Lakefront Wedding | Playful Paradise

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. We will be closing our office for the rest of the year and will reopen on January 2nd with lots of exciting new and savvy wedding content! To end the year on a nice note, we have this uber gorgeous wedding from the one and only, Catherine Hall Studios!

The ceremony took place on the private beach. Crux Events & Party Rents built custom wooden benches designed to reflect the shape of a tree trunk on its side. White cushions and gold ribbons adorned the benches to add a little comfort with style!

Angela and Jeremy spend a chunk of their summers traveling to Tahoe with their dog Murphy. So, they felt it only appropriate to celebrate their wedding on the shores of Tahoe. After viewing a few estates, we decided on the perfect private lakefront. Several decks, a small lawn, and a private beach provided the perfect grounds for their circus themed wedding. Angela and Jeremy really didn't want a routine and traditional wedding. They felt it had been done far too many times and it was time to shake it up a bit and provide more than just dinner and dancing. Instead, we offered guests an interactive photo booth, ping-pong, horse shoes, bocce ball, corn hole, dancing, drinks, and soooo much food! From ice cream cones to pancakes, the guests were wined and dined to perfection!

We worked closely with Bellissima Floral to create a design that reflected the modern couple, while complimenting the 100 year old estate. Lanterns in different shapes and sizes hung from the grappling tree branches, lounge furniture provided comfortable seating throughout the venue, and oodles of unexpected elements added to the creative and playful theme.

Vendors

Photography | Catherine Hall Studios

Florist | Bellissima Floral

Music | We Ain't Saints

Linens | La Tavola Fine Linens

Rental Furniture | Crux Events & Party Rents

Transportation | North Tahoe Executive Shuttle

Catering | Blue Onion Catering

Brides, Save the Date for Tahoe Unveiled

Hello lovely brides! One of our latest and greatest projects this summer is Tahoe Unveiled, an online resource and an event designed to reveal the luxury side of Lake Tahoe as a wedding destination. We have hand selected fabulous vendors to participate and be featured on our blog and website. Tahoe Unveiled is the place for you to find all things brilliant about Tahoe: how to get here, what to do when you are here, who to book for your wedding, inspiration boards, tips, and beautiful weddings.

On October 16th, 2010 we will transform the walls, ceilings and floors of PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn to display the finest talent available for your wedding. Highlights include wine and champagne, tastings from local catering companies, opportunities to meet with our featured vendors, vignettes of various styles, presentations by Scott Corridan and Catherine Hall, beautiful gift bags, and many more treats. It will be a beautiful, relaxing, and inspiring day in the mountains! To attend, purchase your tickets before the event sells out.

One Fine Day Featured on Catherine Hall's Blog | A Wedding Conundrum

We are thrilled to be featured on Catherine Hall's blog! We wrote a guest post about the predicament many couple's face when inviting families to their wedding. It is always nice to invite the entire family to your wedding, but sometimes it's easier to either not invite the kids, or provide a kid-friendly environment. You can read the guest post here:

Catherine Hall Studios

Kids or no Kids: A Wedding Conundrum

Event planner Stephanie Anderson of One Fine Day and the brand-new wedding site, Tahoe Unveiled, authored a guest post for my blog. Stephanie is a talented professional with a gift for producing off-the-charts events. Today, she addresses a couple's inevitiable wedding conundrum.

Inviting kids to a wedding? A few of my brides have inquired about the difficulties of guests with kids. Although kids are lovely and can be very endearing, you may not want to hear crying and screaming on your wedding day. In addition, it can be pretty tricky to invite your friends and not their kids, especially if travel is involved. To avoid the hassle, the arguments, and any hard feelings, try one of these ideas:

1. Hire a babysitter. Inform your guests that a babysitter will take care of your kids throughout the ceremony and reception. For your slightly paranoid parents, you may want to hire someone with First Aid certification or from an agency. Ask your venue if they have a spare room you can use as the kid's room.

2. Kiddie Corner. Designate one or two tables at the reception to kids only. Garnish the table with GI Joes, coloring books, Pretty Pretty Princess, and Hungry Hippo (clearly my childhood favorites). If you are worried about the kids wandering off, hire a babysitter to sit at the table with them.

