California Dream Wedding

I am so excited to share with you one of my favorite weddings. 

Jenny was actually the very first bride to purchase one of my wedding quilts. 

It was a complete joy to get to make it for her and it means so much 

to get to see it at her gorgeous wedding. 

I have asked Jenny to share some of her story and the details 

of her California wedding with us and here she is...

 Darren and I met ten years ago while playing volleyball which is no surprise for anyone who knows us. Here's how the story goes: I found this random guy on Craigslist (not Darren) who was looking for volleyball friends, so being the young, naive dummy that I was, I met up with this stranger at KFC in San Francisco, jumped in his car, and off we went to explore all the open gyms in the peninsula. 

How dumb was I to meet up with a random stranger and get in his car? If it weren't for my blind faith in the kindness of strangers and the fact that that craigslist guy was genuinely nice and just looking for friends with common interests, I never would have met Darren, and we wouldn't be where we are today. The rest is history! :)

Our wedding was April 6th, 2013
The ceremony was at Allied Arts Guild (Menlo Park, CA)
and the reception was at MacArthur Park Restaurant (Palo Alto, CA)

Everything was perfect!! Our wedding was very DIY; we designed and made (almost) everything ourselves and had day-of wedding coordinators to carry out our vision on the day of the wedding. I'm pretty sure that I found the best vendors ever, but the person who helped the most is my sister, who conveniently is a graphic designer. 

She was amazing and helped me carry out so many little details 

that made our wedding special: 

our invitations, table numbers, menus, signage, 

and even little things like striped paper straws with festive flags.

I've always loved quilts and have always wanted to learn how to make one. 

I really wanted our guest book to be unique and fell in love with pictures of quilt 

"guestbooks" on pinterest. And thus began the search for the perfect quilt! 

I instantly fell in love with Sarah's quilts because of the cute quotes and graphics 

in the fabrics that she uses. I also loved how the quilt had specialized spaces 

for our guests to write their messages, 

and the heart-shaped stitching was an added plus!

Admittedly, the quilt cost much more than buying a regular guestbook, 

but this quilt means so much more and was completely worth it!

The dress was my mom's, and there's a whole story behind how I decided to wear it. When Darren and I got engaged, I instantly became obsessed with wedding shows like Say Yes to the Dress. I decided to check out TLC's website and discovered a new show called Something Borrowed Something New. I applied and actually got picked for the show!! I still can't believe that we were on TV. The basic premise of the show is that the producers take your mom's dress and a designer remakes it into your dream dress (i.e., your "something borrowed). But that's not all! To add a twist to the show, they also have an expert stylist take you shopping for the perfect "something new", and at the end of the show, you have to pick which dress you like better.

In my case, my mom's dress was sentimental winner all along but was never exactly what I pictured myself wearing on my wedding day. My mom and dad got married while they were in graduate school in the US. Their parents were still in China and couldn't get visas to come for the wedding, so my mom's mom designed my mom's wedding dress with the help of mom's friends and had the dress made in China. Then they shipped it out to the US for the wedding. How could I not love this dress?!

So the designer on the show improved the dress so much and updated it (got rid of the "priest collar" as they called it on the show, i.e., high neckline, and the lacy sleeves). However, after I brought the dress home, I still felt kind of frumpy in it, so I took it to a dress guru in Alameda, CA who beautifully transformed the dress for our big day. 

Flowers? Julie Martin (williwildflower.com/)
Photographer? Jamie Grenough (LOVED HER!jamiegrenoughphotography.com/)
Décor/graphic designer: Lucinda Yang (lyangdesign@yahoo.com)
Dress alterations: Janene's Bridal Boutique (www.janenesbridalboutique.com/)
Wedding planners: Irene Amido and Carol Chen of Petite Pomme Designs, petitepommedesign.com)
Bakery: Sweet Tooth Confections, Rachael Myers (sweettoothconfections.net)

EMMALINE Bride Feature

My Wedding Quilt was featured on Emmaline Bride's Blog yesterday! 

