Happy six months to Lauren and Timmy! Today, we are celebrating their Castle Hill Inn wedding on our blog. In case you missed the photos in their freshly added gallery, we have the full story here with all of the timeless details for you to eat up!

Our bride, Lauren, is a dear friend and colleague in the wedding industry. She is a fashion icon in our eyes, and it is safe to say we were feverishly waiting for her and Tim’s day to see what she’d be donning. In true Lauren fashion, she served all the looks with her custom Anne Barge gown. You’ll need a moment to soak in her bow. If you look this up in the dictionary, it is notably set beside bomb dot com!

What is a Bridal Dresser?

We first met Lauren at The White Dress by the Shore, our favorite Connecticut-based dress shop for all wedding dresses, Mother-of-the-occasion dresses, accessories, and more. Their team is incredible, and you’ll want to add them all to your family after meeting them one time!

One of the ancillary services the TWD offers is headed by the owner, Beth Chapman. Born out of the need to enhance a very personal and important moment of the wedding was Beth Chapman Styling, a bridal dressing service.  A bridal stylist assists clients in selecting their wedding wardrobe. They often shop with their clients, helping them curate their look and attend fitting to ensure the perfect fit.

A bridal dresser is present on the wedding day (or full weekend) to ensure the full fashion suite is prepared before it graces all of your guests. Your bridal dresser ensures that all garments are steamed and pressed. They assist the couple and wedding party in dressing, styling the portraits, bustling the gown, and, most notably, taking care of all fashion emergencies. We’ve gained a wealth of information on this topic, and it wouldn’t be possible without the incredible stylists we work with!

Lauren herself has been a stylist at several of our weddings and always adds a sense of peace and camaraderie and enhances the day in countless ways! Now celebrating her (and witnessing her fashion!) was a treat!

A Classic Newport Wedding at Castle Hill Inn

Lauren and Tim are gorgeous human beings – inside and out. They are the definition of sunshine – you instantly feel brighter and warmer in their presence. Their smiles are infectious, and their joy is contagious. It is not difficult to discern how their wedding party is comprised of relationships spanning decades!

Their love is timeless, so it was fitting that we had a wedding reflecting the same aesthetic. Set in quintessential Newport at Castle Hill Inn, our couple hosted about 225 loved ones. With a crisp, classic color palette of white and ivory with touches of gold and greenery, guests were wrapped up in a celebration that felt like Lauren and Tim. I remember standing back and saying, “This is so them!”

In a recent blog post, we talked about the considerations of hosting a large wedding and a small wedding. Check that blog post out here. As I wrote those tips for couples, I had Lauren and Tim’s Castle Hill Inn celebration in the back of my mind. Tim is one of eleven children, all incredibly smart, successful, kind, and an instant friend. His parents are each one of eight children, so mixed with the Italian backgrounds on both sides, this was a fete to remember.

A Love Note to Lauren and Tim

Every time we revisit this wedding, we can’t help but do the same with the list of things we love at this wedding! The day was immaculate – the weather was perfect, but everyone’s joy was palpable, and that spread far and wide. The fashion was top-tier, which, of course!! The best part of all is Laure and Tim. They’re the couple we’re long obsessed with. We love them beyond words and manifest so many more Laure and Tims in our world as they’re so outstandingly wonderful!

Lauren and Tim (and Gail and family!!), thank you for letting us be a part of such an iconic day! Love you the most!

