Green weddings with a shamanic touch

Robin and Todd got married at the Inn in Topanga on Saturday, 10/30.  They are an elegant couple with a love for whimsical natural design, green and Native American ideas; their favors were dream catchers and they blessed their guests with burning sage during their ceremony.
 
We loved to decorate their organic, gluten free cake with eclectic fairy tale flowers.

The family helped with sage and lavender decor, a memorial table, Norwegian krumkake and many details and make this a very personal affair.

Eco friendly Cake Toppers

The handmade monkey cake toppers are easy to associate with the funny, playful, witty Shelley and Jason who celebrated their eclectic, DIY wedding at Nature Friends in Sierra Madre.

Ninjas, sneaky warriors in feudal Japan, specialized in underground war, boy, that's a couple who will get what they want... Wei-lin and Evan successfully snug into the super busy 10-10-10 with a morning brunch wedding at the Inn in Topanga. Recycled wood makes these toppers eco-sweet.
Edible, biodegradable, original: Origami Sugar Birds.

Tips for toppers:

• Find arty pieces, which makes a sweet little decor in your house later
• Look for toppers made with easy to recycle, sustainable, or natural materials.

 

Vintage, if not from grandma perhaps from Ebay, is always a good greenish choice, seen in an old fashioned jewelry shop in San Francisco.

 

• DIY wedding cake toppers are somewhat eco friendly to begin with as they don't require shipping, made with sustainable or recycled materials: even better.
• Use flowers, herbs, leaves, succulents and branches on your wedding cake. All easily composted.
• Edible toppers are recycled by eating, always the easy going choice

.... some cakes like Olivia and Andrew's just don't need a topper.
Their Croquembouche was supposed to be one of the first wedding cakes, created by a French baker. After he supposedly watched a wedding game in medieval England, where bride and groom try to kiss over a big batch of bread roles, which then roll everywhere and guests eat them for luck (?) he was inspired to pile up the super sweet goodness of the cool looking cake. Filled with a pudding/cream this cake works for me, I love small bites of heaven.
Olivia and Andrew also offered tasty and meaningful Argentinian cookies to sweeten up their Good Bye's - and left for a year to Argentina.
Not only the must of wedding favors and the white wedding dress idea but also the cake topper invention came from decor diva Queen Victoria, showing of her self adoration when she married Prince Albert in 1840. In our days she most probably would have created Ebay...
Like many wedding traditions the beginning of the cake is rather ironic: a Roman Empire groom hit a loaf of crunchy bread over his bride's head to show his muscle. Guests then ate the crumbs... Bon appetite and happy slavery... The new "tradition" of smashing cake into each others face at least is a mutual embarrassment.

Wedding on the beach

Sara and her famous stuntman love Paul Sklar got married at the beach in Topanga...

 Driving a styling truck..

 ...

 Having a lot of fun..

They truly enjoyed the casually classy ambience of the Inn of the Seventh Ray.

Wedding Decor

Cherish and re-use the beauty of the past; vintage is in the air. Paige used a vintage suit case for her wedding on October 2 to Lennin at the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga, displaying their child hood pictures.

The eclectic vases with some flowers, lots of herbs and lavender and her honey favors fit perfectly to girly girl Paige's sweet nature.

The delicious organic chocolate raspberry cake had one vegan layer for the groom. And I had no time to take more pictures...

Art and crafts wedding in Thomas Mann's mansion

I had a lot of fun designing Amy and Neal's wedding on September 5 in Pacific Palisades. Not only the couple, who had traveled to over 50 countries ( not all together) was inspiring but also the venue, German writer Thomas Mann's house in Pacific Palisades co-created the literati theme.
Buddenbrooks anybody?

It took a while to tie 135 travel tags escort cards on Amy's mom's vintage suitcases, in which we found old dolls from the fifties. Her mom used the suitcase last when she was a little girl... It was worth the effort though as guests enjoyed finding their names on the "antiques" referencing the adventurous couples past and upcoming travels.

Bridesmaid helped tie eclectic gold strings and ribbons around the jute napkin rings, so all looked slightly different.  The details were a lot of fun and many actually from the house, from friends and relatives and often with stories attached.

 

I was amazed by Amy's grand ma's hand blown champagne flutes, wings being a sweet obsession of mine.  

 The details were a lot of fun and many actually from the house, from friends and relatives and often with stories attached.

 

Neal brought one of his cigar boxes for the gift cards, Nikki added a candelabra from her grand parents and the house offered hand painted boxes, bronze candle sticks and bowls.

It was amazing working in the famous writer's original office, shellf packed with his first editions... being a published writer myself it had a bit of a sacred feel to it.
 

We displayed one of Mann's quotes in the antique type writer, of course one of his happier ones, matching the gorgeous event and the sweet occasion.