We spotted another stunning Bella Figura bride and groom real wedding feature on Style Me Pretty! The ceremony and reception took place at the historic Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona. We love the details, color scheme, and most of all the jaw-dropping open-back dress by Monique Lhuillier. Our Victoria Calligraphy Letterpress Invitations by Sarah Hanna were printed in black ink on our luxurious 2-ply ivory paper and perfectly complimented the event with classic elegance.

The couple planned an outdoor ceremony and reception all within a “garden-party” theme but encountered an unexpected twist! The bride says,  “The weather gods had a different plan for us, however, as it decided to pour the day of our wedding and was freezing cold (ok, it was in the 40s, but that’s freezing for us Arizonans!)We made the decision to move everything indoors the morning of the wedding and I was a little concerned that our Plan B back-up space would end up looking like a generic ballroom. However, through sheer determination and incredibly hard work, our design team, Avant-Garde Studio, and our event planner, Rhonda Rush, were able to “recreate” my garden party theme indoors.  Avant-Garde even built the entire tent structure inside the ballroom and draped all of the walls.  They made the ballroom incredibly unique looking and beautiful. We moved the ceremony into the architecturally stunning Aztec Ballroom and it turned out better than we could have ever imagined. Despite the rain, the day was perfect, and the ceremony and reception went off without a hitch.  The sun even made an appearance long enough for our wonderful photographer, Elyse Hall, to snap some beautiful outdoor shots before the festivities began. The food was delicious, the music was lively and the dancing seemed to last all night, just like we wanted.”

See more of this breathtaking wedding on Style me Pretty.

Vendors

Photography: Elyse Hall / Event Coordinator: Rhonda Rush with Impact Events / Design, décor and flowers: Avant-Garde Studios / Band: The Hamptons Band / After-Party DJ: Steven Skoze / Invitations: Bella Figura / Save the dates: Wedding Paper Divas / Calligraphy: Jennifer Schmidt / Photo Booth: Self-Portrait Station / Dress: Monique Lhuillier / String Trio: String Serenade / Catering and Venue: The Arizona Biltmore / Bride’s hair: Mandy Samford / Bride’s makeup: Maureen Cosovich

What feels like many moons ago, I shared my own Keswick letterpress wedding invitations here on the blog and at long last it’s time to share a few photos from our summer wedding last year. We celebrated our wedding with a two-day celebration in the beautiful Thousand Islands region of upstate New York, from which I hail. We were married in a private ceremony with just the closest of family and friends and then toasted our newlywed status with a cocktail party. We had planned for a beautiful outdoor ceremony at the Sackets Harbor Battlefield in a tree grove overlooking Lake Ontario. The weather had other plans. Rather than dodge rain drops, we moved our ceremony indoors last minute and were married at the private catering facility at the Madison Barracks where our cocktail party was to be held. It was nothing I had planned, yet, it was everything I could have ever wanted.

I wore a gorgeous lace Casablanca dress that I still love, champagne gold and pewter shoes from J.Crew, a Twigs & Honey flower in my hair, and a birdcage veil from Something Bold. My daddy walked me down the makeshift aisle and we both cried the whole time.

Though I am flower-obsessed and wanted a wedding that felt timeless, elegant and stylish, I had little to no interest in the bouquet tradition. I wanted simple, pretty flowers that didn’t break the bank. The answer was a small bouquet of my favorite flowers, white roses, for myself and pretty baby’s breath bouquets for my bridesmaids. We ordered the flowers wholesale and made them together as a group the night before.

Following the ceremony, we asked all of our family to join us for a group photo. Getting forty people to all look at the camera at once and smile was more work than you might imagine and it’s not really our style anyway so in the end we just asked people to hang out while our awesome photographer, James Bass, grabbed some shots. I love this one. It’s like we have this huge wall of love and laughter and joy behind us, which is a pretty great metaphor for the love we experience every day from our oversized collection of family, friends and loved ones.

