1930s Ballroom Wedding II
I am awe-struck by this beautiful, vintage-done-right wedding. If part I of this vintage wedding wasn’t enough to take it all in, I’d like to bring you part II and their ballroom reception. I have oodles of Art Deco elegance inspiration from Lacey and Ben’s 1930s vintage wedding, captured by Sarah Yates.
From the bride, Lacey:
The reception was held at the Julia Morgan Ballroom at the Merchant’s Exchange Building. It is an exquisite SF landmark building that houses one of the most stunning, warm, and inviting ballrooms you’ve ever seen. We chose the space for it’s history, period details, warmth and incredible staff. The space coordinator, Linda Hylen is truly phenomenal! She went out of her way to be sure every detail of my vision for the reception was realized (every item on the table was numbered, from the plate favor, to the place card holders and salt and pepper shakers) I had such a specific idea of how I wanted everything to look and Linda made all my dreams come true.
 
My shoes were re-created from an authentic vintage pair in my size (a real treat as I had recently undergone foot surgery and had no idea what I would do about shoes) by Al’s Attire. They even attached a 1931 silver sixpence to the underneath of my shoe to fit with the original rhyme, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe”.
 
 
What are some adjectives that best describe the look of your wedding? Authentic, Romantic, Dramatic, Polished, Elegant, and of course Vintage! Our color scheme came from spring and the vintage palette: using lilac, purple, cream and silver. I undertook many DIY projects for the wedding, mostly involved in collecting and re-designing vintage objects for our reception or clothing for our bridal party.
 
 
 
 
We wanted to steer away from creating a vintage “themed” wedding and sought more to create a wedding that someone might have attended 80 years ago. The whole design process began with graphic designer, Mara Taber, who worked with me to create a “movie” poster that represented our wedding. Using inspiration from romantic old films like “It Happened One Night” made in 1934 we created a film title, tag line, and she used it to make us the most gorgeous wedding website imaginable: https://ithappensthisspring.com.The most daunting project involved the collection of vintage plates to serve as favors for each guest. More specifically, I found a plate for each individual guest that’s design represented something that person loves or a memory we had shared together. (i.e. where they are from, a favorite food, or experience or memory of that guest). I then painted the guest’s name and our wedding date on the back of each plate. While an often overwhelming task, we wanted each guest to know how important they are to us and how much it meant to us to have them at our wedding. So we wanted each favor to focus on the guest and their relationship with my husband and I.
 
 
 
At the cocktail hour, my best friend and world-famous mixologist Joe McCanta (www.pursip.com) researched some of the oldest cocktails on record. He created a historically-detailed cocktail menu that involved 2 drinks that had very old ties to San Francisco, and the 3rd cocktail was one of the oldest cocktails that my husband and I happen to love: the Sazerac. Instead of a champagne toast, Joe McCanta created a brand-new champagne-based cocktail especially for my husband and I, called “The VerHage.”
 
 
 
 
Our guest book was an old registry book from a Vermont guest house that I had re-bound. We asked our guests to sign “amongst the historic signatures” so that past and present would come together in another instance at our wedding.
Our first dance song was performed by another good friend of my husband and I who is a brilliant musician, Brian, and at the conclusion of our dance our dance teacher, Cynthia Glinka invited the guests to join us in dancing as she and her partner A.C. Griffing gave the guests on the spot lessons and made them feel comfortable dancing to period music.
Lastly, throughout the night we had a table for coffee tasting. One of my husband’s passions is roasting coffee, so we had a wonderful local roastery offering a variety of coffees for the guests to sample (https://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/).
The whole experience was truly a labor of love for me. Everyone involved made our wedding what it was: a true celebration of history, love, marriage, family, and friends coming together and sharing the incredible love that my husband and I share.
Venue: Julia Morgan Ballroom / Photographer: Sarah Yates / Flowers: Church Street Flowers / Wedding dress: Antique Dress / Shoes: custom by Al’s Attire / Makeup Artist: Makeup Mafia / Groom’s suit: eBay / Ceremony Musicians: Yee Duo / Cocktail Musician: Luke Franco / Reception Band: Royal Jazz Society Sextet / Catering: Julia Morgan Ballroom / Wedding Cake: Cake Coquette / Invitations: Ceci New York / Videography: IN Films / Transportation: Classic Cable Car Charters and Art Deco Limo / Wedding Website: Mara Taber
May you love eachother this day, the least….
What in the WORLD?! How did they come up with this idea and play it out perfectly!? I love it, every bit of it.
amanda i love how you put all of this together! it looks fantastic! i have to say, this was definitely one of the most unique weddings i’ve ever been to. lacey and ben not only have the style of another era, but the personalities. lacey is so elegant and refined, ben is incredibly dapper and composed- they are like no one i’ve ever met. it was incredible to experience a day where you truly felt like you’d been transported to another time. the mc for the evening even went over a little etiquette list for the guests to make sure that the entire experience fit lacey and ben’s style (so no clinking of glasses for kisses!). i just loved their wedding to pieces, it was one of a kind.
Absolutely beautiful! Great job Sarah Yates. Ceci KILLED the invitations! LOVE LOVE LOVE
Speechless. Adore this wedding. Amanda – You find the best weddings!
L O V E this. Gorgeous dress, slipper satin is my favorite! Truly spectacular! Period.
First off…this was the most amazing wedding I’ve ever been to full stop.
Second off, the whole team of people that did everything from creating the invites to teaching dancing at the reception were amazing.
Third, Lacey and Ben are the most incredible people anyone could meet…so we needed to expect such a feet of perfection in every way from them.
Fourth, I was the MC and was so happy to be so…and I’ve always hated that stupid glass clinking!
Great job Lacey and Ben– it was a wedding worthy of your love and me and I was happy to be a tiny part!x
Whoops- meant feat….although I’m sure their feet are perfect too!
In. Cred. Ible.
Just truly amazing – the vintage plates idea is so lovely – and the whole thing looks utterly, utterly beautiful.
Lacey is my cousin and my son was one of the ring-bearers. I loved the look of the wedding, the wedding venue and reception. Most of all I was so touched by how Lacey and Ben evoked past family weddings in their ceremony – from the violin playing honoring our grandfather (including his favorite piece), the wedding song read by my uncle which our grand-father wrote (and we sang at my aunt and uncle’s wedding – which I still clearly remember), to how gorgeous eveyone in the wedding party looked (seeing Lacey in her wedding gown brought back such strong memories of my grandmother). I know Lacey and Ben took a great deal of time and attention to incorporate these kinds of details into their day and it meant so much to our family (my Dad was literally brought to tears during the ceremony). And, finally, the trolley ride and reception were so much fun.
wowy zowy. this really is a period wedding. the style from the dress, vel, shoes, venue all look amazing and consistent.
Wow! What an amazing wedding! I’ve been looking all over the place for silver wide mouthed vases, like those that you’ve used for centerpieces. Please do share where you found such a great find!
I love this theme so much! Gorgeous!