 

TOP-TIER CREATIVE TEAM:

Photography: Melissa Stimpson Photography
Reception Location: Castle Hill Inn
Event Planning: Diana of Jubilee Events
Flowers: Flowers by Justine
Entertainment: DJ Lion King + Divina Artisti
Cake: Konditor Meister
Cinema: Vantage Point Films
Beauty: Glamour Cosmetics, Upstyle
Tent Decor: Ryan Designs
Rentals: PEAK Event Services, Ryan Designs
Stationery: Coral Pheasant
Styling: Beth Chapman Styling
Dress: Custom Anne Barge

We have some exciting news to share– our fabulous couple Sarah & Euri– who had a destination wedding in Fiji last year are being featured on the new show, Our Wedding Story on UPTV THIS Friday, July 13th! We caught up with The Blue Kite Boys, who filmed Sarah & Euri’s wedding (and who are the filmmakers of this television show!) to learn more about this episode and their new series. We can’t wait to share this wedding with you (we’re launching it on our new website, which is coming soooooooon!) — so if you want to get some first sneak peeks, be sure to tune in THIS Friday, July 13th to Our Wedding Story up UPTV!

We’ve also shouted out all the fantastic vendors that made this wedding absolutely wondrous at the end of this post! This wedding was truly a collaboration between so many talents.

Sarah is one of the first people we met after we moved out to LA around six years ago. She’s a wedding photographer, and so we met at various wedding events, which led to going to parties and concerts and even Coachella together. As a result, we kind of witnessed the storyarch of Sarah and Euri meeting and then getting engaged. So when they were planning their wedding, it was pretty obvious that we would be the ones to film it (while getting our party on in between filming).

Well, what was normally a 12-person jumper plane turned into a 5-person one as our gear and luggage battled with the weight restrictions of the tiny little island-hopping plane. It was a fun, sometimes stressful, truly unique process. We’ve never been to such a remote island, or traveled on such a small plane (let alone with eight bags of gear), or experienced such a culturally rich country. In terms of the actual filming, some of the first projects we did as Blue Kite Cinema were adventure films which involved similar activities we captured for Sarah & Euri: hiking, cliffjumping, boating, etc. It was going back to our roots in a way! But we were also there to celebrate our friends, so some days definitely ended with us packing the cameras, having some Kava, and dancing with everyone.

Outside of making sure our jumper plane didn’t fall out of the sky because we were bringing too much equipment, we didn’t have too much of a hand in the wedding planning and set up. There are people much more talented than us to take that charge.

 

Oh boy. Well, we both actually have music degrees! Colin in sound engineering and Nick in music business. We got into cinematography when we started filming our own music videos for our rock band, Escape Directors (#checkusonSpotify). Colin was into photography at the time and we sort of “found” the video record button on his camera. We like to think we’ve evolved from the days of stealing a rolling trashcan from the college dining hall, throwing Nick in it with a camera and kicking the can back and forth as a makeshift dolly. After we graduated and the band broke up, we needed to find real-people jobs. Nick answered a Craigslist ad (where else do you find real-people jobs?) to shoot for a wedding cinema company and after filming 40 weddings that year, we moved out to LA and started Blue Kite Cinema with the goal of focusing on adventurous, destination weddings! We’ve constantly challenged ourselves to continually build our craft, which has led to us winning various filmmaking awards and landing some incredible projects, including Our Wedding Story.

 

Hoping the official government of Canada doesn’t read this — filming a wedding in Banff was one of our favorite and most stressful locations. Mainly because a week before going, we heard multiple horror stories of US filmmakers being detained by Canadian border patrol which installed the fear of Trudeau in us when we crossed. But once we were there, it was simply stunning. The mountains and lakes and sweeping landscapes… it’s just a filmmakers dream. Just don’t tell anyone we were there, eh? We been lucky to have filmed in over 15 countries and each proves to be a unique experience.

This was our first time in Fiji and hopefully not our last. Sarah and Euri kept saying how they wanted to have their wedding there because they felt it was a great excuse for their family and friends to experience such a wonderful culture that they otherwise wouldn’t. And we agree — Fiji isn’t the easiest country to get it. It’s not typically the first item on people’s travel bucket list. But we’re hoping that after seeing Sarah and Euri’s episode on Our Wedding Story, people will be encouraged to travel and explore all the experiences there.

