Planning a wedding is a great adventure, but often, you don't have a chance to see what planning a wedding is all about until you're in the thick of it. That's where Elise and Adam come in. This wonderful couple allowed us to walk through their wedding planning journey with them. We met them four months before their wedding date, which was prime time for decisions about everything from food to details to be made.
Elise and Adam come from two different worlds. She grew up in Southern California, and he is from the East Coast. However, Adam was stationed in Southern California in the Navy, and fate brought him and Elise together in San Diego. After two years of dating and relocating to Washington State, Adam asked Elise to be his wife on a beautiful day surrounded by fields of tulips.
Since that day, they've been in wedding planning mode. Elise flew to Southern California to tour several wedding venues, many of which were Wedgewood Weddings venues. After seeing winery venues, golf course venues, and even more classic venues, she and Adam loved the look and feel of the sky-high penthouse at Pacific View Tower.
Elise and Adam came to Wedgewood Weddings in search of a venue that provided an all-inclusive experience that they could customize to their heart's content. "Neither of us are that into event planning, and we're very much into letting the experts tell us what to do. It's such an easier path for us," Elise shared. This convenience helped the couple in myriad ways as they planned their entire event from out of state.
With 113 days until their nuptials, our journey begins with Adam and Elise having just come off their first wedding planning meeting. At this point, though, they had their favorite SoCal venue booked for seven months. Having booked their venue 11 months before their wedding, they had enough time to navigate their color palette, theme, attire, and guest list. Once they had a chance to have their first wedding planning meeting, though, they were able to start putting all of their ideas down on paper. From a Giant Jenga guest book to signature His and Her cocktails, they knew they wanted their wedding to feel unique from all the rest - think modern-day Great Gatsby.
They invited 170 guests to their event, sending out their invites just a few weeks before their first wedding planning meeting. This led them to decide that the Premier Package was the best fit for their event. This included:
With this foundation to start with, over the next couple of months they would be able to decide on more fun additions to make their event a stand out celebration.
With less than 60 days till 'I do,' Elise and Adam were getting the final big decisions made for their wedding. With the all-inclusive format from Wedgewood Weddings, they could focus on fun planning details and stress less about the more significant items. They started with picking out their wedding bands, an event that Adam said was "a little bit emotional," as it really started to solidify the journey forward that they were making.
Additionally, Elise made a trip back down to Southern California to have an impromptu bridal shower with her friends and family. While everyone was popping the bubbly, Elise had ordered and shipped several dresses to the bridal shower so she could try them on with her entire entourage in tow. 12 dresses later, though, someone else was the right match for her. In the days after her bridal shower, though, Elise and her mother visited a few different bridal shops, and Elise managed to find the dress that was just right for her celebration.
When we asked about vendors, they shared how Wedgewood Weddings takes, "care of quite a lot of those vendors." So when it came down to finding a DJ, Florist, Photographer, and Videographer, they were covered. The timeline for contacting these vendors was the most significant thing they had to worry about. When it came to the DJ, Elise emailed the team and asked, "Should we be talking to the DJ already?" They told them they don't have to worry about that until a month before the wedding. Elise and Adam's DJ was booked and put on schedule for their wedding the moment they booked their venue. All they needed to complete was the music worksheet that the Wedgewood Weddings team provided them. This is the situation with all Wedgewood Weddings vendors. The moment you book, those vendors you choose to include are booked as well. One less thing to have to stress about.
With DJ put in the back of their mind, Elise could focus more attention on florals. Based on her primary color of burgundy, Elise wanted peonies in her floral arrangements, a flower that is only in season a few months out of the year. After contacting her Wedgewood Weddings florist, Maribel with Manybells, they were able to start building a floral arrangement that would be just right for her wedding without breaking the bank. An assortment of peonies and roses would complete the look that she was going for.
Hiring a team of people that do this for a living is such a convenience and a luxury that really helping us because we would have no idea.
- Elise
We met with Elise and Adam just 24 days before their wedding date. At this point in their wedding planning journey, they were busy tying up loose ends that would make their wedding day happen. From selecting their preferred music to final fittings for attire and even getting their marriage license sorted out, they had a list of items to get through.
For the DJ, they decided on a selection of R&B and Hip-Hop favorites that they had grown up with. For the walk down the aisle, though, they decided that the instrumental version of "We Found Love" by Rihanna would be best, and then their first exit as man and wife would include the full version of the song.
When it came to their color palette and attire, they settled on a variety of deep burgundy and Bordeaux reds, navy blues, and slate grey tones. All the bridesmaids would wear varying shades of the red palette while the groomsmen would sport navy suits. In addition to their sleek suits, the groomsmen would all be wearing Jordans with red laces. All of these colors would add to the regal Great Gatsby vibe that they were going for.
With all of these details in store, they were able to pull together a fairly comprehensive timeline for the week of the wedding.
Monday: Fly to California
Tuesday: Get Marriage License
Wednesday: Bachelor Party
Thursday: Wedding Rehearsal
Friday: Wedding
As Elise and Adam planned their wedding, they tackled many items. From details to vendors to music and food, the list was quite expansive, so handling more minor details and items earlier on gave them space to prioritize more essential to-dos later on. Their advice to other couples in the middle of planning their wedding? Tackle as much as you can as early as you can; Adam said, "The best thing to do is only leave those things that have to absolutely get done at the last minute to the last minute." With that, their last-minute items included taking their décor and wedding day items to the venue and getting their marriage license.
