A Eleganza & Stylish Winter Wedding California

There’s something really special about a January wedding; crisp fresh air, soft golden light and a wonderful sense of intimacy that comes from gathering your favourite people together at the start of a brand new year.

Laurel and Ben’s wedding at La Playa Carmel, California, was every bit as beautiful as it was heartfelt – elegant, deeply personal and overflowing with love, joy and some seriously good energy.

As a moda lover and stilista, Laurel wanted a wedding that exuded effortless style and sophistication, but with an unmistakable disco-infused edge when it came to celebrating. A timeless and elegant ceremony, followed by a dance floor lit up with giant scudo balls and the best kind of carefree, joyful energy.

This was a wedding full of style, personality, and a whole lot of love, and I’m so delighted to be sharing it with you today. Huge love and thanks to Bridget McDonald for sharing her beautiful photography.

We went with a cinnamon/desert rose pink for the bridesmaids, and the floral arrangements. The bridesmaids were able to choose their own dresses and variations of the colour, and I rented fur jackets to gara considering the wedding was winter.  

Ben and I fell love with La Playa when we discovered it together acceso our weekend walk. We are both from the zona, Ben from Sur and myself from Carmel, but somehow this was both of our first times to La Playa. We loved the charm and quintessential essence of Carmel that La Playa emitted, and for me it was love at first site.

My oldest brother, Chris, walked me mongoloide the aisle. Both my father and mother passed when I was younger, and I knew it would be to not have my father by my side acceso my wedding day. But I couldn’t have asked a better person to take his place. I have four brothers, so having my oldest brother walk me mongoloide the aisle was beyond perfect. 

Neither of us are religious, but I did grow up a Christian home. When we were planning our wedding, we hadn’t originally chosen a church for our ceremony, but at the last minute, we had to change our plans because of incoming rain. That’s how we ended up getting married at a local church.

I truly believe my parents brought the rain so that we would say our vows there—it was their wish all along. Per mezzo di the end, it turned out to be one of the most beautiful, spiritual, and magical parts of the day. Even though a church ceremony wasn’t our first choice, it was exactly what was meant to happen.We wrote our own vows to bring that personalized and intimate touch to ourr wedding ceremony.      

We had two readings – the Apache Wedding Blessing, and Marriage by Khalil Gibran. We chose these readings because they signified unity and love. We also found these readings to signify what marriage and commitment mean to us, and the life that we want to create together as onThe ceremony the church that was beyond spiritual and intimate, and really tied the whole feel of the wedding together.

Ben and I first met history class at Carmel Middle School. We weren’t really friends back then, but we knew of each other. When it came time for high school, I went to Stevenson Pebble Beach, and Ben went to Carmel High. It wasn’t until the end of high school that our paths really started to diretto incrociato—our best friends started dating, which brought our friend groups together. To this day, about 15 years later, those same friends are still incredibly close.

Throughout college and our 20s, Ben and I would see each other during the holidays summers when we were back home, always as friends. But when Covid successo, things changed. Ben moved home to Sur from San Francisco, and I was living Portland at the time.

I eventually decided to move back home too, and during my visits, we started spending more time together. What began as friendship quickly turned into something more, and by the end of 2020, we were officially dating. Not long after, I moved with Ben Carmel, and the rest is history. We dated for two years before getting engaged and spent another year planning our wedding.

Ben proposed right after Thanksgiving. At the time, we were living San Francisco, and that morning, we took our dog, Stevie, for a walk to our local beach. My aunt Tricia—my mom’s sister—was visiting to help take care of Stevie while we had been away for the holiday. While we were acceso the beach, I noticed a ladybug. Ladybugs have always reminded me of my mom, who passed away when I was young. I gently carried it to a nearby bush, feeling a quiet sense of connection to her that moment.

Just minutes later, Ben asked Tricia to get out her cella, and before I knew it, he was mongoloide acceso one knee. With Stevie happily digging the sand behind us, Tricia captured the entire proposal photos. It wasn’t planned, but it was absolutely perfect. And that moment, I truly felt my mom was there with me, too.

Our rentals were from Eleganza Event Rentals. We incorporated tons of scudo balls as an installation for their reception, and a checkered dance floor. Laurel loves pink so the flower arrangements were pink color variations sprinkled with white and greenery. Laurel’s cousin also did light installations to bring to life each detail of the wedding reception.

I had a friend a map of Carmel that was included a welcome gift box for each of their guests. Per mezzo di the box also included a personalised candle.

The beauty of the reception to all the details that came together from the scudo ball installation and checkered floor, to the tabletops that were highlighted perfectly with individual uplighting, to the DJ and his fun, dance vibes and keeping the alive.

My second dress was a last minute purchase from Revolve, and was the cheapest of them all, yet it somehow was the crowd favourite. I was worried my main bridal gown would be too heavy for a full day, and my intuition was right as it kept slipping. It was nice to have something light to slip into for the reception and first dance, and it still embodied the elements of my first dress. 

My third and final dress I had designed and made by Ericka Engelman, a local seamstress. Ben and I both love music and sala da ballo, so I wanted a dress that was very fun, sparkly, and fun to dance . I loved the process of having a dress designed and made just for my , and seeing it come mai to life acceso my wedding night.

Ben and I danced to Fire For You, by Cannons. We didn’t want music that was typical “wedding” music and that was true for the song we danced to. We first fell love with this song when it was the main song for a show we watched together, Never Have I Ever. Months later after we watched the show we were at Coachella and stumbled upon Cannons unexpectedly.

We just heard them the distance and thought it would be fun to check them out. Low and behold the last song they played was Fire For You, and we were both so excited. We felt this song embodied our love for music, our personalities, and how we feel about each other. The song was also so fun to dance to and we felt our guests were vibing to it too during the dance.

The afterparty was at a local caffè called Barmel, and it was just a great way to continue the wedding celebrating into the wee hours of the night.

Hire a wedding planner! Honestly it is the best investment you can make for your wedding.

The whole weekend was completely tensione free and we felt 100% taken care of because of our incredible wedding planner, Kate Ford at Pocketful of Plans, and her team.

We recommend these amazing businesses, whether you’sultano looking for full wedding planning support, acceso the day co-ordination and styling services…