Being that Sarah and Euri were friends first and clients second, it was a little different. But we typically attract easy-going couples due to the way we market ourselves as the Blue Kite Boys. We like to present a sense of youth and adventure — we encourage our couples to add us on Facebook and are open about the fact that we love tacos and tequila and a great party. Weddings are fun! As a result, for typical clients, we’ll do an initial meetup over coffee or cocktails so we can start learning their story and we can just get to know each other. We did have a similar brunch meetup with Sarah and Euri a few months before the wedding, just to go over ideas and all the activities they had planned for the week. We then put together their Highlight Film (https://vimeo.com/236137988) and premiered it about 8 weeks after we returned from Fiji.

The whole thing has been wild! When we first moved out to LA, we had no desire to be apart of the Film & TV Industry. People think we’re joking when we say this, but we seriously moved out here for the weather. But it’s like LA osmosis where you just become surrounded by the “Industry.” It’s impossible to fight the creative urge to be a part of it. So we kind of naturally fell into various commercial and TV projects over the years, which led to us having an email-once-every-18-months relationship with one of the amazing Producers over at UPtv. He approached us with the idea for the show, we made a pilot, and it got picked up to go straight to a 10-episode series which has become OurWedding Story! One of the first ideas we explored was seeing if we could use any recent clients as some of the episodes, and Sarah & Euri were just an obvious choice.

 

Ceremony & Reception Location: Koro Sun Resort & Rainforst Spa, Savusavu Fiji // Photography: Allan Zepeda Photography // Videography: Blue Kite Cinema // Wedding Planning & Production: Ali Phillips/Engaging Events by Ali // Event Design: Candice Coppola/Jubilee Events // Rehearsal Dinner Event Design: Aimee Monihan/Tropical Occasions // Floral Design: Events by Nadia // Officiant: Pam Horowitz // Gown: Rue De Seine, Lovely Bride // Hair: Cindy Stirling Makeup & Hair and Via Dolce Salon // Makeup: Forte Makeup Studio & Makeup Therapy // Veil: Viktoria Novak // Shoes: Melissa // Stationary: Two Paper Dolls Design House // Rentals: Nuage Designs, Rosie Holidays Fiji // Music: The Flashdance 

Oh, how I love and miss Vanessa, Lauren, their children and their friends / families! They planned one epic summer destination wedding in Maine that culminated in a spectacular, Barn at Walnut Hill wedding.

I’ve know Vanessa for years as the hard-working, creative mastermind behind her design company Two Paper Dolls. She’s wildly talented, the true definition of a boss lady (and one whom I immensely admire), and has an enormous heart. Lauren is very much the same– she’s the wildly talented, boss lady of Vanessa and Lauren’s sweet family (and my admiration for how dedicated she is to her family is overwhelming) with a heart to match the size of Vanessa’s. As a team, they’re pretty incredible.

Barn at Walnut Hill Wedding: Vanessa & Lauren’s Story

Here’s a bit more of their story, as written in Martha Stewart Weddings:

Vanessa Kreckel and Lauren Martin go back—way back, to the 1980s, when both were growing up in eastern Pennsylvania. As grade-schoolers and throughout high school, they played field hockey and softball together. If you ask Vanessa, who is two years older, she’d say she was the cooler of the two. Lauren remembers it differently: “I thought she was annoying; I hung out with her best friend’s younger sister.” In 1993, Vanessa went off to college and the two didn’t cross paths again until 2008, when the magic of Facebook rendered them “friends.” Lauren was now a physical-education teacher living in New York’s Hudson Valley, and Vanessa owned a graphic-design and letterpress firm, Two Paperdolls, in Philadelphia. “The best day ever was when she invited me to ‘like’ the Two Paperdolls Facebook page,” says Lauren. (Vanessa swears she was oblivious to these cyber flirtations.)

