Exquisite Weddings Magazine: Rustic Chic Tablescape

We're so very excited to finally share some of the photos from our Exquisite Weddings shoot we did back in December. The photographer, Terri Rippee did such a beautiful job capturing the rustic, chic tablescape at the lovely Rancho Valencia.

We wanted a table that was rustic, chic, soft and romantic. Our main focus to create our vision was designing a wood table top with benches for seating. The table top was made up of lots of old pieces of wood, fit together to create a rustic look. The linens were made up of a variety cream and white damasks, lace, and crochet linen. We used mercury glass candle holders, and silver candlesticks to add a pop of fancy shine over the wood table top.

The flowers were the perfect blend of wildflowers and greenery for the outdoor setting. The Floral Lab always does a fantastic job!

This cake! Melody from Sweet and Saucy made a stunning cake that matched our design to a T! She used beautiful lace trip, and topped the cake with a pod and balsa wood flower. So, so cute.

The menus were so cute! We found old books at local antique stores and tore the covers off. Love at First Invite designed all the adorable paper and we glued the menus on top of the book covers. It was a touch of "old" and brought color to the table.

The china, and stemware are from Anthropologie. I love the stone colored cermaic plates paired with the delicate lace stemware. It was beautiful together!

The table had an outdoor, fancy 'picnic' sort of vibe with the bench seating. It is perfect for the couple who loves casual elegance. For a bit of nostalgia, we placed cotton candy in the mint green bowls on each persons place setting.

The recepie for our "Lovely Lavendar" cocktail can be found in a copy of the latest issue of EW Mag.


Again, we are so very thankful and excited to see this vision come to life..in print! Thank you to all of the other people who helped make this table amazing.

Exquisite Weddings Magazine: http://www.exquisiteweddingsmagazine.com/

Table Designers: Carter & Cook Event Co. http://www.carterandcookeventco.com/

Florals: The Floral Lab http://www.theflorallab.com/

Cake: Sweet and Saucy http://www.mysweetandsaucy.com/

Linen: Classic Party Rentals http://www.classicpartyrentals.com/

Paper Stylist: Love at First Invite http://www.loveatfirstinvite.com/

Photography: Terri Rippee, Rippee Photography http://www.rippeephotoweddings.com/ and

Location: Rancho Valencia Resort http://www.ranchovalencia.com/

Love,

Ashlyn+Heather

C&C

Real Wedding: Liz & Rich Part II

Liz & Rich's wedding ooozzzed with fabulousness. The amount of time they spent on the details definitely shows. We love couples who care about the details as much as us! We cannot take much creative credit for this darling wedding...it was all these two! I just love this photo. Did you get a look at Rich's homemade, Up, Up, Up and Away themed pinata?!

Liz took a tiny little hit, barely breaking a sweat - and then there was Rich. He didn't hold back! Inside the pinata was tons of toothpaste, floss and toothbrushes, all of which, timely followed the dessert and sweets buffet table. It was also a heartfelt personal touch in honor of Liz's grandfather and former dentist they all call, "Doc."

The 'Pop' bar was such a hit. All the guests enjoyed the brightly colored soda pop and vintage spiraled drinking straws.

A Polaroid camera station was set up for guests to have a photo snapped of themselves, and then leave a memo in the guest book.

The wildflowers that filled the Darlington House were beyond adorable. Old glass vases, bottles, and containers were used on the various tables. Modern Bouquet did such a beautiful job capturing Liz's vision.

The bride and groom sure love their sweets! They had a candy buffet filled to the brim with a variety of candies including homemade toffee [courtesy of the mother of the groom]. The sweets buffet was totally decked out in Red Velvet cupcakes, colorful hot air balloon cookies, and the father of the brides famous chocolate chip cookies. The small cake was adorned with darling bride & groom birds, which yes, Rich made himself!!

The fabric colored pendants were also made by the couple and covered the Darlington House grounds. They were such a colorful addition to the naturally beautiful property and added some fun 'spunk'!

The ceremony was beautiful with the ribbon backdrop they designed. Each guest's seat had a cute paper cone filled with dozens of yarn balls to toss at the newlyweds as they made their way back down the aisle!

One of my favorite photos of the day! They're so happy!

Thank you Wedding Chicks for featuring Liz and Rich's wedding! To see more visit HERE! Also Elizabeth Anne Designs showcased the stunning and chic flowers...HERE! All photos are by some of our favorite photographers, He & She Photography.

Mr. and Mrs. Millard { !!! }: Thank you for allowing Heather and I to share in your day, the beautiful details, and a piece of your lives. We are blessed by your love and joy for life. We are so stoked for you two!!! Come visit soon xo

Love,

Ashlyn+Heather

C&C

Real Wedding: Liz & Rich Part I

I can't say enough about these two. Darling, incredibly kind hearted, overly creative, and just plain wonderful. Liz and Rich's wedding day reflected all these things and more.

The wedding was held at The Darlington House in La Jolla, Calif. It was a brilliantly perfect afternoon wedding, and I must say...so much FUN! Enjoy the fabulous photos by He & She Photography.


Hannah at Modern Bouquet did a stunning job on all the flowers!





The bridesmaids all carried heart shaped balloons. I loved this idea, and thought it was a creative way to save some money on bouquets! It also tied in Liz and Rich's engagement session...and the UP, UP, UP and Away theme!!!

Oh HEY! Dance party pre ceremony...that's what I'm talking about!



We prayed for sun, and it was a wonderful, sunny warm afternoon. Just as the guests lined the streets with the waving ribbon wands, the newlyweds darted from the huge wet rain drops. Talk about perfect timing! It was amazing! The getaway outfits were adorable...

We had the chance to work with incredible vendors. Each of them is fantastic, and a joy to work alongside.

