Modern Rustic Elegance Wedding
No matter how many times we stare at the reception space in today’s wedding, we can’t help feeling like we’ve stepped into a dream. Whitney and Jason married in California, bringing some of the charm of the outdoors inside while also infusing rustic elements with a modern feel. Thank you to Desi Baytan and Modern LA Weddings for bringing everything together!
From the event designers, Modern LA Weddings: For Whitney & Jason’s wedding, our goal was to design a wedding characterized as modern rustic chic. Our challenge was to create an elevated take on the notion of outdoor charm – rustic without compromising refinement. The entire design story of the wedding is essentially a harmonious dialogue between rustic and elegant aesthetics. We came up with the concept of Restoration Hardware meets Equestrian Elegance. When I think of modern rustic, I immediately think of the wooden, metal, and organic textures found in a Restoration Hardware catalogue. We took these masculine textures and brought them softness and beauty through florals, fabrics, and colors.
The venue, Calamigos Equestrian, is a beautiful horse ranch located in the heart of Los Angeles. It’s ceremony space features a large, white wooden gazebo with a rocky waterfall landscape behind it. We beautified the gazebo with stylish florals, a hanging crystal chandelier, and puddling soft white drapes to balance all the wood. All white chiavari chairs and a long white aisle runner also served to modernize and stylize the classical space.
The reception was held inside The Polo Ballroom, which had all white walls, ethereal white draping, white French country windows, and wrought-iron chandeliers. We worked closely with Susan of Peony & Plum to create a floral design that highlighted lots of white blooms in lush greenery with pops of coral roses, anemones, and accents of slate silver textures. For the tables, we did a mix of almond wooden Restoration Hardware long dining tables as well as round tables that took a stunning lace linen. For chairs, we did a mixture of wooden vineyard chairs on the lace tables and ghost chairs on the wooden tables to really bring in that modern WOW factor. All of the fine glassware, flatware (an exclusive line called Dragon Fly), napkins, and China were handpicked and brought in to create a truly elegant experience for guests.
The bride and groom really wanted to create a unique, culinary experience for their guests. Guests enjoyed unique custom food stations during cocktail hour as well as hand-crafted cocktails from two mixologists all throughout the night. For dinner, we provided a five course dinner that included salad, soup, an intermezzo, guest’s choice entree, and desserts. When I first met Whitney, she told me the most important thing to her for the wedding was the candy bar! So I really wanted to create something unique and special instead of the typical table top candy bar or dessert station. The ballroom of the venue has a separate room which we turned into Whitney & Jason’s Candy Shoppe – literally a mini shop filled with Restoration Hardware furniture and even a vintage bike that was used earlier at the ceremony as the card box for gifts. Later in the night, guests enjoyed a late night snack station of tacos and Mediterranean skewers as a nod to the cultural backgrounds of both the bride and groom.
Be sure to watch the wedding video from Hoo Films!