Farewell to 2010~Happy New Year 2011

WE ARE SO VERY GRATEFUL FOR THE MANY WONDERFUL CLIENTS WE MET AND WORKED WITH IN 2010~AS WELL AS THE FRIENDS OLD AND NEW WE WORKED WITH THIS YEAR IN THE INDUSTRY.  WE WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY AND SAFE NEW YEAR THAT IS FILLED WITH LOVE, JOY AND HAPPINESS!  WITH LOVE, COLETTE & KAITLIN


photo credits:
party fun shots, shoes, hats, and everything that sparkles: designsponge.com
sparklers: livinglocurto.com
2011 photo: pocketfulofparties.com
fireworks: dealbreaker.com
shoes: designsponge.com
champagne: glass:ticket.leap.com

Thank you to Style Unveiled for sharing our~Holiday Tea

See the link here~

http://styleunveiled.com/wedding-inspiration/2010/12/20/holiday-tea.html

Welcome to our Home~A Time to Reflect~Remember & Cherish~A Christmas Tea

For many years it has been a tradition for Kaitlin and I to invite dear friends and family into our home during the Christmas Season to take time out of the crazy busy time of year to rest, relax, have some great homemade treats, hot tea, and toast to another amazing year. 

Ever since Kaitlin was about 6 years old she would help me set a pretty table, and then serve each of my guests the sandwiches, cookies and homemade scones.  We would bake together, and prepare the table for the special time to reflect and share what has been special to each one of us that year.  I believe this began our journey many years ago of bringing us to where we are today.  A mother/daughter event planning company.  I have watched Kaitlin grow and mature into the woman she has become.  It brings me such joy having her work along side me and now helping her own clients enjoy their special day.

 Using my Grandmother's china, and other items of my Mother's reminded me of years past and time when my Mom would attend the teas with us.

 Laura from Cody Floral Design worked closely with me to create the nostalgic vintage look with all the gorgeous textures of red roses, ranuculus, amaryllis and deep dark ruby red carnations. 

 Our rotweiller "Shay" had to get into the shoot too.

 I was thrilled when I saw the beautiful gift boxed invite that Lazaro Designs came up with for the tea.  Tracy you are amazing!

Fresh raspberry tart with creme fresh filling and almond crust.  Was a so easy to make and looked perfect on the table.

We wish you a wonderful Christmas and a safe and Joyous New Year!

With love,
Colette and Kaitlin
xoxo

We couldn't have done this shoot without the wonderful people with their amazing talents.  Melissa Musgrove photographed and captured the memories for us.  Laura Sangas her flowers were stunning and the wreath over the mantle was gorgeous too made from fresh carnations.  Tracy from Lazaro Design again showed off her fabulous talent with creating the perfect touches for the tea.  Classic Party Rentals so grateful to you too for your help with this table.  We used La Tavola for the table linen, and BBJ to create our chair rosettes.

Sunday Brunch in Sunny Montecito

We work with a lot of couples who are planning destination weddings, where most of their guests are traveling a long distance to attend their special day. So why not plan a series of events to entertain your guests in the beautiful town of Santa Barbara. A wedding is a special time when two families come together as one, and we like to give as many opportunities as possible to build new connections and relationships. This farewell brunch took place in the front yard of a beautiful home in the hills of Montecito. The bride and groom invited all of the guests from the wedding to join them at an open-house style brunch, where the guests could come and go as they please and say goodbye to family members and new friends they had made. We designed this event to accent the luxurious garden setting underneath the oak trees. Good Gracious! provided a mouthwatering spread of breakfast treats along with a create-your-own-omelet station. Barnaby Draper had photographed the wedding the night before and was able to capture these great images for us the next day. The flowers added the perfect touch to our table tops and we could not have done it without Cody Floral Designs. 

New Post on the Santa Barbara Wedding Blog today...Gorgeous Pink and Chocolate you have to see this!

http://santabarbarawedding.com/blog/?p=4901

Photos by Melissa Musgrove.

Thanksgiving~a time to be thankful!

We hope you are inspired by our inspiration for Thanksgiving.  We are feeling so grateful for an amazing year, and look forward to many excitng things happening in 2011.  Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

xo,
Colette and Kaitlin







Photos: Left to Right
Elizabeth Millay Photography, Pham Fatale, Martha Stewart, Allyson Magda
Jose Villa, Martha Stewart, Lia's Bridal Lounge
D. Jones Photography, The Wedding Vendors, La Tavola, One Dress One Day Blog

Rehearsal Dinner at the San Ysidro Ranch

We are featured on Santa Barbara Wedding guide again today!

See the link and the feature below:

http://santabarbarawedding.com/blog/?p=4682

Neighborhood Clinics Fundraiser

On this event we did the design, linens, lanterns and florals for the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics annual fundraiser. Dr. Jeffrey Kupperman was being honored as the Healthcare Hero.  His family meant so much to us as past clients.  I wanted to make it so very special for all and give back something this year to the community.
 It was a delight to work with their committee.  We ended up with 220 guests, and they said it was the most beautiful event they had experienced so far.

