David and Natalie ~ Homemade Stylings

When first shooting this couples engagement session in the midst of blooming almond orchards I thought it couldn't get any better than that. They are such a strikingly good looking couple which is why this is such a massive blog entry. I couldn't possibly narrow these images down any further. David and Natalie were married on September 22, 2012 at Our Lady Mercy in Merced and had the reception at The Vista Ranch and Cellars. From the beginning of our communication, Natalie had a very clear vision of her wedding day. She had all of the mason jars with various detailed accents on them, some grouped together with jute, some with a chalboard enhancement for table numbers and votives wrapped in lace. Wood framed chalkboards throughout the reception with various love quotes, homemade jams for guest gifts, old glass windows to list out over 250 guests seat assignments and the grooms mom made Tiramisu for dessert. She threw in fun details like the mis-matched robes for the girls as they were getting ready and the adorable heart shaped glasses that I'm pretty convinced all of the groomsmen enjoyed more than the ladies. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, the fields were beginning to harvest with the pumpkins grown on sight and the pomegranate trees were the perfect backdrop and the guest danced the night away!! Venue and Catering: The Vista Ranch and Cellars Flowers and Photography: Natalie Galasso Makeup: Alex Hart

Lindsay and Zach - Plums and Gilded Golds

The colors you choose for your wedding play such an important part to the feel of your entire day. You have to think about how they fit you as a couple, the time of year, definitely the venue down to what flowers you choose and how much of the specific colors to implement. From when I began doing weddings 9 years ago when discussing something like purple it was pretty much light, dark or both. Now that this industry has leaped in to such a customized world and the colors offered have become endless, it is important to remain true and specific to your palette. This brings me to Lindsay and Zachs gorgeous wedding. The past couple years the plums and eggplants have been making a statement and pulling in flowers to represent that is very limited. We have Calla Lilies which are a more modern and sleek look, scabiosas which are more on the wildflower side, ranunculus which are breathtaking but not always available and outside of that we need to achieve that look by pulling in things like succulents and actual plums. When working with Lindsay she was so kick back over all on knowing what style she wanted with long runner type centerpieces, she wanted to pull in some rich vine foliage to the bouquets, also requested to use some cream cotton or jute to finish the bouquets off, wanted some succulents as well. She mentioned and sent a sample picture of her making of her killer gilded gold water bottle table numbers but never did I know she was going to knock my socks off with all the other details she put in to this event herself. She had custom wood pins made to enhance each boutonniere for the men that were in the shape of squirrels, dinosaurs, fox and bears, gold gilded dinosaurs scattered in specific places at the reception, wood heart garlands with specified signage around the reception, her own pallets for her ceremony altar area. All the way down to the very dedicated detail of taking every guests facebook profile picture and making it a Polaroid for them to find their faces and then the table numbers. Such a gorgeous day this past August at The Evergreen. You can see by the photos how rich and powerful her simple color scheme was!

Mint Green, Muted Coral and Pewter

Mint green is a childhood favorite color of mine and seeing it come back in weddings, nail polishes, jewelry, and even jeans, I can't get enough! Lauren was such an inspiration to work with because she has such a creative vision with her wedding details. Her wedding took place at The Evergreen Lodge, September 22nd. She accented bouquets with specialty ribbon from The Ribboniere in San Francisco. She chose a softer more colorless route with her bouquet and then more saturated corals and peaches for the bridesmaids. Her centerpieces were a mixture of gold urns and rectangle wood boxes that we incorporated all blush and mint flowers with pops of coral and even accents of fresh figs. The ceremony aisle was aligned with tree stumps with misc jars, vases and succulents set upon them. All of the reception tables were in a rectangle setting with bleached manaznita branches, silvery mercury votives and clusters of birch votives intermixed.