It was such a fun post too. 

They gave Wedding Gift Ideas from A to Z and they were all such cute ideas!

This whimsical bride and groom illustration is by lovebirds

Here are a few of my other favorites... 

Champagne Tub by susabella

I love this sweet drawing by jolly edition so much. 

A dear friend of ours, Kayli,  did this watercolor of Steven and me for our wedding invitation 

and the original is hanging in our home.  :) 

Embroidery Hoop by the merriweather council

Horeshoes by heartifacts gallery

 Tree Swing by blue fox willow 

Ok, that was more than a few but it was too hard to pick!! 

Check out the Emmaline Bride blog for the full A to Z wedding gift guide. 

There are so many more cute things!

Sarah & Michael's Wedding

I would like to introduce you to another lovely couple that 

I had the honor of making a Wedding Quilt for. 

This is Sarah & Michael... 

Their wedding was absolutely beautiful and I love every last detail of it! 

Make sure to visit her photographer's blog to see all of their beautiful photos. 

Sarah was sweet enough to share a bit of their love story and some details from their Big Day with us! 

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Me and my new husband met our Fall semester of our Senior year of high school in our equine science class. We have been together for almost five years now and we are extremely happy. Things have been a bit difficult for the past year and a half since he's been stationed in Japan but he comes back to the states in December and we will be able to be together then.

 Our wedding was June 1, 2013 at the Robert Carr Chapel in Fort Worth TX and our 
reception was at The Fort Worth Club.

Everything turned out better than I could've ever imagined! It was amazing! All of our vendors were amazing and everything came together beautifully. 

My favorite part of the whole day was when my husband and I got to our reception. They had a little room set up with champagne and hors d'oeuvres for just the two of us. So we went back there when we first got to the reception and we were able to just sit together and have a private moment to soak it all in. It was amazing :)

The wedding quilt was perfect for us. We chose to have the wedding quilt used as our "guest book" at our reception because we loved the idea of all of our loved ones writing us a message that we would be able to display and look at more frequently than a regular guest book. We were so happy that we were able to have the quilt. It is something that is very special to us that we can see us passing down to our children. 

My fiancé loved the idea of having the quilt because of how special and different it is. It is so special to us because it was written on by all of our loved ones. Being able to see someone's handwriting is just something special. With all of the letter that my husband and I have written to each other we truly understand how comforting it can be to see someone's handwriting when you're missing them.

I got:

My dress: Stardust Celebrations. I had an AMAZING consultant there named Liz Castaneda. Anyone who chooses to go to Stardust to look for their special gown should ask for Liz.

Shoes: I got my gorgeous pink Valentino bow shoes from Nordstrom's.

Flowers and Decor: Tami Winn Events did all of my flowers and all of the decor. Tami was also my wedding planner and I have no idea how I would've done everything without her. She was absolutely amazing. 

Photographer: Tracy Autem/ Lightly Photography. She was amazing also! She got every shot I could've dreamed of. 

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Thank  you to  Tracy Autem Photography for providing all of the beautiful photos from Sarah & Michael's wedding.  www.tracyautem.com

One Lovely Wedding Quilt - Ready to Ship!

I have ONE lovely blue & white Wedding Quilt READY to SHIP! 

I got ahead (if you can believe it!) and was able to get one of these ready ahead of time. :) 

If you think this quilt belongs to you then head on over 

to Etsy to purchase and I will get it out to you asap!

Love, 

Sarah Beth  

Caring for Your Quilts

People often want to know how to care for their quilts. 

I, myself, rarely ever wash my quilts but when I do I just make 

sure to treat them delicately. 

Here are a few tips on how I suggest washing & caring for 

your Wedding Quilt or any quilt for that matter! :) 

If you have found other great ways of caring for 

your quilts I would love to hear them! 

Brooke's Big Day

Let me introduce you to the most adorable couple with perhaps the most adorable names... 

This is Brooke & Brenton.  

I had the honor and great joy of making Brooke & Brenton's Wedding Quilt this year. 

