Leo Carrillo Ranch Barbecue Wedding

“Why don’t we have a wedding that feels like a family barbecue?” may be one of the best ideas we’ve ever heard — especially when that barbecue takes place at Leo Carrillo Ranch in California. Artistrie Co., wed (weddings.events.design.), and Moments in Bloom set to work photographing and designing Amanda and Wences’ wedding day, which was full of great things like over-sized “Love” beach balls floating in the pool, a variety of delicious cakes, and potted succulent favors for the guests.

From the bride, Amanda: We wanted our wedding to feel comfortable rather than formal. Being from Southern California family barbecues are a staple all year round for each of our families, they are weekend events where everyone gets together to catch up, eat good food, and enjoy each others’ company. So when it came to planning our wedding we thought, “Why don’t we have a wedding that feels like a family barbecue?”

Once we found Leo Carrillo Ranch we could immediately start seeing our wedding vision take shape. Since the site itself used to be actor Leo Carrillo’s home we are getting that literal feel of having a special event at a family member’s house. The site itself is everything that we love, from the hacienda style architecture to the canyon and natural wildlife that surrounds it. We knew that we did not need to do much to the site itself to make it beautiful, so it was going to be in the details that we chose that would make our wedding special and uniquely ours. Having oversized lawn games, a photo booth, and gourmet tacos are fun ways we thought could merge the backyard family barbecue feel into our wedding day.