Ana and James-June 2011

Bali Hai Wedding San Diego from Aaron Thompson on Vimeo.

Enjoy the beautiful wedding that I had the pleasure of working on last summer with Swann Soirees and AS Photography.  More here.

A little background information on the wedding from the lovely Brenda of Swann Soirees...
Wedding & Ceremony: Bali Hai- Shelter Island 

Wedding Colors: Royal Purple, Sangria Red, Burnt Orange, with accents of green, gold, and ivories. 

Theme: NYC meets NOLA - We're utilizing the fine linens & florals to create a formal feel reminiscent of a NOLA mansion dinner party, complete with a lush altar piece for the ceremony, similar to what you would find in a formal garden in one of the southern mansions (the venue was selected solely on availability to the desired wedding date). Our colors, along with some added bling throughout the event elements and an isolated demask-like graphic  bring-in Ana's NYC fashionista side. 

More about the Couple: Ana is of Puerto Rican heritage out of NY and James is from New Orleans- they met at the Lakeside Rodeo! Talk about being well-rounded (and traveled) couple. They are both urbanites who enjoy a good drink in the company of… each other! As a small business owner, James is a workaholic and gets involved in just about every community-oriented project he can possibly contribute to, he truly enjoys giving back as much as he can, and Ana is always by his side, whether it is serving meals to veterans or selling tickets to fundraisers with James, they two really treasure their time together, and always make it a priority over everything else in their life. Both have a really good sense of humor and are very down to earth. They were both very involved in all the planning & decision making for their wedding. 

Wedding Pro Team 
Planning & Design: Brenda Swann, assisted by Sherry Terrant of Swann Soirées
Officiant: Ceremonies by Bethel
Catering/Venue: Bali Hai
Ceremony & Reception Music (live vocals): Michael Tiernan
Make-Up: Lipstick & Luster LLC
Hair: Shannel & Co.
Photography: AS Photography
Videography: Luke McCain Videography
Floral Design: Exquisite Blooms
Paperie Design: Dolldine Designs
Cake: It’s a piece of cake!
Linens: A Perfect Table
Limos: Emerald City Limo
Shuttles: SureRide Inc

Samantha and Victor-Style Me Pretty Feature

This was one of my favorite weddings I worked on this last summer and it was featured on Style Me Pretty!  Samantha and Victor put together the most adorable wedding and the details were perfect.  They got married last May at Faulkner Winery in Temecula and Brandon Wong captured their wedding with these beautiful pictures.

Samantha was an adorable DIY bride who worked so hard on every last detail.  She provided all the vintage glass that we used on the tables so all we had to do was fill them and place them, they were all perfect.  Here is what she said on SMP...

"From the Bride…My wedding style was vintage, romantic, classy and detailed. I didn’t want my wedding to be generic (a wedding where you could simply switch out the bride and groom for another couple and not know the difference). I wanted my wedding day to be special, unique, and a day to celebrate our love for each other and God’s love for us. This ended up costing me (and my wonderful friends) hours upon hours of DIY work, but the result was better than I could have imagined.  We put our bridal party to work: my husband & his groomsmen spent hours drilling holes in pennies and weaving them through wire just so I could spell cute things with them and my bridesmaids and I shared many late nights stitching table numbers onto felt, and tying twine onto mini spice jars.

We personalized each and every name card for our guests. We used scrabble letters, made our own fabric flowers, made pinwheels and used vintage buttons to make each guest’s name card unique. My dad’s scrabble pieces spelt out “hero” because of all of the sacrifices he has made for my family and my mom’s spelt out “pray” because of the prayers she has showered over me throughout my life.

Our colors were originally light grey, coral and yellow, but during the planning I felt so constrained to them and realized I wasn’t really a matchy-matchy person–so I just went with a mesh of colors that accented each other well. A bride should be able to do whatever she wants with her wedding!  Our decor was DIY galore. We made our rounds at antique stores, collected mason jars, painted and baked a few of them so they would be blue, wrapped twine around coke bottles, made our own lanterns for centerpieces, sewed our own burlap runners & ring bearer pillow (with the help of my aunt), bought 10 lbs of paprika and put them into corked spice jars, hung polaroid pictures of us across wine barrels, hand stitched signs, and much much more. DIY can sometimes come off as cheap but I tried to make sure I didn’t go overboard and that everything stayed classy. All of our flowers were very organic, wild and soft-toned. Our florist did a beautiful job filling all our jars and making the bouquets looks elegant and classy.

I’ll never forget the moment when my husband and I glanced at each other right after we were pronounced husband and wife. We were both beaming and full of excitement and joy to be around all of our loved ones. It was such a feeling of accomplishment, as if we had just finished a long race together. But instead of finishing a race, I know that moment marked the beginning of our lives together as one. Our photographers caught the perfect shot of this moment, and I’ll treasure it forever.

I’ll never forget dancing the night away with all my crazy friends and family. I could have never imagined a wedding without a dance floor and I’m SO thankful none of my friends held back that night! It was a night to remember!"

Samantha you did a beautiful job on all your details!

Wedding Photography: Brandon Wong Photography / Ceremony + Reception Location + Catering: Faulkner Winery / Wedding Dress: Casablanca Bridal / Bridal Alterations: Rose Anderson Sews Bridal / Groom’s Suit: J.Crew/ Wedding Videography: The Anthem Cinema / Event Planning: Tiffany Woon / Wedding Rehearsal + Prep Location: Faulkner Winery / Officiant: Pastor David Finch / Hair: Samone at Jeslin Salon & Boutique / Make-up: Stephanie Yu / Lighting, Dinner + Dancing Music: Just 4 Fun Entertainment / Wedding Cake: Sumi’s Oven / Photobooth: MeBo Photo / Programs, Favors, Name Cards, Table Numbers, Decorations: The Bride


The flowers we used were a mix of peach peonies, dusty miller, white lisianthus, lavender and hypericum berries.  It was a beautiful peach and gray wedding.

Kim and Oneal

This was a beautiful wedding I did in August of 2010 at St. Michaels Parish in paradise Hills and Paradise Point in Mission Bay.  They were such a lovely couple and it was a beautiful wedding.

For this wedding we used orange dahlias, green cymbidium orchids, monkey tails, green hydrangea, orange calla lilies, green and orange orchids, and manzanita branches to create the perfect orange green and brown wedding.

Amanda and Blaine Teasers

This past weekend Amanda and Blaine tied the knot at the Bali Hai on Shelter Island and I was honored to be one of many fabulous vendors that made the day so special for them.  Melissa McClure captured these beautiful pictures and I just couldn't wait to share.

Helena of Divine Events by Helena was the coordinator, Bethel of Ceremonies by Bethel was the officiant and Audra Rene Studio did the brides beautiful hair.

The Vibrant and Colorful Tiffany & Darrell Wedding!!!

This was such a beautiful wedding to create and I am so pleased to share these photos of Tiffany and Darrells wonderful day. The gorgeous pictures are by David Champagne Photography and could not have turned out any prettier.  Check them out... Posted in Weddings Tags: 2010 The Knot Best of Weddings, David Champagne Photography, Dream Event 4 You, Exquisite Blooms, La Costa Resort and Spa, Personal Touch Dining Inc, Quail Botanical Gardens, Quail Botanical Gardens Weddings, San Diego Botanical Gardens, San Diego Wedding Photographer, San Diego Wedding Photographers, San Diego Wedding Photography, VIP Events