Sweet and Stylish Elopement in the Luxury of Palm Springs, California
“One of our first vacations together was a road trip to Palm Springs. A friend took us to the Parker where we lunched at Norma’s and took one of our first pictures as a couple in the iconic hanging egg chairs in the Parker lobby. Four years later we were engaged. After much angst over how to throw (and afford) a “proper” wedding we made the decision to elope and have absolutely no regrets. When it came to deciding where to be married, the impressive grounds of the Parker came to mind. Reprising the photo in the egg chairs as newlyweds seemed like the perfect spot to celebrate the beginning of our married life together.
Our wedding day was amazing. We spent the entire day at the Parker starting with an indulgent breakfast at Norma’s followed by lounging at the pool and massages at Psyc. The fabulous Michael at the Parker salon did Alison’s hair and makeup. We were completely relaxed after pampering ourselves all the way up to our 6pm ceremony — which we know is not the average wedding day! Our ceremony was small: our wonderful officiant, Cathy O’Connell and her partner (our witness) Dorry Wynham, of Celebrations of Joy; our photographer, Michael Segal; and ourselves. The Parker staff set up an intimate spot for us in a grove of trees and a bottle of champagne sent from friends was chilling in the 95 degree heat and waiting for us after the ceremony. We completed our day with dinner at Mr. Parker’s, which was a wonderfully decadent bookend to a magical day. ”
Vendors:
Photographer: Michael Segal Photography, www.
Officiant and Planner: Cathy O’Connell at Celebrations of Joy, www.celebrationsofjoy.com
Venue: The Parker Palm Springs, http://www.
We wanted our wedding to be formal without being stuffy. Whimsical without being kitschy. Glamorous yet understated. And above all else FUN! The Parker Palm Springs was the perfect location. We really wanted to be true to ourselves as a couple and make everything as personal as possible. We did tons of DIY projects, starting with screen printing our own save-the-date cards, welcome bags and tags. We asked a super-talented friend from work to design our four-piece invitation suite, and we rented out a letterpress studio for 24 hours to hand-letterpress each individual sheet of paper for our invitations. We scoured LA’s downtown fashion district for 120 pashminas to match our invitation colors. We found 120 skeleton keys on eBay that we used to tie together our escort cards. We baked over 1,000 mini oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies a couple of days before the wedding and placed them into mason jars tied with gingham and string to hand out as favors. Forgoing a traditional wedding video, we went with a shorter Super 8 video that feels true to us and our venue. We even rented a photo booth and used the decorated pages to serve as our guest book. The inspiration for my bouquet came from Carrie’s bouquet from Sex and the City, but peonies weren’t in season yet. Then our amazing florist surprised me with the most beautiful bouquet of peonies I’d ever seen! So much thought went behind every detail, and that was what our guests remembered.
Jeff! We couldn’t have done it without you and Tracy! Seriously the pics are beautiful. I have been watching the blog and was going to drop you an e-mail to say you survived but no pics? Great job it was truly a pleasure working with you! Look forward to the rest!