Traditional & Fun Wedding: Gareth & Carin

Gareth and Carin said their "I do's" on a beautiful October Day, under a huge palm tree, and with the ocean as their backdrop. With stylish grace, we see their traditional black, red and ivory wedding--so perfectly trimmed with modern accents that included: fun floral patterning, beaded embellishments, and fashionable flourishes. Our bride Carin is simply stunning and I love all the ways she and Gareth captured moments for "themselves" yet considered the comfort of their "guests." Enjoy and be inspired by this beautiful California wedding!

Wedding Style: Traditional & Fun
Wedding Colors: Red, Black and Ivory
Ceremony: Chase Palm Park, Santa Barbara, California (across from the beach). Reception: Hyatt Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California (also across from the beach).

Wedding Photographer: Halberg Photographers
Wedding Coordinator Simply Santa Barbara Wedding & Events
Hair & Makeup: Kelly Scripp
Save the Dates, Wedding Invitation Suite, Thank Yous: MagnetStreet Weddings

Highlights of the day

Guests enjoyed a beautiful ocean view while being transported along the coastal road to and from the ceremony/reception location on the traditional old town Santa Barbara trolley. It made for some added fun for guests! My groom and I also got to take some fun photos on the trolley. Another fun highlight was getting to share a blessed glass of Stella Artois (my favorite beer) with my groom during the ceremony as our "union ritual."

Best part of the whole wedding day

Everything! Our day could not have been more perfect. I loved our ceremony, our officiant was fantastic. She really captured our love and who we are as a couple. She was able to make guests laugh and cry. Our reception was a terrific party: we ate Filet Mignon and lobster tail, drank from a full bar, the toasts were amazing, our DJ rocked it, we watched a wonderful slideshow that my sister put together, our guests were able to view the beautiful Santa Barbara sunset over the ocean from the overlooking reception hall, and the party continued at the hotel bar after the reception was over.

Advice you’re glad you took

Sneaking away to the beach during the reception while our guests enjoyed dinner, so that we could take some additional bride/groom photos on the sand. These are some of my most favorite shots!

Advice you wished you took

I wish we had hired a videographer for the entire day, rather than just our ceremony. I regret not capturing our first dance and all of the toasts/speeches on video. It would have been great to have these included in a video highlight reel of the entire day.

Advice you’d like to give

Take photos, including a "first look" before the ceremony. It relieves some of the anxiety and makes for a great intimate moment between bride and groom before walking down the aisle. Also, the more photos you can take beforehand, the more time you have to enjoy at the reception with your guests.

Carin's shout-outs to their wedding vendors:

Photographer

Tim & Cheryl make a great photography team, they are cool, down to earth people who truly cared about getting to know us prior to our wedding so that they could capture our "style" as best they could.

Wedding Coordinator

Shelley and Erika from Simply Santa Barbara Wedding & Events are amazing. I could not have pulled off this fabulous day without them. They made the entire process easy and stress free. Their attention to detail is exactly what I needed and it was all apparent throughout the day and evening.

Hair & Makeup

I also had an extraordinary stylist team. Kelly and her team did both the hair and makeup on myself, my bridesmaids, my mother, grandmother, aunt, and flower girl. Everyone looked so gorgeous and we all felt like magnificent beauties.

Wedding Stationery

We used MagnetStreet for our save the dates, invitations, response cards, guest information cards, and even our thank you cards. I loved so many of the designs--it was hard to choose. It worked out great that we were able to go with a theme that matched our wedding style and colors. The personalization tool and customer service were fantastic. I had customized requests on all of my pieces and the design team was able to accommodate exactly what I wanted. We could not have been happier with the end result!

Save the Date Magnet: "Vine Outline" Wedding Invitation Suite: "Floral Ornament" {Left} Thank You Cards "Entwined Frame" {Right} Thank You Cards "Black Fade"