Amber Events: Westlake Village Inn Wedding: Kelly and Brandon

Kelly contacted me almost exactly six months before her wedding to Brandon. She had been a blog reader of mine for some time, so it didn't take us very long to get to know each other. Almost every meeting was a family affair as we had in attendance her mom Patty and the most involved dad I've ever had, Dave. Sometimes her sister Kristin even joined our party! Wonderful, gracious, kind, and classy people, that bunch. We had a great time planning together.

Kelly & Brandon chose the Tuscan Gardens at the Westlake Village Inn for their ceremony and the Provence Room for their reception. The feeling we were going for with the wedding design was a light and airy French/European garden--feminine and soft without being too precious for the guys to not be able to appreciate. Kelly's Melissa Sweet dress was feminine, soft, and precious, and was perfect, perfect, perfect for her petite frame.

The ceremony was officiated by one of my favorite officiants, Rev. Clint Hufft, and Strings by Reiko played "The Ludlows" from Legends of the Fall for the bridal party processional, "Moon River" for Kelly's walk down the aisle with her father, and "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve for their recessional. To honor Brandon's mom who had passed away, Brandon carried a white rose down the aisle and placed it on a chair reserved for her. During their ceremony they put letters that they wrote to each other and a bottle of wine in a box with the intentions that if their marriage is ever going through a hard time, they will drink that wine and read the letters that they wrote to each other before they got married.

The Provence Room sparkled with the light from the chandeliers overhead, the custom lighting, and the light from the fleur-d-lis votive candles that reflected off of the cut crystal centerpiece stands. Floral genius Susan Tom-Wellis from Peony and Plum did a gorgeous job on the lavender and purple centerpieces. Instead of table numbers, each table was named after a romantic black and white movies (An Affair to Remember, Casablanca, It Happened One Night, etc) a photo of the lovebirds in that movie was displayed in a silver frame. French Macaroons were set at each place setting as a favor. DJ Lee Dyson from Hey Mister DJ had the crowd on their feet for almost two hours straight, and the exquisite red velvet cake from Vanilla Bake Shop was beyond a hit!