace and antique color on the dress and that in turn inspired the rest of the wedding. From that point on I began to tea-dye absolutely everything (the lace on my veil, the paper goods and gift tags) to create an aged appearance. I really wanted it all to look like it had washed up on the shores of Sayulita years before.

Because Mexico is such a colorful place and Villa Amor was so beautiful, we wanted to avoid clichés (minus the sombreros purchased for our photo booth) and anything that would overpower where we were. Small vintage touches and personalized accents were most important. My parents carried two huge duffel bags down full of oatmeal burlap for the tables. My sister hauled 3 vintage cake stands and the cake toppers. Austin and I had bags full of vases, napkins and paper goods. We cut yards of ribbon ahead of time and wound them in another duffel bag. Every member of our family played a huge role in bringing down all the elements that would make up the design of our wedding. It looked like we were moving to Mexico, not just having a wedding there.

 

  

We tried to keep cohesion throughout the wedding: in the use of fabric (handkerchief invites, handmade napkins and vintage handkerchiefs that were handed our to our guests during our ceremony), the brooches (the bouquet, the boutonnieres and given as gifts to all our family members), and the tea dying of all the paper goods. We were after a vintage love story—and hopefully that’s how it translated.

Despite some difficulties, Villa Amor was everything we wanted. It felt like a place lost in time; villas nestled in hillsides, hidden doors and winding staircases. Our ceremony was held under trees overlooking the ocean, followed by a cocktail hour with mariachis and margaritas. A 200-step climb up the crumbling and twisting brick staircases led to the reception – a breathtaking cobblestone plateau overlooking all of Sayulita and the ocean. There was something so dramatic about our guests grumbling and huffing and puffing up those stairs in heels and then arriving to this secret spot nestled in the hills where we would dance the night away. And that we did; DJ Michael Antonia is truly the best, and had all 60 guests on their feet, shaking and singing along at full volume. Our friends and family left proclaiming: Best. Wedding. Ever.

Our wedding felt so full of love, friendship and emotion. And that’s what we had hoped for in dragging everyone to Sayulita. Margaritas, mariachis, tacos, some good surf, and a place our guests won’t stop talking about. A dream destination wedding in a very magical place. And we’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

See their sweet little video right here.

Tori had their wedding vows frmaed as a present for her husband, for them, the gift of never forgetting, they hang on the wall in their living room. A memory of the beginning of their forever.

Wedding Photography: Sarah Yates

Wedding Venue: Villa Amor

Event Design + Floral Design + Paper Goods: Sitting in a Tree (The Bride)

Event Coordination: Myka Haddad of Sitting in a Tree

DJ: Michael Antonia of The Flashdance

Wedding Cinematography: Austin Hendrix Productions

Wedding Dress: Nordstrom Rack (Bride’s Custom Design Using Two Dresses)

Wedding Veil: Mother of the Bride

Reception Dress: Haute Hippie

Floral Headpiece: Untamed Petals

Maid of Honor’s Dress: Vera Wang (With Handmade Flowers)

Groom’s Attire: Calvin Klein

Words of the bride via SMP, Sitting in the Tree

Images from SMP, Sitting in the Tree, Destination I Do Magazine, Sarah Yates

Hope you enjoyed this colourful and fun feast of wedding amazingness as much as I did!

Love and sunshine,

Amy

xx



::: A White Wedding in a Rustic Old Barn - Myka and George tie the knot :::

The images from Myka's dream wedding day are just so gorgeous to flick through...

I just love all the big old rustic barns that are over in America. I really adore the country chic style.

I first discovered a sneaky peak from her big day on her blog as she is a fellow wedding blogger and party planning extraordinaire. So I am not surprised at all that her wedding is "Ultimate Pretty" in the words of Style me Pretty.

Photographed by Melissa Diep, I am in la la looove with these pics...enjoy!

 In love with the idea of getting ready in a gorgeous kaftan dressing gown

"Vows in the Valley" - the sweetest cartoon image of the bride on her big day

Is that not the hottest little white dress you’ve ever seen?

Georges and I have been dating for 10 years, yes 10 years. So I guess you could say, we’ve had a lot of time to think about our perfect wedding. And you know what, it wasn’t just the perfect wedding, it was the perfect day. For us, the perfection is in the details. We wanted to have a cocktail style wedding, no formal sit-down dinner, just drinks, desserts and lots of dancing. Our wedding invitation was inspired by old school concert posters, and our dear friend Cambria and I put together the design. She summed it up perfectly with the last line on the invite, ” come for the love, stay for dessert and cocktails”.

Myka's sweet ceremony shoes

Just love her headpiece 

Reception shoes

A^MAZING ring!!!

We are both into modern design and wanted those things to be a part of our wedding. We literally transported half of our living room to Carmel Valley (cake stands, platters, vases, artwork…we brought it all). The Institute looks like an old barn and was truly the perfect clean slate for us to add any personal touches we wanted. We wanted our friends and family to feel cozy, loved and happy. To help us generate this feeling, our wedding truly became a labor of love. Our aunts made appetizers, our moms made desserts, our uncles played live music during the ceremony, our cousins hung fabric, our siblings created floral arrangements and our best friends ran around town making sure everything was ready for our special day.

Cake table with a gorgeous outlook 

Sweet and savoury treats - a great idea! 

Each treat was labeled with natural wood placeholders made by Myka's step-dad

Every table was topped with moss, candles and locally bought yellow flowers

Inspired by smile booths seen on Style Me pretty, we had a friend set up a camera staged with fabric, hanging globes filled with flowers, moss and feathers. Homemade mustaches and picture frames were used as props. These pictures are some of the best of the night. And some of the best “messages” of the night were captured on our two old typewriters that acted as a guest book.

We went back to the venue the day after the wedding and along with our families, cleaned the entire place. And you know what? I loved it! I know, what bride would ever want to go back to their venue and discover the madness of the prior nights shenanigans? But for me, it was so much fun to relive the previous night with our families as we were throwing things out. We were literally cracking up about the pictures taken in the photo booth, the dancing insanity and the funny conversations we all had at our wedding. I just didn’t want the fun to end…and I truly don’t think it ever will.

Photography: Melissa Diep Photography / Second Shooter: Danny Mendoza and Assistant: Yomi Foreman
Venue: Hidden Valley Music Institute
Florals: Sitting in a Tree (Bride’s company)
Wedding Dress: Aidan Mattox from Nordstroms (bride added extra ruffles and strap)
Bride’s Ceremony Shoes: Steve Madden
Bride’s Reception Shoes: BCBG (bride added the black ribbon)
Flower Hairpiece: Forever 21
Groom’s Suit: Banana Republic
Tie, Shirt and Socks: Urban Outfitters
Groom’s Shoes: Converse
Invitation Design: Cambria Blakely Shaw and reply postcard photograph from bride’s great grandfather
Paper Goods: Sitting in a Tree
Food: Wholefoods
Cupcakes: Layers Bakery
Candy: A Candy Store
Day of Coordinator: Tori Hendrix of Sitting in a Tree (Bride’s business partner)
Painting of Bride: Kelli Murray
8MM Videographer: Austin Hendrix Productions


Hope you loved looking as much as I do <3

Love and sunshine,
Amy
xx