Well, I found a lovely little blog called Frosty Winter Weddings complete with sweet animated snowfall that inspired me to truly fall in love with the idea of a winter wedding. I grabbed some photos from on of my fav posts showing an adorable couple that braved the snow for their nuptials that was found over on Martha Stewart Weddings. Take a look for some gorgeous winter wedding inspiration and make sure to head over to Frosty Winter Weddings to read all about the amazing details like the – especially the guest favors!

Photography by Thayer Allyson Gowdy

Photography by Thayer Allyson Gowdy

Photography by Thayer Allyson Gowdy

Photography by Thayer Allyson Gowdy

Photography by Thayer Allyson Gowdy

By Erin Frank

I like a little wedding with my honeymoon. When you pair a destination wedding with your happily-ever-after there are a huge number of benefits. For one thing, you can leave it to the professionals. You know you’re getting a dedicated staff that specializes in handling events like yours and is familiar with what the venue can offer you. On-location lodging for you and your guests means you won’t have to worry about transportation to and from ceremony and reception venues. Throw in perks like swim-up bars and lounging on the beach, and your guests are guaranteed to have a good time with minimal planning on your part. Plus, you won’t have anyone asking if they can crash on your couch right before your big day.

During a recent stay at Azul Sensatori Hotel by Karisma in Cancun, Mexico, I found myself wondering what it would have been like if I had scrapped my DIY-intensive San Francisco wedding last year (and I do mean intense! It’s a lot of work when you handle everything from decorations to food to flowers), and gone instead for a relaxing beachside ceremony with my favorite family and friends. Here’s what I would have enjoyed:

An on-site wedding coordinator, a wedding guest concierge to get my guests settled in without my help, a personal attendant to the bride—what a dream!—and a groom’s room stocked with food and beverages before the wedding, to keep the guys out of my hair.  I think I would have opted for the Gold Wedding Package, which includes everything a couple could ask for. We’re talking a bouquet and boutonniere, a manicure and hairstyle for the bride, a haircut for the groom, a sunset dinner cruise, a professional wedding photographer (complete with negatives and a wedding album), a Mexican wedding certificate translated to English, and a whole lot more, all for $3,500. Thinking about what it costs to hire a photographer alone, I’m kicking myself for not discovering this sooner.

A beachside venue really takes your wedding to a new level. Have your ceremony on the beach or on a rooftop overlooking the water. Drink champagne while you check-in, schedule candlelight oceanfront dinners and seaside massages, and let your guests do the same! Encourage them to come to the resort early and clear out after the wedding so your honeymoon can be blissfully family-free. During their stay, your guests will enjoy the beach, pools, bars, a spa, and 6 gourmet-inclusive restaurants including Le Chique, a swanky adults-only restaurant with a creative eight-course “Author’s Dinner” where every taste and texture will take you by surprise. After the wedding, soothe away any stressors your personal assistant couldn’t take care of with soaks in the your Jacuzzi bathtub or piña coladas by the pool. Forget getting up early to head to the airport. Instead enjoy breakfast in bed to kick off your honeymoon. Relax—you’re already there!

So, you tell me, is your 1-year anniversary too soon for a destination vow renewal ceremony?

Azul Sensatori Hotel by Karisma

Cancun, Mexico

www.karismahotels.com

If you are looking for a wedding reception site that is conveniently located but feels completely isolated, then Cinnabar Hills Golf Club is the location you have been searching for.  Cinnabar Hills Golf Club is in San Jose approximately 10 minutes off Highway 101.  Once you arrive at Cinnabar Hills, it is nearly impossible to see any of the nearby households or hear any typical city sounds, making you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere.