For Friday’s festivities, we kept the details simple. The highlight were the DIY ceremony programs that I designed, printed, scored, folded, corner punched and individually handbound with a needle and baker’s twine. For the tables we created simple white hydrangea centerpieces that were clustered in the assorted milk glass vases my mother and I collected in the year leading up to the wedding.

The following morning we woke up in our hotel suite at the Edgewood Resort in Alexandria Bay and met up with guests from out of town for brunch and a day of sight seeing along the St. Lawrence River. This down time spent relaxing with loved ones is exactly why we planned a two-day wedding and, though more complicated at times, it’s still one of the best decisions we made. Later that evening we welcomed 150 people for a full reception at the Edgewood in a gorgeous room with panoramic views of the river and a wood-clad gazebo ceiling.

Our reception was really all about fun. We ditched our bouquets and instead all carried clutches – the girls carried black satin ones I had bought for them and I carried a jewel green clutch that was a gift from my lovely friend Cheyanne. The girls wore different styles of dresses from Dessy in champagne paired with black shoes and pretty necklaces I made for them. The guys wore classic black tuxes with champagne ties made to match the dresses. Being the crafty type, I was all about the DIY details – I designed and handcrafted everything from the table numbers to the favor tags to the cocktail napkins to the escort cards to coordinate with our Bella Figura letterpress wedding invitations. Because we’re both obsessed with sweets, favors were little kraft paper bakery boxes filled with homemade cookies baked by my mother and stepfather.

Being literature buffs, the cake was topped with a cluster of paper flowers made from the pages of old romance novels. Otherwise the design was simple – we worked with the pastry chef we did because her cakes are amazingly delicious and the strawberry champagne flavor reminds me of the birthday cake my mother makes me every year. Splurging on a fancy fondant cake was of no interest to me, this was all about the cake for us. We ate the top tier for breakfast while on our honeymoon – hands down the best breakfast I have ever had.

Our wedding ended up being a perfect reflection of us and who we really are. It was all about the love. In fact, people still talk about how much fun they had and, for me, that’s what really mattered. I could recount all of the projects that didn’t get finished (there were several), all the great ideas for fancy little details that never happened, but when I look back those are never the things that come to mind. I remember getting married, being blissfully happy and living happily ever after. (Or something pretty close to it.)

{Photos by James Bass.}

Remember this absolutely breathtaking wedding we shared a while back? This week we were contacted by Patricia and Richard’s wedding planner in Italy to let us know about the wedding being featured on her Italian Lakes Wedding blog. We love all of the behind the scenes info she shared about the event and how their incredible destination wedding weekend came together. Thanks so much for sharing, Valentina!

{Photos by Sora DeVore Photography}

For brides still planning their weddings, we asked Ellie to share a bit of advice.
I would advise them to hire a wedding planner! Mine was Jodi Gagne of Simply Perfect Events and her help, support and sanity was invaluable. On the day of the wedding all I had to do was sit back, enjoy the day with my friends and family and try and relax. There was no detail that I had to concern myself about. Not only was everything taken care of but Jodi instilled in me a confidence so I knew everything would be taken care of.

We also asked Ellie about her favorite part of the day…
The wedding day was full of wonderful moments. I have to admit the day went quite smoothly which I was a bit nervous about because the wedding had been planned within a six-month period. However, one of the best moments was after dinner and the speeches when we showed our wedding guests a 5 minute video that our incredibly talented videographers had already put together of the actual wedding day. An option they offered in addition to our wedding videos was that some of the video footage taken during the first half of the day and the  ceremony would be edited and put to music while we were eating and listening to speeches. When the video started playing our audience was amazed (as were we) by the quality of the editing that had been accomplished within a couple of hours. It was such an exciting moment and gave everyone a glimpse of the earlier part of the day before the ceremony.