When it comes to décor, something that we recommend that Elise and Adam do is create a checklist of all of the items that you are bringing. With this checklist, be sure to label boxes and other containers to help your coordinator understand where and what everything is. In doing this, Elise and Adam were able to quickly review their décor items with their coordinator on the day of their wedding rehearsal. Since they had spent so many months carefully shipping everything to Southern California, they could easily sort everything out and share it with the venue.
With this being said, it's easy to see that the week before the wedding can put a lot of pressure on couples, and that was just the case for Adam and Elise. What helped them when the pressure was too great? Communication.
Staying open with your communication and talking to each other and be like, 'Hey I'm feeling a little overwhelmed' or 'Hey, I'm a little stressed out...' both people aren't going to simultaneously think of everything that needs to happen all the time... keep talking to each other and make sure that you know what the other person needs in that situation.
- Adam
And communicate they did. The timeline the week during the wedding went off without a hitch. The marriage license was secured, a bachelor party ensued, and everyone arrived on time for a successful wedding rehearsal.
This wedding has all the Gatsby vibes with a touch of modern flair. With deep red peonies and roses, white and pink roses, as well as gold, red, and Navy blue accents throughout, this sky-high celebration was a party to remember. With just a minor hiccup in the day of the timeline, all parties arrived at Pacific View Tower on time. Elise opted to dress at the venue and, after doing so, descended the grand staircase for a touching first look with Adam. Then it was on to the ceremony. As guests made their way to their seats with a glass of champagne, complete with pomegranate seeds at the bottom of the glass, the processional began, and Elise made her grand entrance into the ceremony. With expansive views of Ventura County just beyond them, they were treated to mid-ceremony speeches from their parents and siblings and then said 'I do.'
After a quick break in the getting ready suite, Elise, Adam, and their family made their way downstairs for photos while the remainder of their guests stayed upstairs for a cocktail hour full of delicious options, including:
For their specialty cocktails, the menu featured:
After cocktail hour commenced, Elise and Adam made their entrance into the grand hall surrounded by cold touch sparklers and enjoyed their first dances before making their way to dinner. For their entrees, they served guests a scrumptious buffet complete with:
Yum, yum, and yum. Once dinner was complete, it was time to tear up the dance floor, and they did. With help from artists like Usher and Rihanna, the beat was lively, and the dance floor remained full throughout the night.
A few special items that were added to the celebration included a late-night Ice Cream Sundae bar and a cake smash. Instead of a traditional cake cutting, the bride and groom made their guests a part of the fun where they could pay money to either Adam or Elise. Whichever spouse earned the most money would have cake smashed into their face; there was a definite race to the finish to ensure one of them was the recipient of the cake smash.
After the cake smash, Elise tossed her bouquet before sneaking away for a quick outfit change. While her ceremony dress was a long, form fitting piece, her reception dress consisted of a long tulle skirt, beaded top, and Jordans to match the groom. The outfit change allowed her and Adam to continue dancing the night away.
After 11 months of preparation and countless hours of putting their wedding together, Elise and Adam are officially married. After saying 'I do,' they jetted off to Hawaii for their honeymoon, where they enjoyed a few delicious luaus, scuba diving, and even a helicopter tour. We met up with them about a month after the wedding though to get their thoughts on the whole experience. And in a word, it was amazing.
As they shared at the very beginning of their journey, Adam and Elise aren't that into event planning, so having experts by their side throughout the journey made the biggest difference. From the florals to the food and even the DJ, the event went as they had hoped.
We got so many compliments from people. From the DJ to the food and bartenders, they did really well. I don't think... nobody had anything even close to negative to say about any of them, they did such a good job. All of the vendors did an amazing job.
- Adam
When it came to which vendors they worked with we have provided the full list at the bottom of this blog, but let's talk about their favorites. Elise was in love with Maribel from Manybells Creations, a preferred florist for Wedgewood Weddings in Ventura County. Maribel was able to capture the beautiful, regal look and feel that Elise was going for. While she wasn't able to utilize many peonies throughout the event, she was able to use a few peonies in Elise's bouquet and then deep red roses in many of the centerpieces.
For food, they had delicious options built into the package that they chose from Wedgewood Weddings. From savory selections like crimini mushroom chicken marsala and ahi tuna wontons to sweet options like the Sundae bar, they gave guests a wide variety of options to choose from during their trip to the buffet.
DJ Robin Sanford from Ventura, California worked with Adam and Elise in the month leading up to their wedding to ensure their sound and style worked for the event. As Adam shared in Part 4 of their wedding planning journey, they gave Robin an idea of what music they loved and then they allowed her to curate the rest for them. Giving Robin creative control with the direction they provided was exactly what they needed in order to focus on the event while the DJ did the rest.
Videography assistance came from One in a Million Films, a Southern California based videographer. Jaime and Tanner captured the day and worked tirelessly to capture the wedding from the first look all the way to the end of the reception. Thank you so much to this team as well for sharing the final wedding video with our team.
All of the Wedgewood Weddings vendors are experts. They know what they're doing... I don't have to tell them how to do their job. They've got it.... Hire experts, hire people who know what they're doing so we don't have to worry about it.
- Elise
Thank you, Adam and Elise, for allowing us to go on this journey with you! As newlyweds we wish you all the best with health, wealth, and happiness as you celebrate the rest of your lives together. If you're interested in planning an all-inclusive and stress-free wedding like Adam and Elise, contact our team now at 970.404.8326 and discover your incredible wedding venue today.
Catering: Wedgewood Weddings
DJ/MC: Robin Sanford
Florist: Manybells Creations
Photography: Victoria Parker
Videography: One in a Million Films