Real Wedding Inspiration: Judy & Brandon's Elegant Silver, Lavendar & Pink Wedding

Here are the highlights of yet another wonderful wedding at our Club to help give you some inspiration for your wedding. I really liked the silver, lavender, & pink color scheme they chose. This was a very romantic wedding with several personal details that turned out perfectly.

The couple had one of their great engagement photos framed with a large white mat so the guests could sign & leave them their well wishes. Great keepsake!

An outdoor wedding is always a favorite. Here the aisle was dressed up with sheer white fabric hung over pedestals with beautiful flower arrangements on top (insider tip: these can be moved inside to a few of the reception tables before your guests enter the room to save money).

Our four post arbor was dressed up with sheer white swagging to enhance the romantic look along with a center spray of flowers & two bunches on the side to even out the look (insider tip: these too can be moved inside for the flowers on the sweetheart table to help with costs).

The bridesmaids were in gorgeous silver gowns, groomsmen wore handsome tuxes, & the bride wore a lovely strapless white gown. Even the little ones were dressed to the nines in their wedding attire with their own coordinating boutonniere & flower basket. 

The getaway horse! This is one of the offerings we include in our evening packages which I have come to love. It gives the wedding such a fun, fairytale element.

The room always looks elegant with our crystal chandeliers & choice of linen. This couple went with ivory overlays & silver napkins so that their flowers (by our preferred vendor Pure Elegance) would be the pop of color bringing in their lavender & pink color scheme.

Each guests found a frame with their name on it on the reception table on their way in to the reception room. This served both as their escort card letting them know which table to set at as well as a cute party favor.

The cake, by Delicious bakery, was uber girly & sweet (literally)! I love the double heart design-perfect for two people in love like Judy & Brandon!

Congratulations Judy & Brandon on a beautiful wedding & we hope your lifetime together is just as amazing!

Tiffany & Co. Themed Baby Shower for Our Lovely Stacy!

Porter Valley County Club recently hosted a Tiffany & Co. themed baby shower for our very own Membership Relations Director, Stacy, to celebrate her soon to be born baby boy William. Stacy was welcomed by many Porter Valley Members & employees, including our General Manager, Gene Miller, who braved the almost all women crowd to show his support.

Stacy with one of the tables including Gene Miller, his lovely wife & children, & Membership Director, Melanie Brown

We all had a great time preparing for the party, although I had one hour of sleep making the Tiffany & Co. (or in this case, Stacy & Co.) cookie favors, but it was all worth it for this smile! :)

I tied in the theme further with centerpieces that I wrapped in teal paper & added a white ribbon with white hydrangeas on top to resemble a Tiffany & Co. gift box

The banquet staff did a gorgeous job setting up the room with white linen & fanned out teal napkins in each water cup 

We added a bit of teal lighting around the room & spotlighting the cake to make the party look fabulous. I think it was a fun touch & our lighting packages are very reasonably priced so everyone should consider adding a little color to their parties. With just a few uplights & spotlights you can really warm up & transform a room (the camera doesn't do it justice, but in person it makes a big difference).

A Member noticing Stacy's baby bump under her custom designed tiered dress made by one of our sweet employees, Kathy, from a dress Rachel Zoe wore that Stacy liked. Stacy was absolutely radiant in this Greek Godess look

No baby shower is complete without some fun, baby themed games for the guests to compete in. Here is Stacy with the winners of our three games: Baby Scrabble, How Many Kisses in the Baby Bottle, and Guess Mommy's Belly Size. Congrats! The guests all won gift cards to Cold Stone's Creamery, a suitable prize for a party celebrating an expectant mother; surely every mother-to-be has had ice cream cravings! ;)

Although Stacy was showered with tons of cute & useful gifts, including the stroller & car seat from her registry that the Porter Valley Department heads all chipped in to get her, the most wonderful thing was how many Members & staff came to show her their love & support. I'm sure she will have tons of excited babysitters for Baby Will when the time comes for a break!

The Private Events Department (Ana, aka me, your party loving blogger, on the left & Julie, our awesome Private Events Director, on the right) were so thrilled to put this together for one of our fav office girls. She totally deserved such a great celebration & we can't wait to meet Baby Will!

Congrats Stacy!

Real Wedding Inspiration: Oanh & Adam's Fairytale Ceremony & Reception

This wedding was a joy to be a part of because the couple was so sweet, as were their families, & they had some great romantic touches, like a horse & carriage as well as custom lighting with sheer drapping on the banquet room pillars.

We enjoyed the special details the bride & groom added, including these cute table names (like our previous bride who named each table after characteristics of a loving marriage) with a photo of the couple together; This definitely added a personal touch to the reception.

Their favors were so cute-little handmade magnets imported from Vietnam (where the bride's family was from) to add a cultural element to the wedding. They also included a sweet message to their guests on a card with the favor.

Another beautiful cake by one of our preferred vendors, La Creme; Very pretty delicate designs & light pink flowers to match the centerpieces.

The couple had a lovely, elegant arbor decorated with sheer white drapping & lots of flowers flowing over the top & sides.

This was my first wedding at Porter Valley where the couple had the horse & carriage (which is included in our $13,000 inclusive package; some opt to remove it & use the credit towards other things like more flowers). I absolutely loved it! It really added a fantasy, fairytale type element to the wedding. It wasn't too overdone, but made it extra special.

