Beautiful and painterly, Hannah & James love not only reflected their love for each other, but also was inspired by the reflections of the stars in the sky, dreamy and celestial. One of their major goals was to have a fun party, and it definitely looks like they accomplished just that!
from the photographer: “Inspired by the magic and wonder of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Hannah and James’ wedding at the Santa Barbara Women’s Club was a dreamy and personalized celebration. They wanted a classic and timeless wedding with a celestial touch; the result was a whimsical and romantic atmosphere that truly felt like a fairytale. The couples’ number one priority was to throw a really fun party. Secondly, they wanted a gorgeous and personalized ceremony that made their guests laugh AND cry. The couple worked with Heather’s team at Three Sisters Event Planning to bring their unique vision to life. Hannah took on a fair amount of DIY projects including designing and printing the signage for the venue. She created the welcome signs, menu and thank you notes for each place setting, and even a “bride and groom trivia” crossword puzzle for the guests to enjoy at cocktail hour. From the planner on custom designs: “Two elements that I was personally excited to see come to life were the floral installation on the oak tree and the custom seating chart we had made. The floral installation was something new for our team, and since then, we have done a similar install on that same tree. It was created with floral foam, chicken wire and heavy duty wired twine, so as to hold the piece but not damage the tree. The seating chart was created by brush lettering the names on various jars that Hannah had selected to match the color. It was such an awesome visual.” Other personalized details included small celestial stars and moon arrangements, a statue of their dog on the cake, a live band and a surprise late night ice cream truck. From the bride on her inspiration and theme: “I’ve always been obsessed with the stars in the sky so I wanted our wedding to have a celestial “vibe”. I did a lot of research on social media and I quickly realized that I didn’t love the celestial aesthetic I was seeing – there was a lot of black and purple in the color scheme and it just didn’t feel like me. I also found myself really drawn to weddings with a romantic fairytale aesthetic and I think I’m not alone in saying I’ve always wanted to feel like a princess. I created a mood board with both of these ideas in mind so I could easily communicate the exact vibe I wanted and when I pitched it to Heather, she suggested calling it “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. It was perfect! Having a cohesive vision really helped me along the way. Our colors were shades of blue and ivory with gold accents and greenery and there were touches of stars and moons throughout the decor.” Memories from the bride: “We both cried during our first look and we both cried during our vows – we wrote them ourselves and being able to personalize them truly made our wedding ceremony unique to us. We did a choreographed first dance and hearing our friends and family gasp when we did our lift is something I’ll never forget. Also, seeing everyone so excited about the surprise ice cream truck was so much fun!” Advice from the planner: “Planning with a team can be a less stressful, more collaborative and FUN experience. You might not think you have the budget to do something you see on Pinterest, but often there are creative ways to do something inspired by your vision, you just have to get input and the experience of a great team! “ Advice from the bride: “Focus on what you want and what is important to you and your fiancé. Know when to stand your ground with what you want but also be flexible as needed – sometimes it’s not worth the fight. Being a detail-oriented perfectionist is exhausting (trust me, I know) and while most of the time it will pay off, sometimes you’ll just need to realize that you can’t get everything perfect and you’ll need to accept it and move on. I’m also very glad that we didn’t go on our honeymoon immediately after the wedding – we were both so unbelievably exhausted and I ended up getting sick with a cold the whole week following the wedding. If we had been in Italy that week we would’ve been miserable. We went two weeks later and it was perfect!”
How did you meet?
James and I met through work – he’s a talent agent and I worked in casting at the time. He came to our office to meet our department and during the whole meeting I couldn’t stop smiling because I thought he was so cute. He emailed me later that day and asked me to get a drink that same night. I had plans so we met up the following evening and we’ve pretty much been together ever since (6.5 years now!)
What is your proposal story?
