Our day started early with photos with Doug Morgan, of Morgan James Photography.  Doug also created a wonderful guest book full of photos from the engagement session.  Such a wonderful guest book! The couple was married at the bride’s family church, The St. Paul Newman Center in Fresno….across the street from Fresno State, and there just happen to be a home game scheduled for this date!  Thank God we were scheduled for an early wedding ceremony because parking would have been an issue for sure.   

The bride and groom chose Sunnyside Country Club for the reception.  And just let me tell you…..WOW!  Talk about customer service.  We do weddings all over the valley and it so nice to be able to add this country club to my list of favorite venues.  Their staff was very accomodating to our needs and even let us set up for this event three days before!  Great job!

Samantha and George enlisted Maty’s Chair Covers, Apropos for Flowers and the Linen Shoppe to help create their perfect reception.  With dark purple table linens and hot pink napkins, their guests were treated to a very elegant setting inside the country club’s banquet room. 

For dessert their guests sampled candy from their candy table and also sampled a piece of delicious ‘Sweet Dream’s wedding cake.  After dinner the wedding guests danced the night away to the sounds of Haro Entertainment and got their photos taken in the photobooth. 

Click to view slideshow.

Thanks to Following Vendors:

Reception Location – Sunnyside Country Club

www.sunnyside-cc.net

Reception Music and Photo Booth Rental – Haro Entertainment

www.haroent.com

Photography – Doug Morgan

www.morganjamesphotography.net

Chivari Chair Rentals – The Linen Shoppe

www.thelinenshoppe.net

Linen and Decor – Maty’s

www.matyschaircovers.com

Flowers – Apropos for Flowers

www.fresnoweddings.net/apropos.html

Wedding Cake – Sweet Dreams

www.sweetdreamscakery.com

Transportation – Limo for You and Yosemite & Beyond

www.limoforyou.com

www.yosemiteandbeyond.com

Unfortunately, the weather did not really corporate with us for this ‘fall’ wedding.  With temps soaring close to 100 degrees with 100% humidity, the day was a little uncomfortable, but we made the best of it.  We had a sudden downpour of rain in the morning during our set up and another huge downpour at the very end of the night during clean up, but other than that, the rain clouds were just a threat during the day.

Stacia and her mother contacted me almost 16 months ago to assist with their wedding plans.  Stacia is a teacher and her wedding plans were already starting to stress her out, so they brought me on board to help ease the stress.  Stacia and Ryan chose the English Garden at Wolf Lakes Park for their wedding and we soon started putting together to pieces to their wedding.  Wolf Lakes is always such a great place to work, their staff is amazing, the food is great and the park is so beautiful this time of year!

Stacia and her mother decided early on in the planning that they wanted to create their own centerpieces not only to save some money but to also create a very unique look.  Black, white, silver and bling adorned each and every aspect of this event.  The bride’s mother created 3 different uniquet centerpeices with  candles that lit up the English Garden of Wolf Lakes Park.  We started out with a U-Haul full of stuff….yep that’s right a U-Haul full!  But actually, having a small U-Haul at the end of the night was great for getting everything back home, including the gifts, left over cake and food.

The day started early for this bride and groom, with photos before the ceremony with Tom and Keccia Milne of Milne Photography.  The bride and groom wanted to make sure they had plenty of time to enjoy their reception, so they decided to see each other before the ceremony for their family photos.  Tom is a great photographer, one who doesn’t mind a little dirt on his tux to make sure he gets ‘that perfect’ shot!

Stacia and her mother decided that they wanted to do the majority of the decor, but they still needed bouquets and other floral accents.  After much searching, they decided to go with Amy DeGraw at Brown Bunny Flowers.  Amy created beauitufl white bouquets for the bride and her attendants, that we then placed on the head table during the reception (great money saving tip by the way)  Amy also created small white floral balls that were placed on shepherd’s hooks down the center aisle.  It helped pull everything together.

To help create the overall color theme of this wedding, the bride worked closely with Irene at Maty’s Chair Covers.  She provided black crushed linen for all the guest tables and crisp white chair covers with black sashes.  Maty’s also provided the silver chargers for the tables where we place the menu cards and CD favors.

Probably my favorite part of this wedding, was the dessert!  The bride and goom love ice cream, so why not serve it at the wedding?  Well, serving ice cream can be tricky, but an ice cream cake was……..a piece of cake!  They chose two different flavors from Cold Stone Creamery.  The guests were so excited to get this chilly treat, especially at the end of a very hot and humid day.  The bride and groom also chose a cake from Eddie’s Bakery for the traditional ‘cake cutting’….this cake was actually never served to the guests.  We boxed it up and they served it at the Day After Brunch on Sunday.

After dessert, the guests were treated to great dancin music from Todd Henry of AMS Entertainment, a great way to finish off the night.  Even though it was so hot and humid, this group kept the dancing going!  I will say that they did go through a lot of iced tea and that famous Wolf Lakes Pink Lemonade.