Another fun thing about the horse & carriage is that the guests were expecting to see the bride & her father come down the aisle after the rest of the wedding party, but then when they came riding in on the side by the golf course on the carriage everyone was caught off guard & started clapping. It added a fun element of surprise & I bet the bride felt a rush of excitement coming around the corner on the horse to her wedding!

The happy couple leaving their wedding ceremony in elegant style!

Congratulation Oanh & Adam! We hope you have a fairytale marriage too!

Real Wedding Inspiration: Personal Touches At Blanca & Elfego's Reception

Our packages at Porter Valley do a great job of covering all the bases for catering, setup, & even including linen color choices & chair covers, but we leave the extra decor & creative elements up to the bride & groom so they are able to put their own personal touch on the wedding.

Blanca & Elfego's wedding is a perfect example of how adding your personal stamp to the reception can make your wedding day more memorable.

Right off the bat, they set the tone with their seating chart (which had the creative table names I mentioned in my previous post) that called to mind all the positive traits of a loving marriage. All of which we are sure this sweet couple will have!

Also they chose a guest book with photos from their engagement photo shoot. This is a beautiful keepsake for them (which reminded me of the yearbooks of my youth, but with much better photos & upscale leather binding). The bears in a tuxedo & wedding gown greeting the guests were also a nod to the couple's softer side, or at least another cute memento for Blanca to keep to remind them of their wedding.

Yet another fun keepsake for the couple to take home...At the registration table, the couple placed these champagne bottles dressed to the nines in wedding attire!

This time I can't wait to show you the cake until the end. I love the color choices of pink, white, & brown. Plus the large R, their new shared last name initial, was just subtly sparkly enough to add a bit of a wow factor without being too gaudy. I am not a big fan of bling though, so just my opinion, but this couple did it right!

This was a fun moment when the bride revealed the groom's cake, which she had made as a surprise for her new husband. He was loving the fact that the cake was modeled after his own vintage car. This is a great way for brides to infuse a bit of their fiance's style into the wedding because, let's face it, the pink flowers don't really reflect his essence! With the groom's cake, you can add that manly element & share with everyone one of your fiance's favorite hobbies, sports, or other passions.

The details on this groom's cake were amazing: From the lights to the bumper to the license plate to the cans being pulled over the asphalt base to the Just Married! written on the back window...nothing was overlooked!

A glimpse of the room, ready for the first guests...notice the sheer white draping and lights on the pillars? They added a lot of warmth to the room and a bit more personal style which was, again, the couple's idea to enhance the look of our country club. I am a big fan of lighting & draping as they can really transform the look & feel of a room.

The couple brought in their own toasting glasses, which had a heart design that will also be a lovely keepsake of their marriage. The crystal glasses along with a larger centerpiece made for an understated, but beautiful sweet heart table.

 

We want to raise a toast to Blanca & Elfego!

We were so happy to see you both enjoying your special day & we know all the extra details & time you put into your wedding will make for gorgeous pictures & memories that will last a lifetime. Now you can relax & enjoy your married life!

Congratulations!

New Memorable Table Name Ideas

In the past weekend at Porter Valley, two of our brides & grooms decided to use the same exact table names, which is what inspired me to write this post to all of you. The bride who was dropping off her cards for us to set up for her the next day saw the other bride's seating chart with the exact same names as she was using & pointed it out to me. It's definitely a popular trend to use words instead of numbers to add a bit more personality to the reception, so consider these ideas in planning your wedding...

Table names with cute phrases are fun for a personal touch at your wedding.
Photo & card by Etsy user Dazzle0604

I think it's nice to use descriptive words like they did such as laughter, generosity, and friendship, which are all representative of a good marriage. I also enjoy it when brides name the tables after locations the couple have been to, like we did for my friend's wedding reception, which helped to tie it in to her travel theme too. We used photographs of the couple with the names of the places they visited & put them in nice rustic frames on each table. You can also name the tables after types of wines, like a friend of ours did for his wedding at a Napa vineyard. They even had a cork personalized with their wedding date & names which was cut so that they could hold the place cards. It was perfect for the theme of the party & suited them well since they both come from family's with their own vineyards! It's a subtle way to incorporate your relationship's story & add in your personal style, so don't overlook the table names when you are planning your reception.

My escort card & holder which I saved from the Napa wedding because it was so different. Yes, my name was mispelled, but I forgive them because there were over 200 guests! ;)

Be creative & figure out names that will be meaningful to you & your fiance. Think of names that tell your guests something about you. They help set the tone for your reception & are just another way for you to put your personal stamp on your wedding!

Happy Planning!

Royal Blue Inspiration Board From A Real Wedding

Photos from Porter Valley Country Club except bride's photo which is from Panachbridalbeverlyhills.com


This is a gorgeous regal, royal blue wedding color scheme from Dawn & Jim's wedding at Porter Valley. Everything coordinated from the chair sashes, to the napkins, to the candles, to the favors (which were cute engraved shot glasses that had their names & wedding date & were filled with M&M's that were also personalized), to the gorgeous cake (which looked super elegant & fit their upscale wedding style).

I have to say this couple was super sweet & totally deserved the perfect wedding that they had. They chose to have a lovely outdoor ceremony on the lawn across from our golf course & enjoyed a delicious lunch in our Pinehurst room which has panoramic views of the course & lake.

Congratulation to Dawn & Jim!