In addition to its wonderful location and scenery, Cinnabar Hills provides you with everything necessary to plan a fabulous ceremony and reception.  I met with their wedding coordinator, Brittany Dawes, to get the scoop on the facilities.  If you choose to have your ceremony at Cinnabar Hills there is a gorgeous flower-filled arch on an outdoor patio where couples can tie the knot.  The large club house is great for receptions and can hold up to 250 guests.  If you have not yet begun your planning, Brittany even has a list of vendors to help you get started.  The catering is all done in-house, and everything on the extensive menu tastes fantastic, leaving you with the tough job of narrowing down your appetizer and entrée choices.  Unlike a lot of places, Cinnabar Hills gives you access to the room for the entire day, allowing for ample time to set-up.  In addition, Brittany is there to help coordinate with all of your vendors to make sure that the day runs without a hitch, giving you extra time to relax and focus on more important things.

Cinnabar Hills offers a number of different package options, with Sunday packages starting at $6000.  The greatest part is that everything is done á-la-carte, making every package flexible which means that you are not going to be stuck paying for options you do not want.  After my tour of the golf course, I was not surprised to hear that you need to book about a year in advance to get your ideal wedding date.  After helping coordinate weddings for over twelve years, the staff at Cinnabar Hills Golf Club knows just what it takes to make your day special.

For more information about Cinnabar Hills Golf Club check out the website: www.cinnabarhills.com/weddings.html

Or, you can e-mail Brittany Dawes – events@cinnabarhills.com

Planning a wedding can be much tougher than it seems, and when you are looking for help you would probably like to turn to your best friend.  You should make Stephanie Anderson from One Fine Day Event Planning your new best friend.   She works closely with her brides to make their wedding special and unique by focusing on their visions and coordinating with the vendors to make sure the day goes without a hitch.

Focus Photo Tahoe

Stephanie started in event planning in college with an internship for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and assisted in coordinating their star-studded events.  After college, she worked in the hotel industry helping grow their wedding business.  Eventually, she decided to branch out on her own and formed One Fine Day Event Planning, based in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Lake Tahoe.  Aspiring event planners need to be able to multi-task (how many brides do you think can you juggle at once?), stay organized, and work on a number of different styles, and Stephanie possesses each of these qualities.  Her events are formed around the inspiration boards she and the brides create using ideas pulled from a variety of sources, with these boards focusing on what the bride wants incorporated into her special day.

Catherine Hall Studios

For Stephanie, the best part about her job is being able to work with every client on their vision, creating the look and feel of the wedding, and putting all the pieces together to make sure the wedding runs smoothly and is exactly what the couple wants.  One tip she has for brides is to determine first the number of guests, and then make an excel spreadsheet with your budget and estimate the number of dollars you intend to spend on each category (flowers, cake, venue, etc.).

Focus Photo Tahoe

One Fine Day is the perfect choice for every bride because packages are offered regardless of how much (or little) you already have planned.  If you have all your vendors, then Stephanie will be there to coordinate with each vendor and give them time lines for the wedding day and be their go-to person day of, taking the pressure off the bride.  For brides who are just starting the planning process, Stephanie is happy to help with vendor suggestions.  Packages of all types range from $1,500 to $7,000, and everything is customized around your needs.

If you are feeling overwhelmed or do not know where to start, you should give One Fine Day a call.

Stephanie Anderson

http://www.onefinedayevents.com/

sa@onefinedayevents.com

Lake Tahoe: (530) 386-1609
San Francisco: (415) 350-9639

We met up over the weekend and I took advantage of checking out a few wedding-related businesses on my trip there: Sift, a cupcakery; Avia, a swank boutique hotel; Ubuntu, a Michelin-star rated restaurant and Betty’s Girl Boutique, a vintage clothing store specializing in evening wear. If you’re planning a wedding in Napa wine country, here’s a few places to consider:

{Sift Cupcakery: Sweet Side}

In my search to find a sustainable Livermore Valley wedding location, I came across Captain Vineyards. It may not be in Livermore Valley and it isn’t the huge vineyard weddings you typically think of. But, I immediately fell in love with this place and the family who runs it.

