ellie & christian's wedding at gainey vineyards

When I met with Ellie and Christian for our final planning meeting before their Los Olivos Wedding at Gainey Vineyards, I was amazed at how much Ellie had done herself and how many things she planned to use from their adorable Long Beach home. Through our correspondence, I had deduced that Ellie was much like me; organized, type-A, and detail-oriented. (This is probably why we got along so well!) But when I saw that she had an entire sunroom dedicated to her wedding projects and crafts, I was in client-love. 

All these pretty pictures by Amber McGaughey

Ellie showed me the clothespins that she had tea stained, which were to hold the doilies to a large chicken wire structure for a seating chart. She showed me about the seasonings she had procured and was pouring into small glass spice bottles to be given as favors, the napkins she had hand stamped with "a day to celebrate," the wine corks she had cut and placed in bags for guests to throw during the recessional of their Gainey Vineyards ceremony, hand-sewn burlap runners, fabric-wrapped pickle jar vases... the list went on and on! 

After we pored over every detail in the project room, we took a little tour of the perfectly styled craftsman that she shares with Christian. As we went from room to room, Ellie pointed out or grabbed items that were to be used for the wedding: a dresser from this room for the guest book table, a few pillows from that room for a seating area, and picture frames and knick knacks that we decided to sprinkle all around the venue for sweet little touches. 

As I set up the details on that gorgeous October day, I realized why I loved Ellie and Christian's wedding so much: it was just so "them." I know people say that, but the truth is, there had so much of their home and their life threaded through every inch. Just take a look at their sweet, thoughtful, chock-full-of-details special day!

There are a lot more goodies where that came from, but you'll have to wait until the feature on Wedding Chicks Blog! Stay tuned...