The linens were four beautiful shimmer colors from La Tavola, The fresh white florals and fall accents I enjoyed doing with my dear friend Laura Sangas from Cody Floral Design she was a huge help the few days before.  I provided the vintage lanterns and candles for added warmth on the tables and the mantle.  Fusion Event Rentals donated the chavari chairs, and Ambient donated the lighting for us. Special Thank you to Shannon Jayne Photography for the pretty images.

Inspiration for our August Bride in 2011

Photos Found Using Cooliris

Just wanted to show a sneak peak of an inspiration board we are working on for our bride in August of next year. She came to us with a color theme of turquoise, chocolate brown, and orange. We are introducing the theme of the lovebirds along with accents of Paris- which is where they will be honeymooning! I just showed this to the bride and she loved it! Getting excited to start pulling the professional team together on this!

La Fete Time~lapse video of our Sept.2010~Santa Barbara Tropical Wedding

When I brought this idea to the attention of Barnaby Draper, from Barnaby Draper Photography  who did the photography for the wedding weekend he got so excited!  He hadn't shot a timelapse for a wedding before, and I thought this might be a fun way to show both my professionals, but also our clients/potential clients what goes on behind the scenes of an event.  We set the camera up for 3 days, and it ends with guests diving and falling into the pool.  You must watch it more than once to appreciate the fun these guests had.  

 It literally takes a huge team to put on an event like this and they did it flawlessly in this beautiful backyard in Montecito.  We had 238 guests seated comfortably.  Served french service including a yummy course of Lemongrass Soup!  Duo Catering did such an incredible job on the food and kept the guests dining all night long, as did~Cody Floral Design and Ambient Event Design were so great at helping to create the design vision we had for this very fun wedding celebration for Katie and Wakey!  His family and friends were from Hawaii, and so they wanted a classic/elegant tropical feeling for their wedding day.  We rented from 3 rental companies to achieve the look.  Classic Party Rentals, Town and Country rentals as well as Rrivreworks to enhance the final touches of wooden bars and a beautiful bamboo sushi table.  Tracy Lazaro from Lazaro Press helped with the invitations, menus, and escorts of boxed macroons. She even created the beautiful grass cloth table numbers held with bamboo stands.  The blues and orange color was classic and very vibrant and fun!  Sweet and Saucy did an incredible dessert station and small wedding cake.  Congratulations to Katie and Wakey~ Your wedding will always be one of our favorites.  Click the link below to view the time lapse, and you might want to wait until it fully loads~before you click play~ Enjoy!!!  More photos to come soon!
Song: It's You, It's Me   by Kaskade

http://test.jerrypbonhomme.com/Wedding%20Timelapse%20with%20music.mp4

Santa Barbara Beach Chic

As a wedding planner, these are the kinds of clients that we live for. Carolyn and Dan were a dream to work with and their pictures say it all! They were the most adorable couple and they had SO MUCH FUN on their wedding day! Carolyn wanted her wedding day to reflect the beach feel of Santa Barbara but not to have a cheesy stereotypical "beachy flare" She chose a fabulous oceanfront location of the Four Seasons Santa Barbara, and allowed me to take control of the decor! I worked alongside with Camilla Svensson Burns who provided the fabulous floral arrangements to achieve this light and airy look in the La Pacifica Ballroom. BB Photography always does an amazing job capturing our clients and their joy really shows throughout all of his images.

West Coast Music packed the dance floor all night- and when the father of the bride couldn't find space to dance there, he made his own dance floor between the tables!!
xoxo,
Kaitlin
La Fete Weddings

Great Emotion Captured by Stephanie Hogue Photography

We wanted to show a sneak peak of a wedding from one of this months weddings. More photos to come soon!! Photo by: Stephanie Hogue Photography Congratulations to Lindsay and Brian!

Melinda and John's Wedding

We were blessed with the most gorgeous day in Santa Barbara this past weekend to celebrate Melinda and John's Wedding at the Four Seasons Biltmore. Jerry from SR Hogue did a fabulous job with the decor on this event. The classic neutral's and ivory's went beautifully in the La Pacifica Ballroom, which can be a tough room to work with. In order to add variety to the ballroom, we suggest using round and square tables, along with tall and short floral arrangements. This adds depth to the room, and also makes each table feel special in its own way. Once the ballroom was completely set, I got a chance to show the Bride the ballroom that she had been planning and dreaming of for months. She was completely taken back and told me "It was like a dream!!" The reception went flawlessly and I couldn't have been happier with the end result.  The bride and groom danced all night and even went into overtime with their fabulous band from West Coast Music- Now that is the sign of a great party!!
-Kaitlin
La Fete Weddings