Well if you read this blog at all, you probably know I have been excited about this wedding since about 2006.  Yes thats before Manuela and Eric were even a couple!!! (If you go to Manuela and Eric’s engagement post this will all make sense, I promise)  I’ve know Manuela for about 3 years when she starred as a bridesmaid in 3 weddings I shot that year so when she contacted me to tell me she was engaged I was thrilled.  And when I met Eric even more thrilled.  He adores her.  And if you ask any bride or wife what makes a marriage work, they will say hands down it’s having a husband who adores you.  (Adoring back doesn’t hurt either!)  But seriously, my deepest heartfelt congratulations to Manuela and Eric who I know will love each other for the rest of their lives.  Cheers!

 

 

Posted by: Leigh @ 1:58 pm [+]
Filed under: Weddings

Congrats to Sarah and Mike their beautiful Eucalyptus Lane wedding is featured in the Spring 2009 issue of Los Angeles Weddings Magazine.  Be sure and pick up a copy to see the entire feature and read all about Sarah and Mike .  Rebecca Stone of Duet Weddings styled this amazing event.  I can’t wait to work with Rebecca again later this year! Thank you LA Weddings you have a lovely magazine and I’m thrilled to be featured.

Posted by: Leigh @ 11:21 am [+]
Filed under: Awards and Features, Editorial/Commercial, Weddings

Up next…

April 22, 2009

you may remember these two, can’t wait to share their wedding day! Now that the blog, website and everything is back in order it won’t be long. Come back soon.

Posted by: Leigh @ 11:54 pm [+]
Filed under: Weddings

I have been so excited to share this wedding with everyone! Such an amazing wedding with great people and so many personal touches. I had never been to Vermont before and Woodstock was exactly what I expected. A fun little town with the best coffee I’ve ever had, really nice people and thank goodness still a little snow. Nili and Anthony did so much of the work themselves, I asked Nili if she wouldn’t mind sharing and she wrote up the most amazing summary of all the personal touches she and Anthony worked on for the wedding. Be sure and read all about it below the photos. So no more waiting…yes this is a long post! Thank you guys! It was a pleasure.


*Attire*
The dress – Amsale with a few custom tweaks that I had made (sweetheart
neck, black belt, added brooch in the back)
The tux- Hugo Boss
My shoes- Christian Louboutin
Veil- handmade veil by Brenda’s Bridal Veils on Etsy.com
His shoes- Kenneth Cole
Rehearsal dress– Sarah Seven (Etsy designer from Portland, Oregon)
Bridesmaids Dresses and Necklaces – J Crew

*Vendors*
Florist- Tara Pollio Floral Event Design
Reception – Woodstock Inn in Woodstock, VT,
Ceremony – Murphy Farmhouse
Welcome Dinner – Simon Pearce Studio in Quechee, VT
Logo – Betsy White

*Projects*

Now for the projects… pains me to relive all of the hours spent on
these.– all worth the efforts in the end!! :)

We tried to do a lot of these projects ourselves to give the wedding a more
personal feel. Definitely a difficult task while working 60 hours a week at
my busy law firm. Planning a wedding after 11 pm and during lunches and
weekends proved to be a bit challenging but I think we got most of our
planned projects done.

Trees and wood were a common theme throughout the wedding. We liked the
idea of a tree representing life and growth and embraced our natural setting
in Vermont. Overall we tried to create a rustic chic feel for the weekend.

Our invites were custom made, I had the printer (Cardson Wood) print it
on actual sheets of Walnut wood. We choose a rich walnutto go with
our chocolate brown and chartreuse and moss green color scheme.

Many of our DIY projects were centered around the Gocco machine (a Japanese
printing press that is no longer in production) that we bought a few months
before the wedding to make most of the printed materials. We pretty much custom
printed (Goccoed) it on everything!We printed our Save the Dates, the
directions cards within the invite, therecyclable CDs cases, the cloth
welcome bags, tags on the bags and many of the other paper products we used.

To carry the tree theme we bought spruce tree saplings, wrapped them in
burlap with yarn, added a personal message and used them as our table
favors. It was our Eco stamp on the wedding and we hoped that the guests
could plant them at home and watch them grow as our love and relationship
grows. The weekend before the wedding Anthony went up to New Hampshire and
had birch logs and a birch stump cut down from a tree farm. We used the
logs as escort card holders and the tree stump as the base for our wedding
cake. I also purchased birch sleeves on Ebay to use as the vases for the
centerpiece flower arrangements to carry the birch/wood theme throughout. We
also named our tables after trees– Maple, Fir, Pine, ash to name a few.

We also tried to incorporate moss throughout both venues to add to the
woodsy, Vermont feel. I bought a moss aisle runner on Ebay to use at the
farmhouse and moss by the pound to use a decoration throughout. I bought
large moss balls from Pottery Barn and suspended them at the Inn for a
visual aesthetic.

Cocktail – We bought a bunch of knit pillows to make the cocktail area more
loungey and warmer. I thought they would welcome the guests in out of the
cold. Our green signature cocktail was called the Vermont crush in honor of
the winter we spent skiing in Vermont before we were engaged. I had custom
made stir sticks and coasters printed with our logo to add to the theme.

Candy Bar– this was a fun project to put together. I searched online and
stores in the area for different sized apothecary jars. I also scoured
candy websites for green and brown colored candies to go with our theme. I
am sure the guys in the mail room at work loved my million packages that
would come in daily! We tied ribbons to the jars, hand wrote the candy
names and voila a candy bar! This was one of our biggest surprises of the
night– originally, we thought that it would please our friends but it seems
that it was a bigger hit with our parents friends! Who would have known!

Welcome bags- We tried to stuff these with as many local products that we
could. Little jars of Vermont maple syrup and Cabot Cheddar cheese were
some of the highlights and also included the usual items (maps, gum,
kleenex, chocolate, water, etc.).

Posted by: Leigh @ 7:44 pm [+]
Filed under: Destination Weddings, Weddings

And the winner is…

April 2, 2009

Sarah, who said -

this picture captures the complete sense of “finally… we did it!”  that we felt after
the ceremony and before the big party.  I remember exactly how I felt at this
moment … completely calm & happy… very in the moment.

Thank you to everyone who entered.  I will be sharing the rest of the faves as well!  Sarah I will be mailing out your gift card in the next week or so.  Enjoy!

Posted by: Leigh @ 1:31 pm [+]
Filed under: Announcements, Weddings