Mid-pandemic James suggested we drive out to Malibu for the day and get lunch. We had been cooped up for months so I didn’t think anything of it. His friend suggested we go to Point Dume first and James made a reservation for lunch afterward. Coincidentally, a few days earlier, our neighbor asked if I wanted to go with her to get my nails done. I agreed, again not thinking anything of it. The morning of the nail appointment, James’s best friend from New York proposed to his girlfriend, and he showed me a picture of the ring – I immediately noticed she had her nails painted green. Later that day, when I’m sitting in the salon alone (because for *some* reason my neighbor canceled her appointment), I overhear a girl choosing green as a nail color. It clicked immediately and I started panicking!
The next day we head up to Point Dume and I just know it’s happening. As soon as we got off the freeway it started raining and James literally started to lose it. He pulled over at a gas station and went inside, saying he was calling the restaurant to try to change our reservation. He comes back, says we can go to the restaurant first, and I’m thinking we’ll do the proposal at Point Dume afterward. We get to the restaurant, order drinks, and he goes to the bathroom. He comes back out a few minutes later while I’m nibbling on the free bread and says “I have something important to ask you” — I reply “right now?!”. Sure enough, he proposes right then and there. I start crying, people at the restaurant start clapping, and two of the people taking photos turn out to be one of my best friends and her husband. Even though I knew the proposal was happening that day I was still so surprised because I wasn’t expecting it before the first course!
Tell us about your wedding vision.
When we sat down to discuss what elements of the wedding were important to us, we decided that our number one priority was to throw a really fun party. I also wanted the ceremony to be gorgeous and I wanted people to both laugh AND cry during it. Since we had a lot of folks coming from out of town, we wanted to have a nice destination rather than somewhere in LA, where we live. We decided on Santa Barbara because it was close enough to LA where our friends could drive there and back that day if they wanted to, but far enough that it felt like a weekend getaway. Plus, most of our New York friends had never been, and it’s such a gorgeous location we were happy to make people travel there ◡̈ On top of that, I loved the idea of having a special place for us that we can visit on our wedding anniversary. We chose the Santa Barbara Woman’s Club as our venue because of the gorgeous architecture and surrounding garden, the stage, and the fact that we could really make it our own.
When thinking about the design and decor, I got inspiration from a variety of places. I’ve always been obsessed with the stars in the sky so I wanted our wedding to have a celestial “vibe”. I did a lot of research on social media and I quickly realized that I didn’t love the celestial aesthetic I was seeing – there was a lot of black and purple in the color scheme and it just didn’t feel like me. I also found myself really drawn to weddings with a romantic fairytale aesthetic and I think I’m not alone in saying I’ve always wanted to feel like a princess. I created a mood board with both of these ideas in mind so I could easily communicate the exact vibe I wanted, and when I pitched it to Heather, our coordinator, she suggested calling it “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. It was perfect! Having a cohesive vision really helped me along the way. Our colors were shades of blue and ivory with gold accents and greenery and there were touches of stars and moons throughout the decor.
What inspired your attire?
I found myself really drawn to A-line dresses with structured bodices and dreamy accents. As soon as I tried my dress on, I knew it was the one (and I think my bridal stylist knew as well because she saved it for last!). I actually cried when I saw myself in the dress, something I truly did not think would happen. The dress fabric is glitter tulle so when the light hits, it sparkles. We added the off the shoulder sleeves, which I was obsessed with. My Loeffer Randall shoes were a gift from my Aunts and when I saw them in blue, I knew they were perfect. James always wanted a custom tux for his wedding so he went to Indochino and had it made. He also knew that he wanted really nice shoes, so he splurged on Gucci loafers (which he wears to work now almost every day!). I’m happy that we could both have our dream fashion moments.
What was the most important to you while planning?
We both agreed that our wedding needed an open bar, so that wasn’t even up for discussion. James really wanted a live band and I really wanted excellent photography and videography, so we decided to splurge on those. We decided to skip on extravagant invitations and paper rsvp cards to keep stationary costs low, and I made most of the signage myself, including the menus, welcome signs, etc. We also skipped on favors, opting for a photo booth instead.
Favorite parts of the day?
