The Notebook Inspired Wedding

This styled shoot from Michele Beckwith, Ryder Sloan Events, and Sweet Lauren Cakes started with a simple question: “When Allie and Noah from The Notebook got married, what did their wedding look like?” From there, their vision grew into a relaxed Southern wedding complete with a pickup truck and sophisticated, chic touches.

From the photographer, Michele Beckwith: Sweet Lauren Cakes’ delicious cake pops are highly sought after by Bay Area brides. Williams-Sonoma quickly caught on to their tastiness and now offers her seasonal designs for order on their website. With cake pops firmly established, Lauren was itching to try something new. After countless hours in the bakery tasting and perfecting her grandmother’s delicious pie recipes, Lauren of Sweet Lauren Cakes was ready to launch the newest treat to her bakery’s offerings, pie pops! To help celebrate the launch of their new treat, Lauren, along with Ryder Sloan events, started to brainstorm ideas for a styled shoot. Their heads quickly filled with visions of pie being served as a dessert at a southern wedding. Then it hit them. Their favorite southern love story was The Notebook. They began to wondering what Allie and Noah’s wedding from the Notebook must have looked like. They them came up with the perfect blend of rustic elegance to represent Allie’s sophisticated upbringing and Noah’s country charm.

The first inspiration came from Noah and his old truck. They found a beautifully restored truck at the Annadel Estate Winery to serve as the perfect backdrop for the pie pop dessert display. The custom made wood tiered stand became the focal point. They surrounded it with elegant cut crystal to represent Allie’s old money upbringing and puffs of hand spun cotton candy to represent their first meeting at the carnival.

The beautiful grounds of Campovida’s lush organic garden served as the backdrop for their dinner and wedding portraits. The dinner table was set with delicate garden rose china and colored glass. Delicately monogrammed cake pops showed the guests where to sit. A garland of magnolia leaves served as the florals for the table. This magnolia theme also carried onto the delicate stationary suite. The brides bouquet had wisps of cotton in it which added to the southern feel of the wedding. Allie wore a stunning gown with a sweetheart neckline, similar to the heart shaped pie pops. Instead of her usual red lip and sweater, we felt she would choose something a bit more romantic and so we went with shades of pink. For the favors, they gave their guests little jars of honey from their farm complete with a cake pop made to look like a honey dipper. The grand finale was cake pops served in the garden. Hanging balls of cotton and lace were the perfect backdrop for the dessert spread. The cake pops were delicately painted like a watercolor, to represent Allie’s own love of painting. There were also magnolia flower shaped cake pops to keep with the southern theme. Hanging moss in the trees and weeping willows added to the romance as the couple strolled the grounds for their portraits. I wanted the afternoon the look dreamy and colorful, like one of Allie’s paintings, so I photographed the shoot all on film.