I'll be posting part II and all their amazing wedding details next!

Location: Darlington House
Catering: California Cusine
Photographers: He and She Photography
Florist: Modern Bouquet
DJ: Disc Go Round
Cake: Anas Cake

A peek that will make you smile.

I think I'm going to make a habit of posting sneak peeks of our brides. Why? Because they're always so.stinkin'.gorgeous! Next week Liz and Rich's wedding will be featured on an amazing blog, so until then...I'll leave you with this beauty. Stunning, isn't she? It's the look in those beautiful eyes that I love most. The excitement is so apparent you can feel it. Can you tell why we love our couples?

Source: He and She Photography

Yesterday. March 16th, 2010.

It was one of those days...one of those moments you think will never happen to you, but then it does and leaves you a bit speechless, in the teary-eyed, really amazing kind of way.

It happened! We are published in a real magazine. Not only any magazine, but Exquisite Weddings Magazine. The thick pages are filled one by one with beautiful and stunning images...and then you get to page 116 and see a tablescape done by us, Carter & Cook Event Co.

I received a call from Alyssa back in the beginning of December, asking if we were interested in designing a tablescape for the Spring 2010 issue. I gasped, held back a few tears of excitement, and quickly said YES!

The shoot was in three weeks and if you know much at all about designing a shoot, that is FAST. We quickly pulled together a team of incredible vendors: My Sweet and Saucy Shop, The Floral Lab, and Love At First Invite , who carried the vision and theme throughout the shoot two days before Christmas.

For some, this may not be any goal to have in life, but when you're new to the industry and working hard to grow your company, little blessings such as this goes a long way. Yesterday we were published in a magazine, and Lord, you are so very good!!

I'll be posting the tablescape shoot in a few days!

Utterly Engaged: Designers Challenge

In January we had the privilege to attend an industry event put on by the fabulous ladies from Utterly Engaged. The Utterly Spankin' New Year party was quite the hit! We were able to meet and hug so many of the faces we've seen only through the computer screen and twitter conversations. It was a wonderful evening and we met so many new friends.

Carter & Cook, along with Posh Paperie decided to enter the designers challenge. There were many rules to our table entry. It had to be a form of 'modern', and use some sort of industrial material, paper, or fabric. We chose to focus our table on Modern Craft and the use of all things paper, with a bistro flare! We didn't win the challenge, but did receive an Editors Choice award in the recent issue. Such FUN! Read about it in the latest issue of UE here.

To keep the look clean and simple, we used a table with all neutrals, whites, creams, and browns. The table's main focus and centerpiece was not supposed be flowers so we found very simple cream vases from Ikea with three large white peony blooms, and lots of paper flowers made out of old books. All white china, and white utensils, along with a cream dish cloth for napkins.



Paper was used in so many ways! The table runner was brown craft paper, laid over a white linen tablecloth [yes, we need a hand held steamer! :) ]. We decided to do beer with cheese and bread baskets, so we had brown paper boxes lined with parchment paper to fill with gourmet cheeses and breads.

The beers had darling custom labels that served as place cards, also created by Posh Paperie. Our paper bag styled menu fit our modern bistro spread.

The paper flowers were a definite DIY, and quite easy. I might be putting together a tutorial for those, so watch for that on the Utterly Engaged blog.

The candles were all wrapped in various forms and textures of vellum, paper lace doilies, and a cream paper mache. It's hard to tell in the photos, but the glow from your candles through the textures of paper is so beautiful and soft. This is an affordable way to jazz up your standard glass pillar candles.

My favorite part about the table was the front of the linen. We saw an art piece online, and decided to try to incorporate that into our tablescape. We used dozens of sizes of paper cupcake liners, to create a fun design along the front of the table linen. We secured them with silver push pins. Several of the cupcake liners were spray painted tan to give a pop against the linen.

Heather and I enjoying the party!


Henny, Lucia and Eva..the three lovely women behind Utterly Engaged. Thank you again for such a fun party! And a huge thank you to Jasmine Star, and JD for shooting the party, and all of the designer's tables. All photo credit goes to Jasmine Star.

DIY Projects: Button Brunch!

As we wrap up the fun shoot we did with Wedding Chicks, I thought it would be fun to highlight the few DIY projects that happened to create some of the fun details for the tablescape.

The button garland was certainly a labor of love, but worth every minute of it. It's hard to envision this garland simply by the photos alone. In person, the button garland really made the space fun and unique!

We ordered lots of various buttons off etsy, and found several others at Michael's. We bought a larger yellow spool of thread used for quilting, and got to threading one button at a time. The tricky to part to this is making sure the garland doesn't get tangled up in a mess!

We made several strands of garland with the various colors and shapes of buttons. Make sure you have a beam, or some sort of overhang to tie your garland to. We decided to swoop it in various heights and layers over our table.

The 'favors' for this brunch were individual recipe boxes. We found plain wooden boxes at Michael's, and wrapped the yellow string around it several times, attached a few of the buttons on all sides of the box, and of course a darling Ink and Button fascinator to finish the touch. We also used them as a place card at each guests seat.


The table linens were hand made. We always have the hardest time finding just the right fabric for our tables. We found the delicate and girly floral printed fabric at Joann's, as well as the very fine stripped tangerine and cream linen, which was turned into the table runner.

The floral overlay fit just perfectly, and to add a fun touch, we sewed a cream fringe around the entire border of the linen. The table runner was hand sewn, and on the ends of the runner we glued {because it's just way faster} dozens and dozens of the buttons to tie in our theme.

Thank you again Amy and the Wedding Chicks! To see and read more about the shoot, please visit the 3 part feature on Wedding Chicks, here, here and here! Special thanks to Jessica Claire for all the photos!