~ First let me start off with saying that the wedding community in this area is amazing! We first met Mackenzie at Simply the Best Wedding Showcase of Santa Barbara as she was scouting it out for her to actually be a vendor soon for her dress company. YES - she makes custom, beautiful, amazing wedding dresses! (un-solicit plug :) You should definitely check out her site elizabethmackenziedesigns.com - even if you don't need a dress! Soon after the show she contacted us with some awesome news that she was recently engaged and wanted us to shoot her wedding!! We were stoked! After meeting Dan and her at Gerry Ranch where their wedding would be, we knew this would be an epic fun engagement and wedding day. You can check out their engagement session here. They both put in so much work for their wedding along with the amazing coordinating team at An Enlighten Event, rentals with Jaclyn at Casicielo Weddings and the flower design by Skyline Flowers. Also be sure to read Mackenzie's write up for her wedding day to the right! And incase your wondering - Dan had her ring custom made by Rondels. :)
Mackenzie's write up for her wedding day!
Dan and I met three years almost to the day before we said “I do” on July 19th 2014. We met through mutual friends at a 4th of July party hosted for our church group. We instantly hit it off and it felt like we had known each other for years. I still like to tease him that I noticed him as soon as I walked into the party, even though I wasn’t even wearing my glasses. Since he was in his last year of law school at the time and I was working full time in LA to for a fashion design company we took our time becoming good friends before dating. Our relationship has grown slow and steady over the years and we were so happy to start planning our lives together after Dan pop the question at sunset on a beach in Ventura, CA.
While saying our vows tucked away in the intimate outside setting in Camarillo, CA Dan and I knew we had found the perfect place. The location for our special day was one of the most important parts in creating our wedding to be uniquely us. As soon as we found Gerry Ranch up the street from Dan’s parents house we knew it was a hidden gem. From the breath taking views in all directions of the local mountains, to the blueberry fields and lemon orchards.
Our wedding theme could be describe as “sentimental rustic” from all the homemade decorations to the desserts we wanted to the focus to be on us as a couple, our family and loved ones. To help bring out our personality and things we wanted our guest to enjoy we created a vintage travel table for our gifts since we love to travel. Along with a writer’s table for guest to leave notes and yard games of croquet during cocktail hour. Our families were such a huge part of our wedding, my parents created all the signs from an old fence and brought down family heirlooms from their house to help tie in the vintage theme. Also our family friends made desserts for our dessert table including homemade truffles by my mom from an old family recipe, my maid of honor painted a picture of us for guests to sign, Dan’s uncle officiated, his family played piano and sang during our ceremony, and our neighbor lent us his vintage Chevy for the perfect get-away truck. Our wedding was so sentimental to us due the little details we added like our wine cork table numbers to represent that Dan first asked me to be his girlfriend at a local winery, to the hand painted champagne glasses for our family and bridal party. Also, the door entrance to our ceremony was hand crafted by my parents from redwood doors from my childhood home in Santa Cruz. The doors were one of the main ideas Dan and I wanted to have at our wedding, as a symbolic gesture of walking down the aisle as individuals and walking through them after our ceremony as husband and wife. We also wanted to have the doors at our wedding to be able to hold hands with each other and have a few moments together to talk without seeing each other before the ceremony.
Dan and his groomsmen wore grey suits with suspenders and mint ties to help create the vintage feel for our day. My dress was also very important to me, I wanted to have a dress that I knew Dan would love. So I designed, created and sewed my dress. I knew he would love the open back and as soon as I found this delicate bugle bead lace I knew it would really sparkle against the silk satin fabric. I also wanted my dress to be sentimental, so I stitched our names on blue hearts inside my dress over my heart, to have as my something blue. I really wanted my wedding dress to be something that would compliment who I am from silhouette to the little details. My bridesmaids wore a pale shade of mint, which was accented by their bouquets of yellow, white, mint flowers seasonal summer flowers. Our colors through out the wedding were shades of mint and yellow to go with the lemon orchards surrounding the property. I wanted the bouquets and boutonnières to represent our theme, so we had rustic country flowers grown by a local nursery to help tie in our colors.
Dan and I had such an amazing day, and we feel so fortunate to have such amazing support from all our wonderful vendors to friends and family. Our special day truly came to life and was the perfect representation of us as a couple. It was the prefect start to the rest of our lives together, not to mention is was the only evening in southern California it rained all summer, so I hear that’s good luck too.
- Mackenzie