• Real Weddings

It is always fun to feature a Limoneira Ranch wedding, they always seem to be chalked filled with details. This spectacular wedding venue overlooking the Santa Clara River Valley, really brings out the creative juices in people.
Joe and Marianne's wedding is not an exception, their wedding was overflowing with personal homemade touches and steal worthy ideas. From home brewed brew to a gourmet sucker escort cards their wedding is filled with diy purple wedding inspiration that we know you are going to love.  All captured by Ken Kienow. There are so many more details to see in the full wedding gallery here.

How cute are the custom wedding totes above? Of course we think they are way cute, they came from us. Our Paisley Bride Tote printed in Grape Jelly with each of Marianne's bridesmaids' names were the perfect accessory for holding all of their shoes, jewelery, makeup and anything else they might have needed to get ready.

One of the things that we obviously couldn't do ourselves was the photography. Joe hired Ken Kienow to shoot his proposal (In short, Joe set up a fake shoot with a couple where we "bumped into Ken while he was waiting for another client." Joe proposed and we had OUR engagement session right after the proposal) and he was SO awesome and became such a huge part of our wedding story that we just had to hire him. You should too. He and his associate photographer, Kelsey, were absolutely a joy to have around and they did a great job. You can see Joe and Marrianne's surprise engagement here.

Joe built on the brewing theme by making the boutonnieres out of hops, dried wheat, lavender, bottle caps, florist tape and a lot of hot glue. We also had the flower girls drop hops and lavender down the aisle at the ceremony, which was actual held in the parking lot of  Limoneira Ranch.

We have to give our coordinator, Saralee Franchi at XOXO Bride, a HUGE thanks for coming up with the idea of having our ceremony in the parking lot. While we were doing some planning with Saralee at the venue we were talking about how cool the packing crates looked in the parking lot just outside of the reception area and Saralee was like "Hey! I wonder if we could have them stack the packing crates in the parking lot for the day of the wedding?" We got the OK from the venue and we were able to basically use the crates like Legos to make a custom ceremony site! I guess the lesson there is don't be afraid to ask for what you really want. The worst they can say is "no" and you just might get something that is unique and totally you! That, and hire Saralee Franchi .

Steal Worthy Idea:
Joe and Marianne wanted it to feel like an old candy shop when they first entered the venue. The idea came about from an old cash register they had found, which were also used to hold wedding cards. Joe had to do a ton of research how to open it so, it could be used as a card holder.
To the right of the register was an old tool box painted a light shade of lavender to match their wedding colors. They added a little moss and green floral foam and filled each of the tiny drawers with gourmet suckers that Joe and Marianne thoughtfully made in variety of flavors including - lavender vanilla, cream soda, blueberry vanilla, blackberry, mixed berry, and orange rosemary. Each of these suckers had price tags that included your name and table number.

Joe was an English major in college and Marianne majored in Photography (they are now both photographers) so they incorporated that by decorating the tables with vintage cameras stacked on top of collectors editions of books. Each of the table numbers were price tags held on to the card by bottle caps. So clever.  All surrounded by mismatched bottles filled with wildflowers. With a little help  all the floral arrangements were DIYed. Below Marianne shares a few tips if you plan on doing something like this and other helpful wedding planning tips.

1. If you want to collect mismatched bottles without spending a ton of time and a small fortune at thrift stores, just visit a few bars and tell them that you are getting married and need to collect empty bottles. Joe's Mom came up with that idea and although one or two bars turned her down, we ended up with more than we needed!

2. If you are considering doing the flowers yourself, save yourself a lot of uncertainty and stress by going down to your lower mart well in advance to pick out some flowers and do some test runs on the bouquet and centerpieces so you will know how much to buy and be confident that you can handle it the day before the wedding

3. Also make sure to ask the vendors whether the flowers you are picking out on the test day will be available when you are getting married! Some of our flowers were out of season when we had the wedding but we are pretty darn easy going and just wanted a general wildflower feel in our colors so it worked for us! (if you have a specific look in mind and don't think you can handle all the work of flowers, spend the dough and get an AMAZING florist to help)Even with the test run, we were able to save money.

4. The ceiling was really high at the reception and we weren't too stoked on the lighting so we really wanted to bring in some market lights to visually drop the ceiling down for a more intimate feel. We were SHOCKED by how much people charge to rent lights! We were able to buy market lights for less than half of what we were able to rent them for. Joe and his brothers were able to hang them in about an hour. Do your research! It will save you some money!

Joe brewed a total of 20 gallons of beer. 10 gallons was made from his own recipe for an Irish Red Ale. 10 gallons was made from a clone of Stone Brewery's 2008 Vertical Epic (which you can't find anywhere since Stone only brewed it once!) Our guests absolutely LOVED that! We also bought a keg of Blue Moon because we weren't sure exactly how much beer we would need and it was barely touched.

Similarly, Joe made two matching chalkboards with some thin MDF (it's a fiberboard that is like plywood for those of you who aren't up to speed on building materials, a Sawzall, sandpaper, painter's tape and chalkboard spray paint. After the chalkboards were dry we had a family friend with awesome handwriting write out the beer and dinner menus and descriptions with liquid chalk. Over the bar we also hung up a "Joe's Brewery" sign that Marianne made for Joe in a welding class that she was taking when he first started brewing. See the sign here.

We have to say that a personal favorite element of the wedding was the baked goods.  Everything you see above, including the wedding cake was baked with love by the groom.

Feel free to drop us a line through our blog or website  if you have any questions about how we made/did something and enjoy the film below from Stereo Waltz Films.

https://vimeo.com/40303355

Cinematography: Stereo Waltz Films Event Designer: Saralee Franchi - XOXO Bride

Photographer: Ken Kienow Venue: Limoneira Ranch Makeup & Hair: Kelly Zhang Cake topper:Ready  Go Coordinator: Saralee Franchi - XOXO Bride DJ: Elegant Events Entertainment - Chris Mortillaro Dress Designer: Jasmine Collection Shoe Designer: Badgley Mischka - Randee T-strap Purple  + Toms grey wedges Wedding Totes: Wedding Chicks Jewelry: CMVision Jewelry on Etsy Groom's Attire: Joseph Abboud suit, Bostonians  & Shoes from Nordstrom Wedding Rentals: Ventura Rental Party Center Veil or Hair Accessories: Bride's Mother | Photo booth: Provided by friend Photography by Charise  &N ick Wisda | Caterer: Plated Events by Chef Jason | Cake: Joe Sanada (Groom) | Flowers: Bride's friends and family | Officiant: Immanuel L'Heureux