Brooke was an absolute delight to get to know and work with so I 

have asked her to share a bit about herself and her BIG DAY with us! 

  And can I just say, 

before we get started, that the FIVE Bridal Cakes just put this wedding 

OVER THE TOP in my book! Absolutely to die for Gorgeous!  

Brooke & Brenton were married on May 11, 2013 at the lovely 

Ashton Gardens in Corinth, TX.

Brenton and I went to elementary school together and had the same teachers in 3rd grade. Then in 4th grade a new elementary school opened in Brenton's neighborhood and we didn't see each other again until a random party in highschool 7-8 years later. We exchanged AOL Instant Messenger handles... this was before the time of text messaging and email addresses. Our mother's have known each other for years from church and our father's worked out of the same office building in Dallas. We even ran into Brenton's parents once in Cancun on a business trip. The stars were lining up before we even realized it. After highschool, Brenton went off to A&M and I went to TCU. 

We didn't see each other or even speak again until after college when we both ended up back in our home towns of McKinney, TX. We had mutual friends at the time and ended up at the same bar in Downtown playing a friendly/flirty game of darts. We hit it off but I wasn't quite sure. He asked me on a few dates and then after being put off he got frustrated and stopped coming around. That's when I realized I missed him around and agreed to go on a date. That date was on March 19, 2007 and he took me to a Stars game. A little over 4 years later, in July 2012, he proposed marriage with just about the most perfect ring I'd ever seen.

Our wedding day was picturesque. There were no major surprises but even if there were, we wouldn't have noticed them. We were so awestruck by seeing how everything came together. 

The food was amazing, pictures to die for and every detail was so special to us. My mother was irreplaceable during the planning process. She pulled the trigger on things I couldn't do myself and I'm so grateful for it. She was the brains behind the giant monogram we painted the perfect shade of coral and hung on the windows at the back of the room. It was stunning. 

We couldn't commit to one cake design so we had 5 bridal cakes. Each in a complementary shade and shabby chic design. They each featured a different flavor so guests could enjoy choices. 

The grooms cake was a replica of his treasured Aggie ring and it was amazing.

I focused a lot on incorporating older traditions but also renovating some of them to really capture our unique desires. I know I would probably rarely pull out a guest book to look at it and thought it was somewhat impersonal. I wanted to find something that gave people an opportunity to be significant if they wanted to.

 I spent a good hour a day on Etsy looking for ideas for our wedding. I found Sarah by searching for local vendors/artists and instantly fell in love with the quilt. I emailed it to my Mom and all I put in the subject was "Oh em gee." 

I knew it was out of our budget but Mom offered to get it anyway, I agreed but only if I split the cost with her. It was so worth it. I love spreading it on the ground every once in a while and reading what everyone had written. 

I even saved it to get a few people who weren't able to attend to sign it. We danced our first dance to Elton John's "Your Song" and I have written the lyrics in some of the empty squares. I've also transcribed some of our favorite parts of our ceremony and our vows. We had 181 guests at our wedding and still had plenty of room to fill in squares with significant tid-bits. I am so excited to have such a wonderful relic to hand down to our children and grandchildren.

Hands down, our favorite part of the night was probably the final song the DJ played. 

It wasn't necessarily the song that made our night but it was what happened in those final moments. We were joined by all of our favorite people in a sing along/group dance that we couldn't have planned even if we tried.

Every gorgeous photo shown is compliments of Tucker Images. 

To see more from Brooke & Brenton's Wedding click here. 

Venue: Ashton Gardens

Cakes: A Cake in a Treetop

Monogram: A Paper Affair

Invitations: The Paper Lion

Makeup: Ah Makeup Artistry

Hair: Jaime Lee Salons

Bridesmaids Dresses: B2 by Jasmine

Gown: Essence of Australia

Grooms and Groomsmen Attire: Calvin Klein

Floral Designs: Antebellum Design

Photography: Tucker Images

Cakes: A Cake in a Treetop

What was your favorite part of your Wedding Day?