The Wedding Chicks

Chris and Helen were in the process of making a life changing move from Boston to California. Several days before their big move, Chris proposed to Helen among all their moving boxes, making it truly a new chapter in their lives.

With the move behind them they were able to have their dream up-cycled vintage wedding at Franciscan Gardens. It was styled to perfection by Simply Sweet Weddings & Events, and overflowing with some knockout florals designed by Queen’s Flowers And Gifts. We are not going to lie, the full gallery is bursting with more fabulous photos captured by Leila Brewster Photography.

From The Bride:
We love the upcycled-vintage look so much that we decided to incorporate our entire theme around the whimsical furniture and decorative pieces collected over the course of several months following our move to Los Angeles. Our guests were greeted with a variety of colorful flower arrangements (over 20 different types of flowers if someone took the time to count!) and numerous photo opportunities around the venue where we had strategically placed our props. All other details fell into place after much planning and deliberation with our wedding planner and florist, who are the true experts at knowing how turn our scatterbrained ideas into a reality.

We chose to get married in a Buddhist ceremony. Our families were more than happy to help us blend traditions and orchestrate one of the most unique ceremonies anyone at the wedding had ever seen. It was an exhilarating and brand new experience for the both of us, and one that we could never forget and feel grateful for.

We wanted our wedding to blend in with the historic and rustic scenery around the venue, yet maintain certain details that were unique to us. Much of our inspiration came from the abundance of upcycled furniture where we live, which allowed our imagination to run wild thanks to the many opportunities that we had to visit vintage and consignment shops in our area.

Helen and Chris continued with their up-cycled theme by using a vintage chalkboard to show guests which table they sat at. Bonus! They could easily use this in their new home together as well.

As you see, this wedding is chalk full of steal worthy ideas — including re-purposing  the rustic hutch from the hors d’oeuvre station to the mini dessert station, and using a plant as a vessel for the dessert labels.

One of the main attractions at our event was the two-tier fig cake that Leila Brewster Photography beautifully captured. The cake sat on a red planter table that was hand-built around an original 1920′s window made by a local artist that we discovered.

Photographer: Leila Brewster Photography
Coordinator & Event Designer: Simply Sweet Weddings & Events
Flowers: Queen's- Flowers And Gifts
Venue: Franciscan Gardens
Hair & Makeup: Glam Oh Makeup
Cake: Simply Sweet Cakery
Caterer: 24 Carrots
DJ: Dj Sota Entertainment
Dress Designer: Ann Taylor
Groom's Attire: Men's Warehouse
Stationery: Minted.com
Prop or Furniture Rentals: Found Vintage Rentals
Linens: Designer Specialty Linens & La Tavola Fine Linen
Ceremony Musician: Sarah Maisel
Shoe Designer: Lulu Townsend

New York is filled with charming nooks and crannies that only a local New Yorker would know of. Like the La Plaza Cultural in the East Village, a unique open-air theater and green space, combining the functions of a community garden, a park and play area, wildlife refuge and performance venue.  It also happened to be the ceremony site for Ashley and Colin’s wedding, whose entire guest list was from out of town.

To ensure that their guests experienced some of New York’s incredible charm they created a unique and intimate wedding day. Taking them from a public park to a ride on a big yellow school bus all the way to to a Soho Bookstore. Sounds like a fun adventure to us! Read on to hear more about their Soho Bookstore Wedding and as always see more photos in the full gallery here all captured by Trent Bailey Photography.

From The Bride:
The ceremony was held at La Plaza Cultural in the East Village. There are so many interesting and beautiful community gardens sprinkled around the Village, and we knew not many of our guests would even know places like that existed. I always wanted to get married outside and the weeping willows seemed to be the perfect backdrop. A close friend of ours performed the ceremony, which made the evening that much more meaningful.

Big yellow school buses took guests to the reception at Housing Works Bookstore in SoHo. The bookstore was the perfect choice for us. We’re both writers and love books. We met in grad school and really bonded while working on a project that kept us in the library for three days straight! Housing Works Bookstore is fantastic … all the profit from our wedding went to support the eradication of AIDS and homelessness in the city. They also have in-house catering that’s delicious and the staff was so helpful and accommodating.

What she wishes she would have done differently:
I wish I had done the escort cards differently. I put them in this little card catalog to fit in with the book theme, which I thought was so cute. Even though they were arranged alphabetically, it took guests a long time to find their name, and this backed up the line getting into the space. If I did it again, I would have laid them out where they were easy to see and grab quickly.

We spent the year before our big day scouring the used section at The Strand to collect all the books that we then covered to match our stationery. Kathleen of Kat Flower did all of our floral arrangements, and she is a girl after my heart … the rich, luxurious mix of whites, blush tones and deeply dark hues of all the blooms made the space absolutely gorgeous!

Our band, Roosevelt Dime, set the tone for the evening. Their folksy, soulful jug-band-like blues created the perfect mood. I loved watching our parents dance all night!! For favors, each guest received a book and a personalized bookmark that also served as a place card.

The best part of our wedding was having all the people we love in one place to share and celebrate our marriage with us! Five months later, I’m still looking at all the wonderful pictures Trent Bailey took. The snapshots of those memories will last forever, and it’s exactly why we didn’t want to skimp on photography! We couldn’t have asked for a better evening to start our lives together!

Makeup: Morgan Gates
Flowers: Kat Flower
Ceremony: La Plaza Cultural
Venue: Housing Works Bookstore

Read on to see how much this heart themed wedding costs. Please note that costs change as the years go by, and prices are subject to change. This is just one couple’s breakdown to give you a rough estimate on how much a wedding like this may cost you.

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