Beautiful Barn Wedding | DIY Homemade Jam, Jimmy Choos and Herban Feast

First off, I have to apologize to wonderful photographers Aly and Ben of La Luz Photography, a husband and wife photography team based out of Seattle. They shared Dea and Jon's beautiful wedding at Pine River Ranch with me in September of 2011 and I have used the lovely images for many of our online profiles but never gave Dea and Jon their own spotlight blog post!

...

Well, better late than never, right?

...

This gorgeous August wedding pulled out all the stops: Herban Feast Catering, Jimmy Choo shoes, Trophy Cupcakes, DIY Homemade Jam Favors and mad-libs guestbook cards plus more. This wedding weekend was filled with love, cheer and fun for all! 

Dea and Jon set aside some time for couples photos and La Luz captured some great moments. 

Photographer Aly says: "Dea didn't even flinch when I asked if she'd be willing to walk her Jimmy Choos into this field. And it so paid off."

The Details: DIY guest book, Mad-Libs Wedding Advice for the Happy Couple and the personal touches of their big day.

The ceremony had a ton of love and a few good laughs. Dea and Jon wrote their own vows and somehow a note card from Jon's vows went missing during the ceremony! Imperfect moments make for a perfect day!

 I love this congratulatory shot! "I'm Married!"

The details of the reception were just great. Jon and Dea chose to set up family style table seating and it was just so cool! (Yes, please excuse my lack of a better descriptive word, it was cool!) The guests loved being able to mingle and I thought it made for some pretty great pictures!

The food by Herban Feast was not only beautiful, but delicious!

 

Mmmm, trophy cupcakes....

Finishing the night off with dancing, family and friends. The perfect end to every wedding. 

Dea and Jon,

Sorry I have been keeping your beautiful wedding hidden for so long! I hope these years of marriage have been the best to date for you two and you are still happily enjoying the "honeymoon phase," (for many more years to come.)

All the best,
Pine River Ranch

The Vendors

Venue:  Pine River Ranch

Photographer:  La Luz Photography

Dress:  Luly Yang

Shoes:  Jimmy Choo

Coordinator:  LC Watson

DJ: Maushole Productions

Caterer:  Herban Feast

Cupcakes:  Trophy

Hair/Makeup:  Urbanista Weddings

Happy New Year, Brides and Grooms First Kiss

As the clock struck midnight to ring in the New Year many of us were lucky enough to share a kiss with our loved ones. I was feeling inspired by the "midnight kiss" and decided to share a whole lot of smooches with our friends and families!  We are so blessed and thankful to have had such a wonderful 2012 and we wish you all the best in 2013. Spread the love!

 

Country Wedding at Pine River Ranch | Family Fun | Teal + Lavender | Homemade Dessert Bar | Mason Jars

We are so lucky to share another beautiful wedding with you shot by Saskia Mizushima! One of the things we constantly hear from photographers is that they could shoot a dozen weddings here at Pine River Ranch and not run out of places to shoot at, and Saskia is no exception.  The charming country details of Scott and Bri's August Wedding were wonderful inspiration for the creative and unique photos and I am thrilled to share their big day with you! 

Bri loved that she had cowboy boots on under her classy dress! Scott also wore a snap shirt and a Sword belt buckle under his very classy suit and tie!

The soft and whimsical floral bouquet from Safeway in Leavenworth is the perfect match for their style. Safeway Flowers are becoming a very highly recommended floral option from our past brides and grooms! 

We always love to see a bride in cowboy boots!

A great guestbook idea! Scott and Bri had a Polaroid camera for guests to snap photos of themselves and write the happy couple a message in their scrapbook.

Inspiration for the wedding/approach to your wedding style:*  Bri shared that: I wanted a local destination wedding (where you could drive home afterwards if you wanted but provided a reason for my relatives to fly out). And that's what we had. We stayed at Lake Wenatchee for three days. We hosted activities around town (wine tasting, rafting, putt putt golf, hiking, shopping in Leavenworth).  The bridal party stayed up the street at the Brown Family Farm and we had a spaghetti feed the night before the wedding for everyone that came into town early.  We hosted, I think fairly successfully, a really fun 3-day party!

The weather was perfect for their August Wedding! A beautiful day!

Bri and Scott work together and met several years ago with a slow courtship.  Once they got together "it was game on," says Bri. "Scott has two kids so we became a family first, bought a house second, and got married last," she shared.

Scott and Bri wrote their own vows to each other and there wasn't a dry eye in the house!

I love how they were both all smiles, all day! You could tell how happy they were to be married!

Scott and Bri filled the mason jars with coffee and wrote personal messages to all their guests! This was one of Bri's favorite details of their big day. Her Mom also made all the place settings by hand!

