true photography – Cynthia Zatkin Events

Sarah and Alex-An Estancia La Jolla Wedding

When Sarah and her mom Barbara met with me for the first time, they explained that they needed a venue that could hold around 200 guests, where all of their out of town guests could stay on property (and with the groom’s family and many of the bride and groom’s friends being from New York City, we knew we would have a significant portion of the guests flying in from out of town), where they could have an outdoor ceremony, and that would be both lovely and centrally located. They visited a number of super classy hotels in San Diego and settled on the Estancia Hotel & Spa in La Jolla. They loved it’s Spanish architecture, the neutral gold tones of the ballroom, and it’s gorgeous garden area that could be used for the ceremony. Check out these stunning photos below of Sarah with her mom and bridesmaids!

For style, Sarah wanted a formal, evening wedding. She choose floor-length black gowns for the bridesmaids and modern-fit black and white tuxes for the groomsmen. Love these photos below of the handsome groom and groomsmen! The guy’s ties were a black and white check pattern. I adored the mesh overlay part of the bridesmaid’s dresses-so classy!

I’m in love with these photos of Sarah & Alex together and with their wedding party, taken by True Photography! The one of Alex holding petite Sarah is one of my favorites! They are such a stunning couple!

For design, Sarah dreamed of an almost winter garden look with deep plums, magentas, and greens, contrasted against gold and ivory. One of her favorite restaurants in New York City is Tavern on the Green and she took her initial inspiration from the look of their garden courtyard. For the ceremony, Blush Botanicals created this amazing chuppah below! We wanted to create an off-set garland that wasn’t perfectly centered. We also draped the back rows in this gorgeous floral and leafy garland. It was probably one of my favorite ceremony looks ever! Also check out the beautiful bouquets of the bridesmaids below. And I adore the joint family photo below! Check out the two mamas! One of my favorite things is when the moms where fantastic dresses too!

To carry on the garden theme, Sarah wanted to create trees for a portion of the centerpieces in the ballroom. We mixed round tables, where we placed the trees, with rectangular tables, that were draped in a garland and filled with candles. We used two different gold linens on the tables, a sequined on the round and a dupionique on the rectangles, to create a layer of texture and interest. Then for the head table, we created a long banquet table where the entire wedding party, with significants, and parents, could sit. We filled it with candelabras and designated seats with a laser cut out of their name, created by the amazing Nicole of Nic Roc Designs, placed on the napkin. The result was breathtaking!

Finally, it was time to party! I adore this sweet photo of Sarah dancing with her father! I also love this photo of the groom suspended above the crowd for the Hora (as no Jewish wedding is complete without one)! We finished the evening with a dessert display of typical New York City items like mini cheesecakes and black and white cookies made by Cake, a great bakery here in San Diego. Sarah also had her favorite NYC bakery, Magnolia Bakery, that just opened a branch in LA, deliver mini Magnolia Bread Puddings, her favorite dessert ever. Because on you’re wedding day, you should eat exactly what you want to eat! I think it’s especially fun to bring in treats with significance to the bride and groom and loved that Sarah wanted to trek down the puddings! JP Hunten Music wowed the crowd and kept the dance floor full all evening. It was a wonderful wedding and just a perfect night!

Amy & Mina

I met Amy and Mina after they were referred to me by my previous fantastic clients, Tad and Tammy (big thanks to Tammy and Tad)! Amy and Mina wanted to throw an outdoor wedding in a venue with a vintage vibe somewhere in San Diego and preferably in La Jolla. I immediately thought of the Darlington House. It’s definitely vintage California in style and a true gem.

Amy wanted to create a garden style wedding with vibrant colors, mixing turquoise and pink and yellow. We started working with florists Chris and Kim of Indulge Weddings and quickly decided that all of the turquoise should be in our glassware and accents and that our flowers should be a mixture of yellows and pinks. We also chose a fuchsia pink for the bridesmaids dresses and accented with a turquoise hutch. The hutch first held our luggage tag escort cards (created by the ever fabulous Nic Roc Designs, mixing yellow, pink, and turquoise font on the white tags) and later held our Middle Eastern dessert display (a nod to Mina’s heritage).

Above and below: we mixed fuchsia and turquoise into the attire and the flowers and everyone looked so beautiful!

Below, the ceremony at the Darlington House. We draped the gate and adorned it with flowers to make it a focal point for the ceremony.

Below, some of our vintage travel details. The wedding was considered a destination wedding as only the groom and some of his friends live in San Diego. Both of their families and the bride and the majority of their friends all descended on La Jolla for the wedding week. The bride and groom have also done a significant amount of traveling together and we felt a few vintage travel details were a great accent!

Since we were going “garden” in our motif, I thought we should bring in vibrant patterned linens and of course went to La Tavola to make that happen. We used a striped linen on the head table and a floral linen, in similar colors, on the guest tables. It’s rare to be able to use a linen that is this “busy” but it was perfect for outdoors. Notice below how the two different linens compliment each other perfectly. Then we added a yellow napkins and turquoise glassware and it was perfect. We also mixed the fuchsia and turquoise throughout our paper products in the menus, table numbers, and escort cards.

Continental Catering provided the amazing food and beverages, Classic Party Rentals the chairs, tables, and market lights, and the always impressive True Photography captured the day. As the day faded to night, the market lights added a perfect twinkle. And of course, then there was dancing!

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Steal this idea:

If you are throwing an outdoor wedding, don’t be afraid to use lots of color–especially in a vibrant garden atmosphere. Also, not every color has to be used in the florals. Maybe it works to use one color in your glassware and another in your flowers. and maybe your linens mix all the colors or just pick up the tones from the flowers. And don’t be afraid to mix your patterns and textures, as long as they are all the same color scheme. We used different linens for the cocktail hour, for the guest tables, for the head table, and for the cake table in just variations of the same colors and it looked amazing! Happy planning!