“The Wedding” for me happened in late September.  My daughter, Kristen, married her long time friend and love, Richard.  When Richard and Kristen announced their engagement a year earlier we began to imagine the sort of affair they wanted for the wedding.  What would the colors be?  Would they have a theme?  We quickly realized the best approach was the same we would use if this was a design client.  First we must consider the site, personalities and dreams of the clients.  We chose to avoid an obvious theme as that is something we would also avoid with design clients.  Once the setting for the reception was chosen, the gorgeous Four Seasons Biltmore Resort in Santa Barbara, California, we could take our direction from the beautiful El Mar room.  The room, as is true for the entire hotel, was restored and re-decorated keeping the original beauty and aesthetic of this exceptionally designed, historic property in mind. We had no intension of fighting the aesthetic of the elegant space by bringing in a crazy color story or theme of our own.  We knew the end result we wanted would be best achieved by embracing the beauty of the space in each choice we made.

The space has wonderful creamy, thick plaster walls, period Spanish light fixtures, many sets of lovely french doors opening to views across an expanse of lawn and gardens to the Pacific Ocean and anchoring the large room at one end, an impressive, grand fireplace.  Our tables were covered in muted gold silk cloths.  The head table was given special attention using a burlap cloth with a creamy organza overlay (great texture).  The center of the tables featured cream moroccan style lanterns and arrangements incorporating beautiful seasonal florals in soft creamy tones and elegant succulents in soft greens, blues, and orange surrounded by gold chivari chairs (Special thanks to Laura at Cody Florals of Santa Barbara.  She proved to be an experienced, elegant person to work with. Thank You, Laura!).  Strategically placed blue and white asian ginger jars filled with flowers/succulents and tall accent mercury glass containers gave the space a personal feel.  As the evening commenced, the moroccan lanterns were lit as were under 200 tea lights, the overhead chandeliers were dimmed.  The decor felt timeless like the room we were borrowing for the evening.

As my husband gave his heart felt, sweet toast to his daughter and new son-in-law the room gave a soft, beautiful, glow almost as pretty as the  glow on the faces of our bride and groom.  Congratulations Richard and Kristen.  MAGIC!