As the bride and her mother worked on the decor for this wedding, they began to collect a lot of decor, including votives, centerpieces, candle holders, etc.  If you see anything in these photos that you are interested in for your own wedding, please let me know….everything is either for rent or sale!

Special Thanks go to:

Wolf Lakes Park

www.wolflakespark.com

Milne Photography

www.milnephotography.com

The Black Tie

www.theblacktie.com

Maty’s

www.matyschaircovers.com

AMS Entertainment

www.amsentertainment.com/fresno

Brown Bunny Flowers

www.brownbunnyflowers.com

The Grand 1401 is a beautiful new venue in Downtown Fresno.  Formally known as The International Trade Center, the Grand 1401 has two areas for weddings.  The 10th Floor is a great location of your smaller wedding, able to accommodate about 200 guests along with a small ceremony area.  The 10th Floor is full of character and charm!  The bottom floor also has a ceremony area and can accommodate about 350 guests for dinner and dancing.  Another plus for this venue is that you can bring in your own caterer!  Check out their website for more information www.thegrand1401.com Give Crystal a call to set up a private tour.

Ed and Melinda chose Grand Occasions to cater their special event and we were so happy with their service and attention to detail.  Tara Ribera at Grand Occasions made sure that every request was handled.  Melinda and Ed chose to served their guests a Grilled Hearts of Romaine Salad with a New York Steak with Marchand D’Raisin Sauce (the bride works for the Raisin Board) served with Scalloped potatoes Au Gratin and Grilled Asparagus.  After dinner, instead of a traditional wedding cake, Melinda chose a chocolate raisin walnut pie from Eddie’s Bakery as the dessert for her guests! 

To help create the perfect setting for their wedding, Ed and Melinda chose to bring Simply Flowers and The Linen Shoppe on board to help us incorporate her dark royal blue color into the 10th floor decor.  The Linen Shoppe provided their beautiful mahogany chivari chairs with a dark royal blue sash and ivory pads.  Awesome!  Mariah and her staff from Simply Flowers help create beautiful centerpieces to help Melinda tie in her love of simplicity and the perfect shades of blue on each table.

To help capture all the special moments of their wedding day, Ed and Melinda chose Ryan Watamura to photograph their ceremony and reception. Ryan is a wonderful photographer with a very unique eye and it was great to work with him.  He was able to get some great urban shots of the couple in Downtown.  Made Fulton Street look very cool!

Thanks to all our wonderful vendors:

www.thegrand1401.com

www.gograndoccasions.com

www.fresnoflowershop.com

www.ryanwatamura.com

Back in January I had the pleasure of sitting at a wedding with Merry and Jack, they ended up being ‘my couple’ for this weekend.  Totally love them!  From that day on, Merry and I started planning her July wedding!  Now, keep in mind, Jack and Merry originally wanted to get married in Santa Cruz, so a July wedding sounded not too bad……but once they started researching the cost of a wedding in Santa Cruz they decided that the costs would be easier to control if they had the wedding in Fresno.  So they kept the original July 24th date and kept on planning. 

Special Thanks to Groom’s Cousin, and a very talented Photographer, Mher Vahakn for capturing these amazing images! Check out his site for more information about his work (www.mhervahakn.com)

Merry and Jack chose St Anthony’s for their traditional Catholic Mass followed by a reception at the Banker’s Ballroom in Downtown Fresno.  We had about 320 guests at the downtown venue, and with the temps souring well over 100 degrees, it made for an interesting evening.  But the guests really enjoyed the evening, no matter the heat.  They just visited the bar more often!  Marry and Jack planned a beautiful wedding and treated their guests to a delicious dinner and appetizers from Pardini’s catering.  For dessert, the guests were treated to a beautiful wedding cake from Eddie’s Bakery. 

The Banker’s Ballroom is a beautiful room by itself, but we added a few extra special touches by the talented Irene at Maty’s Chair Covers.  Marry chose a hollywood gold linen with matching chair covers, that really complimented the reception room. 

Gentile’s Flower Basket pulled the whole look together with bright fuschia pink and lime green centerpieces.  The room was amazing!

Haro Entertainment was with us most of the day, providing videography, dj and photobooth services. Thanks again guys for all your hard work! (And Kristi)  The guests danced the night away, even with the hot temperatures!  Just throw on some Bruce Springsteen and they were rocking it night away

Special Thanks to These Vendors on the Ajamian/Manock Wedding:

Pardini’s Bakery

www.pardiniscatering.com

Gentile’s Flowers

www.gentilesflowers.com

Maty’s Chair Covers

www.matyschaircovers.com

Eddie’s Bakery

www.eddiesbakerycafe.com

Banker’s Ballroom

www.1060fulton.com

On the other end of town, Jasmine and Jose Macias had just tied the knot in a beautiful Catholic mass at St. John’s Cathedral and their guests were heading to the reception at Copper River Country Club.  When the guests entered the room they were wowed with the beautiful decor work from Town & Country Party Rentals and Media Solutions.  The guest tables were adorned with plum satin table linens and champagne napkins.  Jasmine hired Mon Cher Designs to help create her beautiful invitations, programs and menu cards.