Offline, the best day ever was still to come, when the pair met again at a mutual pal’s Boston wedding in 2010. “I walked in and was like, ‘Is that the Lauren Martin from high school?!’ She was grown-up, gorgeous, and gay,” says Vanessa. After a night spent laughing and catching up (and with Lauren copping to her Facebook crush), Vanessa says, “I pretended that I didn’t know how to drive back to Philly and thought it would be a swell idea to follow Lauren to her place and find my way home from there.” They’ve been a couple—well, really, a family—ever since: Landon, Vanessa’s now 9-year-old son from a previous relationship, fell in love with Lauren, too. “The first time he met her, he told me, ‘I know she’ll be my mom someday,’” remembers Vanessa.

Another “best ever” contender was Mother’s Day 2012. By that time, Lauren was living with Vanessa in Pennsylvania and pregnant with their son Cash, now 2. That morning, Landon walked in with a poster Vanessa had made detailing the women’s relationship. “He gets down on one knee and says, ‘Laur, will you marry us?’” recalls Vanessa. “Who could say no to that?”

After baby Cash was born, the pair started scouting wedding locales in earnest, hoping to find a New England barn. Lauren suggested Maine, and after the family spent a weekend there, they settled on The Barn on Walnut Hill, a four-acre estate 20 minutes outside of Portland in North Yarmouth, and invited 100 guests for a summer weekend soirée.

Barn at Walnut Hill Wedding: The Wedding Weekend

The celebration started with a chartered whale watch in Portland’s Casco Bay. “The Bloody Marys were gone before we even left the dock,” says Lauren, who, along with Vanessa, met up with guests that night at a local brewery for a backyard-style barbecue. The next day, on June 28, 2014, in a sun-dappled forest, Vanessa, carrying Cash, walked down the aisle with her father as a band played “Ho Hey,” by the Lumineers. Lauren, escorted by Landon, followed, to the sounds of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love.” The 35-minute ceremony, officiated by a friend, featured vows the couple had written themselves and a sweet speech from Landon.

Next order of business: partying down. After freshly shucked oysters and cocktails on the lawn, guests moved inside the barn for a dinner of dry-aged beef and poached Maine halibut. A DJ spun a mix of new and old jams as revelers ate slices from five kinds of pies (served instead of cake) and took turns at the penny-candy dessert bar. At night’s end, the newlyweds left amid a sparkler send-off—capping off what both women agree was the ultimate best day ever.

Barn at Walnut Hill Wedding: The Details

And now onto the details, as featured in Martha Stewart Weddings:

Vanessa, a graphic designer, created the letterpressed invites. The suite incorporated laser-cut wood pieces, rustic twine, and other Maine-inspired accents. Burlap bags, stocked with provisions, a “hangover kit” in a paint can, and the weekend’s itinerary, welcomed guests.

Lauren carried a free-form bouquet of peonies, anemones, succulents, seed heads, and blackberries, tied with an accordion-pleated silk ribbon. A vintage velvet ribbon, found in a Parisian warehouse, tied off Vanessa’s cluster of peonies, succulents, anemones, blushing bride proteas, and seeded eucalyptus.

Laser-engraved wood covered the programs. Included was a letter Vanessa wrote to Lauren’s father, who passed away in 2006. “Lauren’s dad was her favorite person, and vice versa. I knew celebrating this moment in her life without him was going to be really difficult,” says Vanessa. “By writing the letter, I wanted to honor him, tell him I would take care of his daughter for the rest of her life, and also let him know I’d come a long way from our field-hockey days!”

The couple (Lauren in Anne Barge Black Label and Vanessa in Claire Pettibone) wed in front of a canvas scroll custom-printed with a quote from the 13th-century poet Rumi. The ceremony, which was officiated by Vanessa’s childhood best friend’s husband, also featured selections from “We Are Six,” by A.A. Milne and the Goodridge Ruling, which legalized gay marriage in Massachusetts in 2003. The couple recited promises to each other that they’d written themselves. Lauren, who went first, surprised her wife with an original poem. “It was hilarious—and it rhymed!” says Vanessa. (An excerpt: You are gorgeous and smart, my perfect mate / And as everyone here knows, always fashionably late.) “My vows were more serious and emotional,” Vanessa says, laughing.

