Our wedding was held in the Plaza Del Sol at the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort in Santa Barbara, California on August 29th, 2008. The plaza is an old train depot dating back to the 1800's, is "open air", has a rotunda on the top of the plaza, and features views of the Pacific Ocean, Santa Barbara, and the Santa Ynez mountains. We loved that we had found a location that would allow us to hold our whole event outside.

Award winning Spanish guitar player, Anthony Ybarra performed our ceremony music. Our best friend doubled as a groomsmen and officiant for our wedding which made it even more special. We wrote our ceremony ourselves and decided on a sand ceremony where we blended sand from each coast to symbolize our lives becoming one. My husband is from GA and I am from CA so we thought combining sands from both the East and West Coasts was fitting.

Tall arrangements lined the aisle and two large urns filled with flowers were put on either side of the arch that served as our backdrop. Palm trees and the Pacific Ocean could be seen directly behind us and programs that I made by hand were placed on each chair for our guests.

Location: Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort

Day Of Coordination: Debbie hews Chic Events

Photographer: Jessica Lewis Photography

Videography: Lola Video

Music: Anthony Ybarra

Flowers: Juniper Designs

Cake: Montecito Confections

Hair and Make-up: T.E.A.M. Hair and Make-up

Our photographer took pictures of us laying on the front lawn of the hotel right after the ceremony and this shot ended up being her favorite of the day! We didn't get many bride and grooms portraits taken due to timing but the ones that we did get, we really like.

I choose to wear a Mori Lee gown with a chocolate brown sash to compliment the Mori Lee dresses my bridemaids were wearing. I also made each bridesmaid a pink/orange iridescent ribbon sash and each girl received a silver brooch to wear on it as part of their gifts. Each girl wore metallic silver shoes and made necklaces in whatever style they wanted with beads and chain that I had purchased. Each girl's style was able to show through which I liked.

My husband and his groomsmen all purchased chocolate brown suits from a local suit shop and we paired them with shirts and ties that matched our color palette perfectly that we found at Macy's.

These pictures are of all of us on the beach in front of the hotel and outside of the plaza.

For our cocktail hour guests were escorted to the rotunda that features 360 degree views of the Pacific Ocean, Santa Barbara, and the Santa Ynez mountains. Shell centerpieces were filled with flowers and paper lanterns were placed on hooks in the planters.

Anthony Ybarra entertained our guests during the cocktail hour as well.

We served sushi, miniture crab cakes, and Thai chicken as well as a spread of Italian veggies, meats, and cheeses. Guests enjoyed visting and taking in the views.

My dress was Mori Lee style number 6104.

I had bought the bracelet pictured on top to wear but ended up wearng my future sister-in-law's bracelet as my something borrowed.

I wore a Monet brooch that doubles as a locket on my sash with my late grandfather's and my husband's late grandmother's pictures in it so they'd be with us all day.

I wore low wedges since it was a beach wedding and inserted some cute cheetah inserts into them to add a custom touch.

Next is my earring and necklace set.

My engagement ring features the diamond from my husband's late great-grandmother's ring from the 1920's. My husband choose a hammered silver band.

Here are the ties that we found at Macy's for our guys to wear.

My dress hanging in the doorway and my shoes in front of it.

For our reception our tables were dressed in chocolate brown linens. Silver chargers, pink and orange irridescent votives, and silver leafed sea shells were also placed on the tables. We served a 4 station buffet that included a salad station, pasta station, seafood display, and a grill station where chefs grilled lamb, chicken, and filet mignon to order for our guests.

Katie Scott who owns Montecito Confections created a 4 tiered cake that included lemon with fresh raspberries, chocolate with Bailey's creme, carrot, and coconut cake.

We set up a candy buffet to serve as our favors that featured pink and orange candy ranging from local salt water taffy and rock candy to Tootie Pops and Pixie Sticks. Guests also got pink, orange, and green glow sticks once the sun went down to use out on the dance floor and for our send off. Both favors were a big hit with all ages!

Our immidiate families and bridal party members sat at 16' long tables that framed in our dance floor while other guests sat at 72" round tables.

The biggest compliments we got on our wedding were on the location, food and flowers. Our flowers were done by Juniper Presence of Juniper's Designs. We asked her to create tall, lush, and colorful arrangements using tulips, orchids, dahlias, lillies, tropical leaves, lotus pods, manzanita branches, and other flowers in shades of pink, oranges, green and dark brown. The bouquets were made of the same mix of flowers while the men sported orchid boutonnieres that were accented with fiddle leaves The flowers all lasted 2 weeks!

On the left side of the picture, we created 12x12 guestbook pages with guests names at the top. During dinner we got a picture of us with every guest..here are just two examples. We used it as a chance to talk with everyone and it's cool having a picture of us with everyone who was able to make it.

My husband and I both custom created bridal shirts for our friends. He loves baseball so the guys wore baseball tees. The front featured a home plate decal with their title on it while the backs featured their last name and a number. When lined up they spelt out our wedding date while our dad's had our birth years on them.

The girls wore polka dot tanks and I created a custom decal with their name, title, year that our friendship was established and some nicknames/inside jokes for each of them. Best of all I found a temporary clothing adhesive so the girls could take the decals off and wear the tank top later on without it.