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Calamigos Ranch Wedding

Calamigos Ranch Wedding

When Heather of LVL Weddings & Events sent this Malibu wedding our way, we fell in love with every one of the romantic little details, right down to the gorgeous floral arrangements from Art With Nature Floral Design. Photographer Aaron Young was on hand to capture Michelle and Evan’s big day, and be sure to read on for some wise wedding planning advice from Michelle.


malibu wedding portrait

From the bride, Michelle: After getting engaged, we basked in the post-engagement glow for a few months and then gave ourselves almost a year to plan our wedding. Our goals were to have an awesome party that was true to us; in our case, that meant a smaller outdoor California-elegant wedding. The first and best decision we made, besides getting married to each other of course, was to hire a really amazing wedding planner. From there, everything was so much easier because we did not have to reinvent the wheel. Instead of spending endless hours on the internet trying to figure out which vendors could do a good job, we got to focus on all the fun parts, knowing that the less fun stuff was getting taken care of too. Plus, our wedding planner kept us on track time-wise and ultimately saved us a lot of money through connections and ideas.


malibu california wedding ceremony

pink wedding bouquetssilver wedding shoes

white wedding invitations

outdoor wedding portrait malibu
pink wedding bouquetssilver wedding shoes

reception card basket

I was also very lucky to have a fiance (now husband!) who enjoyed the wedding planning too, such that it was a joint project we did together. Of course, there were times it got overwhelming, and so we tried to make sure we had date nights where wedding talk was banned to preserve the sanity — I recommend that. The other thing I’m really glad we did was setting up a honeymoon registry which enabled us to splurge guilt-free on an incredible trip after the wedding.


white and pink bridal bouquets

pink floral centerpiecespink groomsmen boutonnieres

lantern birch decor

black suit groomsmenbranch reception centerpieces

silver bridesmaids dresses

The wedding weekend itself was incredible. We kicked it off with a delicious food-truck rehearsal dinner party where our many out of town guests from as far as Holland got to know each other. And then the actual wedding day was a most amazing day of love and happiness; that feeling of finally being married to the one you’ve waited all those years for plus being surrounded by so many people who all love and care about you and have come to support you in your marriage — it’s truly the best.

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rustic dessert table

white wedding cakesgreen dessert macarons

amusement park wedding

View all images from this wedding in the gallery

Wedding Vendors (Malibu, CA):

Wedding Planner: Heather of LVL Weddings & Events / Wedding Venue: Calamigos Ranch / Wedding Photographer: Aaron Young / / Wedding Flowers: Art With Nature Floral Design / Rentals: Found Vintage Rentals / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Weddington Way / Hair and Makeup: Susie Chhuor / Bakery: Vanilla Bake Shop / DJ: Vox DJs / Wedding Invitations: Minted / Fingerprint Tree: Bleu de Toi / Wedding Favors: Beau-Coup / Videographer: Plug Video Productions

View Comments (15)
  • Love the romantic, yet earthy feel of this wedding! To the light and airy color combination, the twig twinkling lanterns, down to the succulents used for labels. Always a unique touch. The dessert table is very reminiscent of the layout I used for a grand opening party. Thanks for great inspiration and bringing back great memories!!

  • Thank you so much for sharing this wedding! Michelle and Evan were so amazing to work with! I was so happy to see all the details come together so wonderfully!

  • love the little banner cake topper. this is a cute new trend that is really easy to do, but adds a lot of character. adorable

  • But what about the dress? It is beautiful, and I’m glad to see more brides not doing strapless. Where/who is it from?

  • The wedding dress is beautiful! Can someone tell me where it is from?

  • Thanks for posting our wedding! It was an incredible day and we were lucky to have such an incredible team helping us! The dress is Lusan Mandongus, from the spring/summer 2010 collection; I got it from Lili Bridal’s in Tarzana.

  • Beautiful wedding! Michelle, where are your shoes from? I love them!

  • Michelle – GORGEOUS wedding! You and your hubby looked absolutely stunning!
    I couldn’t help but notice the great little lanterns – where did you purchase them? Do you still have them? Are you looking to part with them any time soon? 😉

    -Courtney
    courtney.ferland@gmail.com

  • Thank you! Shoes were from Nordstrom (and actually quite comfortable) and the lanterns were provided by our awesome florist Kim 🙂

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