And that very same-day edit video that stunned Ellie, Kevin and their guests, filmed by Toronto’s own Still Motion, has also filled us with awe. Opening with a gorgeous shot of Ellie and Kevin’s letterpress invitations from Bella Figura, we are totally in love with the work of Still Motion and are so excited to share their same-day edit with you!

Ellie + Kevin’s Same-Day Edit from StillMotion on Vimeo.

Congratulations to Ellie and Kevin and thank you so much for sharing your day with us! Ellie and Kevin just recently welcomed their first baby to the family so we wish all three of you best wishes and many happy smiles in the years to come!

Vendors
Cake – Dessert Trends
Wedding Planner – Jodi Gagne of Simply Perfect
Photographer – Andreas Avdoulos of Andreas Photo
Cinematography – Still Motion
Venue – Le Royal Meridien King Edward
Church – St. James Cathedral
Dress – Platinum for Priscilla of Boston
Bridesmaid Dresses – JCrew

Jordan and Juan Carlos (Juancho) are a truly special Bella Figura couple who married in April 2008 after they fell in love while Jordan was living in Ecuador where Juan is from. This past fall they threw a wonderful eco-friendly wedding celebration in Jordan’s home state of Texas in October, four years to date of their very first kiss, and chose Bella Figura’s letterpress wedding invitations in our Amy design printed with taupe ink to kick it all off. It was a great pleasure for us to work with Jordan and her mother who corresponded closely with client coordinator Tiffany, and we love all of the ways Jordan and Juan Carlos worked to make their wedding green and eco-friendly. Theirs is a wedding that was truly centered on love, family and togetherness while limiting any negative environmental impact and we find that incredibly inspirational. According to Jordan, “…for the green aspects of the wedding, we wanted to have a self-indulgent time but not at the cost of our carbon footprint. ”

To kick off the weekend celebration in true Texas fashion, Jordan and Juan invited their guests from around the world to join them for an evening at the rodeo followed by dinner and then dancing at a favorite local tavern. It was a chance to bring together their friends and family from as far away as Ecuador, Spain, England, Germany, Mexico and from across the United States in a fun and festive way that allowed everyone to forge new friendships and make new memories. Guests camped out and stayed in cabins at a couple of dude ranches in the local area, enjoyed horseback rides, participated in a series of summer camp-inspired activities such as games, tournaments, and scavenger hunts during the day on Saturday before enjoying a hayride before dinner.

The highlight of the weekend was a celebratory gala on Saturday evening complete with toasts in honor of the newlyweds, dinner, and dancing well into the evening. Guests enjoyed local beers and organic wine and were treated to the best of good Texan hospitality. The following day they hosted an open house where guests could again enjoy horseback rides and a final taste of Texas before the weekend came to a close. Throughout the weekend Jordan and Juan Carlos provided transportation for guests by bus and encouraged those opting not to take the bus to car pool in order to save on emissions. Guests were provided with aluminum SIGG water bottles with Jordan and Juan Carlos’s custom monogram to use instead of purchasing bottled water and locally brewed beer was served out of kegs with reusable stadium cups in order to limit waste. Any and all disposable cups were biodegradable and reusable dinnerware was used for each of the three meals they provided.

We are such huge fans of this lovely wedding that we had to know more about what inspired Jordan when planning the weekend with Juan Carlos and her mother we helped to bring it all together…

How did your Bella Figura invitations capture the mood of the wedding?
“[They were] just perfect. Green. Simple. Beautiful. I had looked at so many invitations and I knew even from the obscured internet photos that this was the one from the very first look. It was even better when I held the sample in my hands – there was just nothing I had seen or felt that compared. This invitation is great to look at, substantial to hold, and soft to the touch. I absolutely loved that it was tree-less as well. The invitation and the whole event went together just perfectly.”