“The most beautiful part was that our kids were there with us on the day we became a legal family,” Vanessa says of her favorite memory of the day.

Die-cut escort cards printed with guests’ names and a map of Portland hung from a wall on the barn’s facade, where the dinner was held. For dinner, all 100 guests sat at two long tables under Edison bulb fixtures. Vintage vessels, holding a mix of blooms, plants, and herbs, helped set the boho scene. Table numbers referenced important numerals in the newlyweds’ lives—nine, for example, represented how many miles they hiked on their first official date. Inspirational quotes also appeared on the hemstitched linen napkins. The newlyweds started the dance party by twirling to Lionel Richie’s “My Love.”

Watch Vanessa & Lauren’s Wedding Film

Vanessa & Lauren | A Wedding Trailer film in Portland, ME from Matt Buckman on Vimeo.

 

Want to see more weddings like Vanessa & Lauren’s? Check out our destination weddings, barn weddings, same sex weddings and rustic weddings archives!

Vendor Credit Reel:

Location: The Barn on Walnut Hill

Event Planning: Jubilee Events

Catering: Eventide Oyster Co.

Floral and Event Design: Flora Fauna

Photography: Carla Ten Eyck

Videography: I Do Films

Stationery and Calligraphy:Two Paperdolls

Music: Carte Blanche [ceremony and cocktail hour]; Ray Jarrell [Reception DJ]

Rentals: New England Country Rentals; Revolve Furniture

Hair: Catie & Amy

Makeup: Diva Borelli

Brides’ Gowns: Claire Pettibone[Vanessa]; Anne Barge Black Label [Lauren]

Boys’ Attire: Trico Field

Boys’ Bow Ties: Forage

Wedding Rings: Anne Sportun; Todd Reed

Lighting: Ryan Designs

Custom Fabric Printing:Spoonflower

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Jessica and Matthew planned the destination bash of the year — and invited guests to join them in style! These custom tropical destination wedding invitations by Coral Pheasant were the perfect way to get guests excited about Barbados. We got to work with our girl Nichole Michel at Coral Pheasant to create a fully custom wedding paper story for Jessica and Matthew. The inspiration for these invitations were drawn from our own inspiration board and design proposal we created for the wedding.

Tropical Destination Wedding Invitations: The Details

Nichole is a magician when it comes to invitations. She’s always able to take our overall ideas and turn them into unique works of art. This suite was actually featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper— and we wanted to share Nichole’s words behind the suite itself:

The invitation suite features a color palette inspired by the island, with lush greens, pops of coral, and vibrant citrus tones, along with some gorgeous spot calligraphy and the most perfectly curated postage stamps. Jessica and Matt came to me by way of the fabulous Jubilee Events, who created the vision for their destination wedding in Barbados. Out of the gate I knew Jessica was my kind of gal when she expressed that it was important for their invitations to celebrate the sacrament of marriage while also being fun and surprising. Yes gurl, yes! Let’s do this! The tropical celebration they were planning embraced the natural surroundings of Barbados and more specifically their reception venue, Cobblers Cove, whose tag line reads “English elegance with Caribbean character.”

For their invitation suite we incorporated bright, vibrant colors inspired by the island: the lush green gardens, the coral colored plantation and cheerful pops of citrus. Gorgeous calligraphy by Everly Calligraphy was paired with modern fonts and fun language. The main invitation was letterpress printed on double thick eggshell stock and the enclosure cards were flat printed on matching, lighter weight cover stock.

 

Tropical themed vintage stamps and a lemon yellow silk ribbon added texture and color to the suite. Bringing the paper story full circle, we used the custom illustrations from the itinerary on cheerful colored cocktail napkins for the various weekend events.

 

 

With their wedding being a multi-day destination event, it was important to share all the details with their guests in a cute and concise way. To do that, we created a tri-fold itinerary with custom illustrations by Social Alchemy highlighting the what, when and where. Contrasting patterns inspired by the tropical English aesthetic of Cobblers Cover were layered into the design as seen in the watercolor leaves on the itinerary and the lattice-like design on the envelope liner.