Let me preface this post before you read any further. It takes a certain person to love this type of venue, and I just happen to be one of them. Captain Vineyards has an understated beauty about it with a gorgeous view that overlooks the LaMorinda hills. If you are looking for an intimate wedding venue, with spectacular ambience, sustainable practices, and a family run business, you have found your wedding venue!

I found the vineyard online when researching sustainable vineyards. I did a quick review of their site – www.captainvineyards.com, and assumed it was just a typical vineyard. When driving to the location, I found myself a bit confused because I was in the middle of a residential neighborhood. As I approached the property, I was not sure what to expect.

After a tour of the vineyard, the Captain’s welcomed me into their home, literally. When talking with Susan about the family vineyards and sustainable practices, you could see the passion in her eyes, and feel the love that she felt for working the land. The family does all the work on their own except for volunteers who help to harvest the vineyards. It looks like back breaking work, and yet the couple does not seem to mind.

This wedding venue is not just a property, it is the Captain’s home. And yet, they will open it up. The Captains share what they have including: their kitchen, their living room that opens up to the patio and the whole backyard that includes the deck overlooking the vineyard and hills, and the two tasting rooms. This is why I say that this wedding venue is not for everyone. It is for a special couple – a couple that wants that picturesque backyard wedding, and appreciates the property that the Captain’s call home.

For more information, visit http://www.captainvineyards.com
Call: 925.631.0714

Recently in the Bay Area as many of you may have already heard, director and actor Kevin Smith was reportedly booted off Southwest Airlines for being too fat for a single seat. Kevin Smith has twitted that he does fit in a single seat and can even buckle his seatbelt without a buckle extender.

However, a Southwest spokesperson said its “Customer of Size” policy requires that travelers must fit “safely and comfortably” in one seat – or make other arrangements. After hearing about this I suddenly started to worry about our up and coming honeymoon and the way we will be treated traveling as a plus size couple.

I began to research on this and I found that it is not only Southwest Airlines but also, United and Delta Airlines that enforce their policy of charging overweight passengers double if they can’t comfortably fit into one seat. The airline also could bump an overweight passenger if the flight is sold out and no extra seats are available. So the question is what can we do to avoid buying extra seats? Or if you are able to fit comfortable but not according to the airline; like Kevin Smith?

One suggestion I found is to find out ahead of time, prepare before you book a flight. You can look in advance the width of the seat on a flight by going to www.seatguru.com and click “charts.” Then you can sort by seat width, flight, type of aircraft, by airline or by type of service (such as international economy or domestic business class.) The difference can amazingly be as much as 2 inches in seat width.  This is great news for me because last time I flew I fit but I could feel the arm rests on my hips. I was certainly comfortable enough but wouldn’t mind that extra two inches. So before we book our flight from San Francisco to Florida to reach our cruise to the Bahamas. I will most definitely check the seat width ahead of time.

We often immediately think of the Sonoma and Napa area when grapes and more importantly wine comes to mind. In reality, we have so many local wineries in our backyard spanning from the Peninsula, to the North Bay, and even in the East Bay. These wineries range from small family vineyards to large generations old estates. So often overlooked, these local wineries make a great option for your “staycation” wedding spot, and an easy way to cut down on travel emissions.

I would like to introduce you to a cluster of wineries located in the Livermore Valley. In this post, I will give you a brief glimpse of the area and some starting points allowing you to explore and delve into the details at your own leisure. The Livermore Wine Country hosts over 40 wineries throughout Castro Valley, Sunol, Pleasanton, and Livermore region with many that have on-site wedding spaces or event spaces affiliated with the winery. For example, the Palm Event Center in Pleasanton (see photo above) sits next to Mitchell Katz Winery while Garre Vinyard and Winery hosts multiple weddings options on their grounds.

Sourced from LVWA

To start you off on this journey, a great resource to check out is the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association which details wineries that provide wedding services along with all the contact information to reach out to them. This is just a quick overview to help you get going in your search for the perfect winery location. Look out for follow-up posts with dedicated blog entries highlighting a few wineries that are not only wedding friendly, but also promote sustainable practices!