What was your overall inspiration?
“From the very beginning, we knew that the celebration would be a full weekend in order to allow time for fun, intimate time with guests, breaks for resting, and time to just have fun.  Because we had guests coming from so far away (Ecuador, Spain, England, Germany, Mexico and from all over the United States) it was important to us for some of the Texan customs to come through. Juancho had never been to a rodeo before, so naturally the rodeo immediately became part of this Texan hospitality.  Juancho and I love being in the country and more than anything at my parents’ place in Tarpley – we adore the people there, the culture, everything – so what better a place. The dude ranches of course were the perfect setting for our guests to relax and get to know one another. “

What your favorite moment?
“The whole wedding celebration was one continuous moment of joy and friendship and love.”

Any advice for future brides still planning their wedding?
“We wanted to have a unique celebration but unique made it hard to explain to everyone (friends and family alike) as well as plan. It took us four solid months – less time than perhaps most people take to plan – but it was a second full time job for me, my husband and my mom. I got some great ideas from alternative bride books – more than anything how to understand that many people have a strict idea of what a wedding is supposed to be – and ours was not going to be that. My favorite book: The Offbeat Bride. Advice: start early, work with someone on planning who knows you and understands your vision, nothing is worth arguing over.”

How did you incorporate being eco-friendly into your event?
Wedding Registries: Greenfeet and Gaiam
All guests were given custom SIGG water bottles for the weekend festivities
All disposable cups were biodegradable but we supplied reusable stadium cups with the celebration logo next to all drink stations.
All wines and greens served throughout the weekend were organic
Guests were transported in large buses, together, throughout the weekend and encouraged to carpool to get to the festivities
Locally brewed beers were served in kegs, rather than individual servings
Programs printed on 100% recycled paper
Invitations were from Bella Figura
Napkins and plates for meals were non-disposable
Water was served in water dispensers with 5 gallon water bottles

Thank you so much, Jordan and Juan Carlos for allowing us to share your amazing wedding weekend! We are so happy to have worked with you and even happier that you made being eco-friendly a huge part of your celebration. Congratulations and best wishes for a happy future!

{Vendors}
Twin Elm Dude Ranch – accommodations
Dixie Dude Ranch – accommodations
J.D. Nix – Rodeo Planner
Rosemary Catering Group (RK Group) – All meals, tents, lighting, transportation
London Calling – Band
Tarpley Tavern – Post Roedo Country Ho-down
Da Vinci Gelato – Dessert

{The wedding of Elizabeth & Felicia // Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, California // Circolo 2 letterpress wedding invitation design in champagne and pewter}

Our client coordinator Andrea had the great pleasure of working with Elizabeth (Eaz) to help choose the perfect wedding invitation for her ultra luxurious event. At first, Eaz was a bit skeptical about working with us exclusively by email and phone, but we are so happy that they did! Upon receiving their letterpress samples, Eaz and Felicia opted for the fun Circolo 2 design printed in champagne and pewter. The invitations coordinated perfectly with the charger plates they used and helped influence incredibly beautiful and personal details throughout their wedding. The couple infused their day with meaningful details that make it one of our favorite Bella Figura weddings to date.

Eaz and Felicia incorporated so many lovely details. Among their favorites were the rocks they used as place cards that were hand-painted by Felicia’s best man. They provided pretty custom embroidered handkerchiefs for all the happy tears and opted for flamenco guitar music in lieu of traditional wedding music during their ceremony. They had matching custom Converse All Star sneakers to wear after the ceremony and had a fabulously fun videobooth at their reception so guests could leave them personal video messages. The pastry chef for their wedding handmade beautiful lighted star ice bowls to serve their sorbet intermezzo and, our personal favorite, the matching chargers and invitations!

Elizabeth and Felicia’s beautiful ketubah, influenced by their Circolo 2 letterpress invitations.
We love this detail!