 

Interested in seeing more wedding invitations from our clients? Check out our archives!

Destination Wedding Planning Book

It is with great pride and pure excitement that we announce our latest project — a destination wedding book!  The White Dress: Destinations — The definitive guide to planning the NEW destination wedding, launches today! This book is the second book in The White Dress Series and is a follow up to our first book, The White Dress: in Color — Inspirations for the modern bride. I have been working on this project (alongside my co-authors Beth Lindsay Chapman and Carla Ten Eyck) for quite some time– so it is absolutely elating that it is now ready to be in the hands of those who need help planning their wedding! This book is truly THE definitive guide to planning the NEW destination wedding, and is the only destination wedding planning book you’ll need.

We set out to write a book that not only inspired readers with beautiful photographs and ideas, but also HELPED couples plan their destination wedding. Our book gives insider insight into the various and unique planning circumstances you can expect including topics like:

Learn more about how to

• How to choose a destination wedding location
• Creating a realistic budget
• Hiring your creative vendors local to the destination and/or local to you
• Implementing your style
• How to curate a wedding that has cultural flavor
• Destination wedding etiquette and advisement
• Logistic tips for a smooth day
• Finding your wedding day style
• Shopping for your gown
• Purchasing groom attire
• Choosing attire for attendants
• Wedding day beauty
• Dressing for various destinations based on environment
• Identifying your photography style
• Finding the right photographer
• The first look
• and SO much more!

We also take you, the reader, on a journey to these beautiful and unique destinations:

• Palm Beach, Florida
• Montemartre, Paris
• Newport, Rhode Island
• The Deserts, Arizona
• The Berkshires, New York
• St. Peter, Barbados

Ready to order your copy?! Our publisher has been so kind to let us release the book EARLY on our website! The White Dress: Destinations is now available at thewhitedressseries.com and in stores and on Amazon on February 28th!

Purchase your copy!

 

Destination Wedding in Jaco Costa Rica

I am so thrilled to share with you Mandi and Dan’s gorgeous destination wedding in Jaco Costa Rica, now featured in the newest issue of Inside Weddings Magazine!

Mandi and Dan were married in one of my all time favorite places on this earth: Costa Rica. I’ve been fortunate enough to have visited this beautiful country many times over the past few years and have made a lot of friends, memories, and participated in a few adventures! When Mandi and Dan got engaged they knew they wanted to have a destination wedding and as an avid surfer, Dan had traveled to Costa Rica on a boys trip a few moons ago and loved the country. While I was there on business, I scouted out some locations for them at Los Suenos Resort. They flew down shortly after and the rest is history!

Guests were welcomed to Los Suenos with these amazing out of town bags designed by Mandi’s mom, who owns a company that creates these custom masterpieces. I absolutely adore mine and tote it to the beach whenever I get a chance!

Mandi’s vibrant color story was shades of sunset mixed with greens. I absolutely love the palette her bridesmaids wore in all different colors. Color was everywhere and as it should be; Costa Rica is a colorful country! We couldn’t have pulled this off without an amazing team, who I want to give kudos upon kudos to in our credit reel. Seriously. They are amazing.

The Ceremony & Reception

Our ceremony was simple: a pretty structure draped with white linen, some benches with comfy cushions, parasols to shield guests from the sun, and THE Roberto Congoman on music. They have a CD. We have it. It is awesome.

We took over Casa Marlin, hid the furniture in the garage, removed the sliding glass doors that went out to the infinity pool and threw a rocking party. Long tables with centerpieces designed by Tony of Datura: A Modern Garden— mostly using foliage (and y’all say you don’t want foliage but look how pretty it is!) found in the houses garden. Yup. All the flowers you see– everywhere– from the bouquets to the centerpieces– Tony collected from the land. That’s what Tony does! He’s a floral magician.

