Category: Wedding Ceremony

My father is Middle Eastern, my mother hails from Louisiana’s Cajun country, and I’m proud to say that both cultures have always been an integral part of who I am. I can make hummus and shrimp gumbo pretty darn well, and I can swear in Arabic and Cajun French if the need arises. We’re also Texans, so that means we all can whip up a mean barbecue, too. When I became engaged to Jon, who has Nordic and German roots, we just sprinkled a few more ingredients into our family’s melting pot.

There’s nothing like a prop to bring out a woman’s inner diva. Whether vamping it up with a feather boa or flirting coyly with a painted fan, a woman becomes positively magnetic with the addition of just the right accessory. Though a bouquet is a bride’s traditional best friend, daring damsels are reaching for parasols and umbrellas to best set off their feminine charms.

With all its gold medals and high style, the Central Coast retains its small-town friendliness, and locals have positively thrown out a red-carpet welcome to bridal couples from near and far. Recently we did our own Central Coast Wine Country investigation.

Make sure your guests know that the wedding is actually on the sand, so they can dress appropriately. This can be communicated with the invitation (included with the map/directions), on your wedding website and through word-of-mouth.

For a love note ceremony, the bride and groom both write a good old fashioned love letter to each other on their wedding day, expressing in detail how they feel about their relationship. They’re not allowed to see the other’s letters or show them to anyone else. The letters are then sealed and given to the officiant at the ceremony, who locks them in a box with a bottle of good wine, creating a time capsule and emergency wedding kit in one. If the bride and groom ever feel that the marriage is in jeopardy, they’ll open the box, drink the wine, and read the letters together.

The Dream Inn, a Santa Cruz landmark, has just reopened after a fantastic retro-chic makeover—and their stylish new oceanview banquet space is so ready for primetime.

I spent my 4th of July at The Carneros Inn in Napa for the wedding of Christy & Christian. It was such a treat to be a part of this event. Not only did I get to go to one of my favorite places in Wine Country but I got to witness a truly beautiful wedding. Martha Stewart eat your heart out!

Exactly two years from the day Troy and Craig met at the snack machines at the Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank they married in front of 180 lucky wedding guests at The London West Hollywood. The theme of the event was “Celebrate the Seasons of Love,” and every detail was perfectly planned, all the way down to every detail was perfectly planned, all the way down to their toast with chocolate milk instead of champagne (they’re not fans of the bubbly!)

It would be great if you could turn your entire wedding wish list into reality, but in this tough economic climate it’s not always easy to do. So rather than trying to get everything perfect, couples are striving for a more realistic goal: making just one detail of their wedding so memorable that guests will be talking about it for years to come. I like to call this the “wow” factor.

Want to have a giraffe crash your wedding? It’s possible, and for animal lovers, it would be a jaw-dropping story to tell for years to come. If you want to get wild at your wedding, consider these animal-friendly venues in Southern California:

Recently, a couple getting married at The Historic Castle Green had planned to have their ceremony in a clear tent (outfitted with a gorgeous chandelier, of course) on the facility’s grounds.

If you’re thinking of getting married in the sunny and warm Los Angeles area, here are a few places that are so unique, you really only can experience them in LA.