Eaz and Felicia shared with us a bit about their wedding and their inspiration for the event…
We wanted to throw a guest-centered extravagant party for our closest friends and family to thank them for standing by us over the past 10 years of our ups and downs. We had a hard time getting started with the inspiration and were carrying around tons of sample invitations that we hoped would inspire us. We went to one company to browse their chargers and found one that had the same star-burst pattern as one of the invitations. We decided that they looked fabulous together and decided to carry that pattern throughout the event.

What was your favorite moment?
Being wrapped in my grandfather’s tallis by the rabbi and seeing our guests faces as they walked into our “after-glow” with a jazz band, modern furniture, a hot-chocolate bar and video guestbook so they could all leave us a personal video message.

Favorite design element of your big day:
The matching chargers and invitations!

What did you love about working with Bella Figura?
The design was exactly what we were looking for and while they are not local for us (across the country actually), they always responded promptly to my emails and helped us to create a fabulous and beautiful design.

Cute custom Converse All Star sneakers that reflected the theme of the day and the beautiful chargers that paired so wonderfully with our Circolo 2 letterpress invitations!

What advice would you give to someone planning their wedding?
The little detailed extras are what your guests will remember forever and help to make your event extra special.

What’s next for you as a couple?
SCUBA diving in the Maldives and earning more letters after our names

We love Eaz and Felicia’s wedding not only because of how wonderful our experience with them has been, but also because it exemplifies so much about what we’re about at Bella Figura. Great design, small beautiful details, and a focus on family, friends and loved ones. Their wedding is a perfect example of allowing a single element or small handful of elements, in this case the chargers and invitations, and using them as the inspiration for other details throughout the day. We’re big believers in the power of great design to tie everything together and this wedding is proof that it can translate to an event that is unqiuely personal, thoughtful, and reflective of the love shared between two people. We’re so happy to have been a part of this amazing wedding. Congratulations, Eaz and Felicia!

Vendors
Location: The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay
Florist/set design – Flower Divas
Photographer – Jay Kelly Photography
Photographer – eye of passion – Juan Carlos Pometta Betancourt
Lighting/pipe and drape – Enhanced Lighting
Furniture – Blueprintstudios Trends
Eaz’s suit – Al’s Attire
Flo’s dress – Amy Kuschel
Flamenco guitar – John Clarke
Jazz band – Joel Nelson Productions
Video booth – PhotoBoof!

Every day our Bella Figura clients are inspirations to us. They have good tastes in invitations, of course, but they also have amazing talents at planning fabulous weddings. So with our new web site, we wanted to start profiling some of the best weddings of our clients. We’re just thrilled that our first Bella Figura real wedding is this lovely couple, Allan & Brian, with a really spectacular wedding. When we saw photographs from their celebration at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, all of us here were just floored by the creativity of everything about the wedding. Allan & Brian choose the Circolo 2 design in cardinal and pewter, and their invitation really captured the spirit of their wedding. And then Allan sent us some amazing writing about the wedding too, the importance of the ceremony, and his thoughts about love that described, for us, what weddings are really about.

What was your inspiration for the wedding?
The arts are very important to us, which is one important reason why we chose Disney Concert Hall as the venue. We also both have an affinity for the music and styles of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. We wanted an event that was stylish and elegant but also fun. We opted for a black tie-optional champagne cocktail event. We love art deco style, so we wanted something inspired by that sensibility. But because the concert hall is so modern, we didn’t want a slavish re-creation of art deco. Instead, we wanted a fusion which was a challenge to pull off, but ended up working really well.

Tell us about the proposal.
It would be great if there were a story with lightning bolts or roses or bended knee in the moonlight. However, after 18 years together there was no such moment. Actually, we were quite surprised when the California Supreme Court handed down a decision allowing same-sex marriage in the state. Beginning that evening, friends and family started calling to ask, “So, are you going to do it?” We were both surprised to discover that we had repressed how much we wanted to get married — how important it was to have an event that included the people who mattered most to us. And so after a few days of weighing the options (such as a small ceremony at the county clerk office) we decided we wanted a real wedding. And, with Proposition 8 on the November ballot, we felt we had a brief window in which we could confidently plan something.