The toasts had everybody laughing, including Bri!
Yum!!! It doesn't matter what time of the day I work on the blog posts, I always get hungry when it comes to the dessert time! I am very fond of the "Dessert Bar" idea and think it is always a big hit with the guests, especially when the dessert options look this good! Scott's Mother helped bake some of the delicious desserts!Scott and Bri still had a traditional and beautiful wedding cake from Busy Bea's Bakery to cut! And they were nice to each other! No cake sacrificed! 
Their first dance as Mr. and Mrs. It looks like the night only got better from there! The dance floor was opened and guests danced the night away!We'll leave the night with this! Congrats you two! 

If you could tell a future bride one thing about the wedding planning or advice for the day of the wedding what would it be:  Go with your gut. There is always another option if the first one doesn't quite work out.

Caterer - Ravenous Catering

DJ -  My good friend, Madison Krass

Cake -  Busy Bea's

Photographer - Saskia M

Make-Up - My friends

Dress - Benita's Bridal (Casablanca brand)

Hair - My cousin

Party Favors - fresh roasted coffee beans from locally-owned Diva Espresso

Decorations - My mom!

Flowers - Safeway in Leavenworth

Table-top plants - Safeway in Fairwood (taken care of by my Mom!)

The set up crew - my bridal party, and their significant others, and my extended family. They were awesome.

All Things Wedding: Cakes at Pine River Ranch

I am so lucky to have the privelege to take part in so many beautiful weddings, even though I am not always there on the big day, seeing the wedding pictures afterwards is so much fun. With every wedding I see I am continually amazed at the beautiful details of each brides and grooms big day. I love to see the different styles and approaches that each bride and groom take for their wedding day. Some wedding couples use the natural beauty of Pine River Ranch and enhance it with beautiful flowers and natural decorations, while some are inspired by the rustic beauty of the restored dairy barn and include home made jams, rustic lanterns and country touches in their decor. Each wedding and every detail is so unique and meaningful in it's own way to the wedding couple that it will forever be special to them. One of the main flowers in my wedding bouquet and our centerpieces were purple lupines and to this day whenever I see them it brings me back to our wedding day and puts a smile on my face.

As a tribute to the couples who have given us the privilege of being part of their wedding day I wanted to share with you some of the details that made their weddings so special.

I decided to start a new blog series throughout the summer dedicated to the details that complete the wedding day called:

All Things Weddings

So far, I have compiled pictures from weddings to include cakes, wedding dresses, rings, table centerpieces and more (kept secret to build anticipation!) and I will share these themes with you throughout the summer!

To kick start our new series All Things Weddings, we are going to start with the yummy details. Literally.

All Things Weddings, Part One: Cakes

I hope you have eaten because if not, you are going to get very hungry seeing all these amazing wedding cakes! We have had every kind of cake at Pine River Ranch from wedding cakes baked by mother-in-laws, to professionally baked cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes and pies!

I loved seeing this unique and fun bride and grooms cake! That chocolate cake looked absolutely to die for and the fun and creative grooms cake was perfect! Becky's Cakes in East Wenatchee did a great job! Robby and Alyssa's Hot Pink and Black Wedding was a beautiful event and they have been joining us for their anniversary since then!

Kellie and Josh's beautiful October Fall Wedding was highlighted by natural elements like the log rounds and pine cones that were adorned throughout the venue, including their yummy strawberry cheesecake dessert.

Dan and Carrie had an amazing Winter Wedding decorated with snowflakes and natural greenery. Their cake was made by Becky's Cakes in East Wenatchee

Matt and Ashley's Fall Wedding was a family affair. Their brown, green and cream wedding colors were perfect for the laid back couple to enhance the natural beauty of Pine River Ranch. Along with many other couples they didn't necessarily have a "traditional" wedding cake, but instead had a selection of cakes, chocolate truffles and pies made by many of their friends and family members which was a huge hit with the guests!

You may remember this cake from Chris and Ashlee's indoor wedding I posted last week. This cake was made by Busy Bea's Cakes, a favorite of many brides and grooms who get married at Pine River Ranch. This amazing cake from Busy Bea's Cakes fit perfectly into the theme of this vintage inspired wedding we had here 3 years ago.

Sage and Alex were so pleased with the way their wedding cake turned out. When I talked to Sage after the wedding she wanted to give a big thank you to her Mother-in-Law, a retired pastry chef for making their wedding cake. Sage said “It was the BEST cake ever! Carrot cake with butter cream frosting. I think everyone had 2 slices.”

I hope you enjoyed my new blog series All Things Weddings and got some inspiration for your big day! The wonderful thing about weddings today is that there is so much choice out there. Whether you want to stick to a traditional wedding or throw the guidelines out the window there are still so many personal touches that make each wedding day special and unique.

If you would like to see a specific topic for a future All Things Weddings post, just leave a comment and let me know! Thanks to all our past brides and grooms for letting me share your wedding day!