Highland Springs Resort Wedding

Oh, how very much this wedding has stolen my heart. Heather and Antonio put together one of the most carefully thought-out weddings we’ve seen in quite a while, with an exceptional eye for detail and with plenty of talented friends and family to help out in the DIY department. Melissa Brandman and Primal Flower also helped out by lending their phenomenal talents to the day — a day that will surely go in the books as a perennial favorite.

From the bride, Heather: We began our design with a vintage-inspired rustic idea. What it turned into was an enchanting night of food, fun, dancing, and lots of love. In all aspects possible, our wedding was 100 times better than I could have ever imagined. We wanted a vintage feel that was inviting. So we choose a soft color palette, acquired vintage furniture, decor items, and accents. My husband and I are both very detail-oriented. We wanted every aspect of the wedding to be thought out and planned in a way that drew people into the adventure we were beginning on that night. From my dress and accessories, the bridesmaids dresses and jewelry were all individual to each maid, the groom and his men all wore uniquely styled outfits tailored to the charter of each person with touches, the groomsmen all had 20-30s era specific hair cuts and facial hair barbering. We didn’t want people to think our wedding was from the 20s but it was inspired by the 20s-30s’ attention to detail, where the food was homemade and the cocktails were craft, the clothing was tailored and created to accentuate and make everyone feel beautiful. We wanted our bridal party and our guests to have the time of their life at our wedding, by being treated to an enchanting evening of good food, good drinks, and good music.

Bouquet recipe: cafe au lait dahlias, Juliet roses, white spray roses, amaranthus, wax flower, seeded eucalyptus, and stock flowers and greenery.

We did not have the largest of budgets for southern CA wedding to host 350 guests, so we had to be extremely creative. I am blessed to have many creative and giving friends who were giving of their time and talents. Most all of out wedding decor was DIY, or creatively acquired at thrift stores, antique shops, and borrowed from friends and family. Basically, we did everything ourselves; some guests said it was “a Pinterest wedding dream come true.” Ceremony Program/Hand Fans, Table Identifiers, Menu Sleeves, Table Runners, Wedding Favors, Chalk Board Menu Signs, Love Notes Table Signage, Cocktail Hour Decor, Herb Toss Table Decor, Ribbon Back Drop, The brides and maids fascinators, the groom and mens boutonnieres, all the graphic design aspects from our invitations to the ceremony program, the reception decor we designed and my husbands sister Hanan Whitsell designed and had printed, the flower girl boxes, the ring bearers book stacks, all were hand done.

We wanted to create a menu that was tapas style so that our guests would be able to try a lot or a little. We enjoy delicious food and even better drinks so we wanted our menu to be inspired by our travels around the world for our guests. We also wanted or food to be sustainable and conscious of the time of year. All our dishes were planned from that perspective, minus the dessert, just can’t skimp there. The ingredients were locally and organically grown. Our drinks were crafted after our preferred tastes and favorite drinks although they were more inspired with by the 20s time era in mind. We used our two favorite books (Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby) to work with for our table identifiers as well as the pages that the boutonnieres were created from, to a few other touches through out our invitations. The bible also inspired many of the touches, we used verses and characters for table identifiers, old bibles that were falling apart were used to create our book page table runners as well as some of the book page cones used for the herb toss. All things invitation were DIY — the design, the components, the packaging.

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Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? Have each of you choose your “top three” items that you are not willing to budge on and stick to those, stay in your lane, and then either collaborate on the other items or delegate the task to other trusted wedding helpers. Hire a day of wedding planner at the very least, but a wedding planner for the entire process will make a world of difference. We were able to 100% enjoy the entire day of our wedding; our wedding planner took care of everything in the morning, the ceremony was flawless, the issues that did come up she took care of, we even got to eat, drink and completely enjoy our reception!

Wedding Music:
Bridal Party Processional: “The Winner Is,” Devotchka – Little Miss Sunshine Soundtrack
Bride’s Processional: “A Thousand Years,” The Piano Guys
Recessional: “Marry You,” Bruno Mars
Reception: 60’s Soul, all vinyl, DJ Dennis Owens’ Specialty
First Dance: “This Year’s Love,” David Gray
Father/Daughter Dance: “Wonderful Tonight,” Eric Clapton
Groom/Sisters Dance: “Things Never Change,” John Legend

Wedding Location: Cherry Valley, CA / Photographer: Melissa Brandman / Wedding Planner: Hayley White (haywhite @ gmail.com) / Florist: Primal Flower / Venue and Caterer: Highland Springs Resort / Wedding Dress: Allure Bridals via Jinny’s Bridal / Bridal Party Fascinators: Mandy Haak (mandybhaak @ gmail.com) / Bow Ties: The Two Guys Bow Tie Company / Desserts: It’s It / DJ: Dennis Owens of Long Beach / Chalk Art: Seth Haak (mandybhaak @ gmail.com) / Wedding Invitations and Graphic Design: Hanan Whitsell / Invitation Printer: RanRoy Printing / Videographer: Robert Vasquez