Guests danced under a disco ball, aptly provided by our kick ass DJ who surprised us all with some blazing tunes. At some point in the night folks started diving in the pool fully clothed. We knew that was going to happen!

Lasting Memories

I have to say that I adore Mandi and Dan and their families. This amazing weekend filled with unique challenges (that only a destination wedding can bring! ever try to get a golf cart up a mountain? I don’t encourage it), lots of laughs, tears of joy, and feeling like you are more than just the wedding planner but an extended member of the family is the reason why I love what I do. I’m grateful to know that I get the opportunity to share in special life moments like this– where family histories are born. What an honor it is to have this job!

And without further adieu, here is the lovely wedding story of Mandi and Dan, as only Carla Ten Eyck can tell through that magic lens of hers. And be SURE to watch the amazing AMAZING AMAZING video by Jim Altieri of Vintage Cinema. Pura Vida! xx

Credit Reel

Bridal Gown: Modern Trousseau
Bridal Boutique: The White Dress by the shore
Cake/Catering: El Buensabor Chef Privado and Catering Service
Event Planning: Candice Coppola for Jubilee Events
Floral Design: Datura: A Modern Garden
Menswear: J.Crew
Invitations: Renaissance Writtings
Jewelry: Portobello Jewelers
Linens: Eventos Boadicea
Photography: Carla Ten Eyck
Rehearsal Dinner: The Terrace Lounge at Los Suenos Resort Marina Village
Rentals: Eventos Boadicea
Venue: Casa Marlin at Los Suenos
Videography: Vintage Cinema

A little time ago we found ourselves back in paradise– which is located in Costa Rica– in case you didn’t know. Our friends at Stay in Costa Rica asked us to come back down and do some more creative work and we jumped at the chance. Costa Rica has to be one of my favorite places on earth. It’s tropical, exotic, friendly, laid-back, and beautiful. The setting for what we’ve dubbed our colorful beach photoshoot was on a remote beach only accessible by a questionable wooden bridge, where we hand carted all our belongings (including a spare roll of toilet paper– just in case). This day will go down as one of my favorite days in life. It was full of laughs, beautiful scenery, good friends, and lots of impromptu pretty. Everywhere you look in Costa Rica there is something beautiful; fossilized rocks, ornate trees with dangling fruit, bright flowers and picturesque coastlines. This photoshoot had the makings of everything above and more.

For this photoshoot we were inspired by the colorful Costa Rican oxcart and Josh from Metal Mermaid Press put his spin on the intricate design. With a plethora of bright, neon colors, big ball skirts mixed with flowey dresses, sparkle and gathered flowers from where ever Tony could find them– here’s what we came up with with gorgeous images by Carla Ten Eyck Photography.

A huge thank you to Style Me Pretty for featuring our photoshoot. More to come from this gorgeous destination from our incredible horse farm shoot in an amazing glossy wedding magazine in September!

Credit Reel

Photography: Carla Ten Eyck Photography
Photo Shoot Location: Los Suenos Resort in Costa Rica Event Design + Planning: Candice Coppola of Jubilee Events
Floral Design: Datura: A Modern Garden
Fashion Styling: Beth Chapman of The White Dress by the Shore
Cinematography: Vintage Cinema
Invitations: Metal Mermaid Press
Furniture + Event Rentals: Eventos Boadicea
Linens: Resource One Inc.
Wedding Dress with Ball Gown: Anne Barge / Wedding Dress with Layered Ruffles: Amy Kuschel
Beauty: DD Nickel
Bridal Earrings: Haute Bride + Maria Elena
Feather Headpiece: Couture for The White Dress by the Shore
Colorful Earrings with Yellow Dress: DK Designs for The White Dress by the Shore
Headband: Maria Elena

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Costa Rica for Mandi and Dan’s amazing destination wedding! We adore Los Suenos Resort— and we especially love these amazing luxury homes from Stay in Costa Rica (a property management company that represents these gorgeous homes!). Mandi and Dan had an incredible wedding at one of these multi-million dollar beauts overlooking the bay– and it all started because of this amazing editorial fashion shoot we did one year prior! We have so many amazing images from this trip to share with you– but first up is our fashion shoot at Puesta Del Sol, Villa Artiv, and the beautiful Casa Marlin.