How did your invitation capture the mood of your wedding?
From the outset, the decision to have a wedding was driven by our wish to include the people that are important to us. We didn’t see ourselves as a couple in isolation, but as people who are part of a much larger and therefore stronger circle. Because of that, we didn’t want to stand alone in front of and separate from people during the ceremony. We wanted to be surrounded by people, to be part of a literal circle of love. And the Circolo 2 design
captured that idea perfectly. We also thought although it was contemporary, the invitation had a sensibility (especially with the font we chose) that echoed earlier times. And we thought the circles reminded us of champagne bubbles. (Yes, we did also consider the Champagne design, but the circle concept ultimately was more important.)

What was your favorite moment?
Exchanging vows. In advance, we were both nervous about speaking vows in front of everyone — it seemed so intimate. But when the moment came it was transcendent and powerful. It was as if time stopped, and for a few moments all our love and that of everyone around us and rooting for us came together as one. The actual moment
of committing your heart and future to another is incredibly powerful and emotional.

Three adjectives that describe your big day are:
Profound. Beautiful. Fun.

What was your favorite wedding detail?
We didn’t have a traditional wedding party, but we did want to include the people most important to us in the ceremony. We also wanted the ceremony itself to say something about the nature of love and commitment, and to draw on works of art — novels and poems — that meant something to us. We met both goals by having about a dozen people read brief passages about love during the ceremony. Identifying the passages to read took a lot of time, but it was worth it. The ceremony is what people talked to us most about that day and since. It meant so much to us to have people take part in it and we were very moved by the readings themselves, with the interpretations people gave to the material.

Favorite design element of your wedding:
All the design elements were beautiful, but the cake would have to be our favorite. We hired Christopher Garrens to design it, and it was stunning. It incorporated the elements of music (even the lyrics to our song, “My Romance,”) and also the art deco style. It even included the circles from the invitation design! The cake was such an important element that our wedding planner, Kevin Covey, put it on the platform where we had the ceremony as the central design element. It was stunning.

What did you love about working with Bella Figura?
What didn’t we love? The designs are stunning and the actual invitations were beautiful. We got compliments on them up to, during and even after the wedding. People are still talking about them. And the service was perfect — Andrea was warm, friendly, responsive. Everything was done exactly as promised and when. We loved the idea that we were working with a company that respected tradition and gives back to the community. And we really appreciated that our non-traditional wedding was treated with respect.

What advice would you have to someone planning their wedding?
1. Remember, it’s YOUR wedding. Plan the day that you want, and don’t allow yourself to be overly influenced about what everyone else wants. It’s so easy to get all caught up in making everyone else happy. During the planning, I told a good friend about all the stress we were feeling and she said something that really helped: “Everyone else’s job is to show up and to love you.” It sounds so simple, but it was so helpful. We went back to that over and over. She was right.
2. Invest your emotional and mental energy in the ceremony. So much energy goes into the aesthetics of the event — the flowers, the cake, etc. But in the end, the whole day is really about making a commitment. Think about what you really want that moment to be, and make it your own. In the end, that’s what you — and the guests — will really remember.
3. Trust your instincts. If it doesn’t “feel” right to you, it probably isn’t. Hire someone to think logically for you and then let your emotions guide you. This is a day about emotions, so don’t discount what you are feeling.

What’s next for you as a couple?
Other than coming down from the high of the wedding? Continuing to build a life together and to keep learning and growing. And to work to see to it that we are allowed to stay married and that all gay and lesbian couples who love each other and want to commit their lives to one another get the chance to have the kind of joyous, unforgettable day that we had and to experience the transformative power of marriage.

Invitations: Bella Figura Letterpress

Photographer: Barnet Photography

Cake: Christopher Garrens, Let Them Eat Cake

Wedding planner: Kevin Covey