Thinking back to that day there are a few moments that will forever hold a special place in my heart. We both cried during our first look and we both cried during our vows – we wrote them ourselves and being able to personalize them truly made our wedding ceremony unique to us. One of my favorite parts of the day was getting to express my love in front of our family and friends, making them all laugh and cry in the process.
We did a choreographed first dance and hearing everyone gasp when James lifted me up is something I’ll never forget. Also, seeing everyone so excited about the surprise ice cream truck was so much fun! We kept it a secret from almost everyone and I was honestly worried people wouldn’t get ice cream but there was a line! Totally worth it. One of our friends came up to us after and told us that our wedding was the best wedding she’s ever been to, and that my vows were the best she’s ever heard, and she’s been to over 30 weddings! That is something I will brag about forever.
What inspired your wedding cake? Details?
Our biggest priority for the cake was taste – I’ve had some pretty bad wedding cakes and I needed ours to be delicious. When we did our cake tasting we both loved the chocolate frosting the best but disagreed on the cake flavor – we ended up doing a 3 tier cake with vanilla cake and chocolate frosting on the bottom, chocolate/chocolate in the middle, and a carrot cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting on top. It was SO good. Design wise I really wanted it to be simple and I loved the idea of having our dog Oliver as the cake topper – we had him custom made on Etsy and he turned out so cute!
Because I had such a clear vision of what I wanted for the wedding, I ended up DIYing a fair amount – I designed and printed all of the signage around the venue including the welcome signs, the signature drink signs, the menu/thank you notes at each seat, and the crossword puzzle, which was one of my favorite touches! I knew I wanted the crossword puzzle to have personalized clues so I used an online crossword puzzle maker and then I redesigned it in Canva so it matched my other stationary. I had it printed at FedEx, framed it in a poster frame, and used dry erase markers for the clues. It took awhile but it was SO worth it – everyone loved it and it was a great cocktail hour ice breaker because some of the clues were pretty hard!
Any special heirlooms?
My grandmother let me borrow her diamond necklace, which was so kind and thoughtful of her – and it was SO gorgeous. I also had my great grandmother and namesake’s handkerchief with me the whole time as my something old – it’s embroidered with the letter H in the exact dusty blue color I chose for my wedding shoes – so it felt serendipitous.
Any advice for planning couples?
Here’s my advice – focus on what you want and what is important to you and your fiancé. Know when to stand your ground with what you want but also be flexible as needed – sometimes it’s not worth the fight. Being a detail-oriented perfectionist is exhausting (trust me, I know) and while most of the time it will pay off, sometimes you’ll just need to realize that you can’t get everything perfect and you’ll need to accept it and move on. I’m also very glad that we didn’t go on our honeymoon immediately after the wedding – we were both so unbelievably exhausted and I ended up getting sick with a cold the whole week following the wedding. If we had been in Italy that week we would’ve been miserable. We went two weeks later and it was perfect!
Photography: Kaitie Brainerd Photography | Ceremony Venue: Santa Barbara Woman’s Club | Reception Venue: Santa Barbara Woman’s Club | Event Planning: Three Sisters Event Planning | Floral: Among the Wildflowers | Stationery: Minted | Videography: Spin the Dial | Wedding Cake: Sugar Lab Bakery | Hair: Fairytale Hair and Makeup | Makeup: Fairytale Hair and Makeup | Stationery: VIRGINIA BROWN ART | Catering: DJs California Catering | Lighting: Spark Creative Events | Band: Lucky Devils Band | Desserts: Mister Softee | Wedding Dress: Madi Lane Bridal | Groom’s Attire: Indochino | Bride’s Shoes: Loeffler Randall | Bridesmaid Dresses: SHOP REVELRY | Bridal Salon: Luv Bridal | Groom’s Shoes: Gucci | Headpiece: Island Treasures Boutique | Bridesmaid Dresses: SHOP REVELRY | Dance Lessons: Emma Mesrobian Dnace | Submitted via: Matchology
Publisher at The White Wren and Bajan Wed, Award Winning Photography + Videographer at Live View Studios, Dad, 80s music lover, crunchy health advocate
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