3. Hire a magician! Kids are easily distracted, so if games won’t cut it, then hire a clown or a magician to keep them entertained and away from your lime light!

Thank you Catherine for featuring One Fine Day on your blog!

To view Catherine Hall's new site or to learn more about Tahoe Unveiled, click on the following:

www.catherinehall.net

www.tahoeunveiled.com

Day 4 of the Wedding Festivities ~ The Wedding Day

After a year of planning, 855 emails, countless phone calls, and several meetings, the much anticipated wedding day is here! The setup required 30 solid hours of labor, 20 crew members, a 30 foot truck, a pick-up truck and trailer, a sprinter, a Jeep Cherokee, a minivan, and a subaru - each packed to the brim! As the venue was built in the 1900's, we had a few challenges loading and unloading. The path leading from the driveway to the front door was 2.5 ft wide and 175 yards long. You can imagine the problems this posed for unloading couches, fire pits, and all sorts of equipment. We managed to gain access to a side road, which allowed us to drive 100 yds closer to the entrance. We still had to battle the rocks jutting out of the path, the stone steps, and a narrow doorway. Once everything was unloaded the stacks and piles were daunting. But, with the incredible A team on board - Bellissima Floral, Crux Events & Party Rents, and One Fine Day's team, we pulled it off with ease!

At 2:30pm, the furniture was in place, candles were lit, and the guests started to arrive. I took a few snapshots with my iphone  - obviously these are not even close to what Catherine Hall will produce, but they will give you a little glimpse!

Top left - the ceremony took place on the beach with benches built by Crux Events, petals covering the altar, and a lovely lounge setting in the back. Top right - Bellissima dressed up the chandeliers to modernize the look of the 110 year old dining room. Bottom - intimate lounge settings overlooking the lake were placed on the decks, lawn, and beach.

The overall look was romantic, organic, and very comfortable. I can't wait to see Catherine Hall's photos - stay tuned!

Breakdown of a Week-Long Wedding Celebration

This weekend we are preparing for a very exciting and complex wedding. The daily

events have been geared towards entertaining their guests while providing a hassle free vacation. All ages have been invited and every detail has been thought of and seen to. When I first met with Angela and Jeremy, the bride and groom, they requested a non-traditional celebration - no first dances, no formal traditions, and absolutely no fuss. This morphed into a week-long celebration of pure Tahoe fun blended with bikinis, Vera Wang dresses, sumptuous food, and lakefront vows. Follow us for the next few days as we document the daily events and trials & tribulations of planning a flawless celebration for Angela and Jeremy's wedding!

Design Inspiration from Wedding 360

As promised, here are a few pictures from the Wedding 360 design seminar I attended a few weeks ago. I don't want to say too much about the first collage, as the pictures speak for themselves. The images walk you through the Museum of Petals dinner, which was held at the St. Regis San Francisco. The theme was 5000 petals, which is the amount of petals used to create this beautiful room. Gloria Wong and her team did a fabulous job.

Clockwise: Top images ~ the entrance to the Museum of Petals dinner. A modern display of white couches, floating candles, silver tables, and pink lighting create a fun and unique setting. The ice bar, courtesy of Chisel It, consists of beautiful arrangements on top of the bar as well as frozen inside the waist of the bar - super creative!

Middle ~ Petals blanket the dinner tables, while floating candles in clear vases add a warm touch to the setting. A man made tree (courtesy of Gloria Wong and her team) stands elegantly in the center of the room with petals hanging from every angle. It serves not only as an eye catching design, but also as the focal point that justifies the surrounding accents.

Bottom ~ Petals carefully sprinkle the linens including the floor-to-celling fabric, which creates a warm atmosphere and soaks up empty space.

A few of our unbelievably inspiring educators. Pictured here: Youngsong Martin of Wildflower Linens, Catherine Hall of Catherine Hall Studios, Tara Guerard of Tara Guerard Soiree, champagne for our tasting compliments of the Henry Wine Group and Componere Fine Catering, the fabulous Jean Marks and Jubilee Lau (hosts of the event and producers of Wedding 360) pictured with Grace Ormonde of Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, our seminar room in the St. Regis San Francisco, and one of the panels featuring Youngsong Martin, Catherine Hall, and Grace Ormonde.