Our inspiration for this fashion shoot came from the luxury properties available at Stay in Costa Rica. Beth Chapman, stylist and owner of The White Dress by the shore wanted to create a luxurious, dramatic and romantic look for brides having a destination wedding. The natural landscape of Costa Rica and Los Suenos resort provided us with the majority of the flowers used in the bouquets, designed by Datura: A Modern Garden. Our fashion shoot mixes both a tropical feel and a modern, sophisticated and decadent direction.

The gowns and accessories were shot in the most amazing locations– from the multi-million dollar spanish influenced home of Puesta Del Sol with breathtaking views of the rainforest and three different pays that surround Los Suenos Resort to the modern and swanky digs at Villa Artiv with it’s vintage Louis Vuitton trunk and Pucci chair. All three of these luxurious properties are available for not only accommodations, but also for amazing wedding receptions and ceremonies!

A special shout out to my girl, Carla Ten Eyck, who is by far filled with the most talent I have ever seen. I am not even sure how she is able to make everything and everyone so beautiful, but by God, she does it every time!!!

Thank you to our friends at Junebug Weddings for featuring our fashion shoot– go check out the post here!

Credit Reel

Photography: Carla Ten Eyck Photography
Locations: Properties from Stay in Costa Rica – Puesta Del Sol, Casa Marlin, Villa Artiv
Creative Direction, Candice Dowling Coppola of Jubilee Events
Fashion Direction / Styling: Beth Chapman of The White Dress by the shore
Floral Design: Tony Palmieri of Datura: A Modern Garden
Beauty: DD Nickel
Cinematography: Jim Altieri of Vintage Cinema
Wedding dresses by: Anne Barge, Amy Kuschel and Augusta Jones from The White Dress by the shore
Jewelry: Tejani and Aquinnah from The White Dress by the shore

I’m so excited to share with you today one of my favorite shoots of all time. The only way to describe this day in the rain forest with my creative friends is: magic. From the energy, to the inspiration we had that day, to the people– it was nothing short of once in a lifetime. When we set out to do this shoot we had a loose plan, and as the day unfolded and our excitement got the best of us, it resulted in this: an experience and high that I will never forget! From watching Carla Ten Eyck get overly excited about light, to seeing Tony chop down vegetation in the rain forest and creating beauty on a dime and Beth Chapman be so inspired by the surroundings and can change fashion in a second. Not only did we create something we’re so proud of, but we had the BEST time doing it. I want to extend a huge thanks to Stay in Costa Rica at Los Suenos resort and Michelle and Alejandro, our real life couple and models for the day.Even more thanks to Susannah, Diana, Daddy and for the helping hands and inappropriate jokes along the way!

This shoot was initially inspired by an anthropologie catalog I received a few months prior to our shoot. We went with a bohemian 70’s vibe and found the perfect location at the base of a mountain leading up to Pura Vida Gardens. The day started at a local surf shop where Alejandro works in the town of Jaco. More about this shoot can be found in our new e-zine, A Jubilee Event. Make sure you subscribe to see more images of this shoot— along with a lot more content for planning your next event! Be sure to view the video by Buzz Media which really captures the essence of the last shots on this day on top of the mountain. xx!

Credit Reel

Photography: Carla Ten Eyck Photography
Ceremony + Reception Location: Los Suenos Resort, Costa Rica
Event Design & Planning: Jubilee Events
Model Styling & Accessories: The White Dress by the Shore
Flowers: Datura: A Modern Garden
Cinematography: Buzz Media
Beauty: DD Nickel
Furniture & Rentals: Eventos Boadicea
Paper: Paloma’s Nest
Shoes: Zappos
Linens: Gala Cloths
Ribbon: Paloma’s Nest
Jewelry: Ben-Amun