 Janice from Town & Country really did a beautiful job for Jasmine and her wedding.  The backwall was draped with champagne and oyster colored satin along with chandeleirs and uplighting.  Media Solutions also created a unique dance floor monogram for the bride and groom.

Jasmine and Jose chose Leeds Photography to capture their very special day.  Pam and her crew did an amazing job to capture the special moments and all the details of the ceremony and reception.

After dinner, Jasmine and Jose’s were treated to a special treat!  Belly Dancers!  Not something you see at every wedding reception right?  But the guests really enjoyed it!

Special thanks to my sister, Leslie, for all her hard work on Jasmine’s wedding day! 

Special Thanks to These Vendors on the Sayah and Macias Wedding:

Town & Country Party Rentals

www.tcpartyrental.com

Media Solutions

www.msifresno.com

Copper River Country Club

www.copperrivercountryclub.com

Leeds Photography

www.leedsphotography.com

Moncher Designs

www.moncherdesigns.com

We knew we wanted to keep our wedding small and intimiate so we asked Ross’ parents if we could host the wedding at their home.  They agreed and so the planning continued.  If any of your know my husband, you know that he loves to cook and BBQ, so we broke one of my wedding planning rules…..we did our own food!  That’s always a big No-No in my book, but we knew we could handle it.  The menu consisted of tri-tip, chicken, salad, baked beans (Turner Family Receipe) and Macaroni and Cheese (Arnold Family Receipe)

We planned a Labor Day Weekend Wedding, and with many prayers we were blessed with wonderful weather.  It was only 85 on the day of our wedding….totally unheard of for an outdoor wedding in August, right? We were blessed with about 80 of our closest friends and family on our special day and everything was perfect!

 Another element to our wedding that makes it unique is the order in which we did things…….I wanted to have our ceremony by candle light, so in order to make that happen we needed to have the ceremony about 8:45pm…..now you cannot ask your guests to wait until 9:30pm to eat dinner, right?  So we reversed everything.  Cocktails and appetizers upton arrival.  Thanks to my cousin Kristina Van Winkle for her wonderful appetizers!  We also had every type of beverage you could imagine!  Raspberry iced tea, lemonade, beer, wine, sodas and yes, even Starbucks!  Then our guests were treated to dinner, courtsey of Ross!  There is a photo in our wedding album showing Ross eating a Hot Dog!  Yes, he even cooked hot dogs for the kids, but if you know my husband, he will eat a hot dog no matter what else is on the menu.  Still to this day, he says that was the best hot dog he has ever had.

The backyard at the Turner’s was filled with chocolate brown and ivory linens, chair covers too!  We inlisted the help of parents and cousins to help the day before!  It was so nice to be able to have so many family around to help us.  Our centerpieces were a combination of coffee beans in glass containers with candles and flowers.  My bouquet was a beautiful combination of ivory roses, green kermit mums and blue delphinium.  I dried the bouquet after our wedding and it is displayed in our bedroom!  Thanks to Mariah at Simply Flowers for all her hard work for our wedding flowers!

After Dinner, when the light was just perfect, Ross and I exchanged vows that were wrote ourselves.  It was the best part of the day for me!  It really brought our family together.  We also included all of our friends and family in our ceremony.  Each person was given a rock with their name on it when they got the wedding.  During the ceremony we asked each person to come up to the ceremony area and give us their rock, we had a huge pile of rocks by the end of the ceremony, symbolizing all the thoughts and prayers of our friends and family.  At the close of the ceremony, our parents included their rocks, followed by Keska and Rylee and finally Ross and I.  We even had a rock for Penny and the future ‘Turner #3″

For dessert we were blessed to have a delicious wedding cake from Laura at Sweet Dreams Bakery.  She created a wonderful dark chocolate cake with peanut butter filling!  Of all the wedding cakes I have tasted over the years, this truly was my favorite!  Ross’ mom also made Strawberry Pizza, another Turner Family receipe.  It all made for a great dessert buffet!

When you are a wedding planner, its hard to plan your ‘own’ wedding.  And, yes I did put on all my own chair covers and linen and you could even find me at the end of the night cleaning up still in my wedding gown.  But I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  Our wedding was exactly how we wanted it to be.  My husband is the most amazing man and my prayers were answered the day I met him and he continues to love and support me in every way.  Very shortly after our wedding, I was blessed with the best gift I could ever ask for, we found out we were pregnant…..and so the journey continued….

Our wedding was also special because we had help from some of my vendor friends.  Tom Milne at Milne Photography, along with his assistant, Laura, really helped capture our wedding.  Even though Ross and I HATE having our photo take, Tom and Laura really did an amazing job.  Tom even climbed up onto the roof of the house and took a photo of all the guests in the backyard!  It was great!  Town & Country helped us out with our table linen and our chair covers.  We were able to transform the backyard into the perfect wedding site.  Mariah Walton with Simply Flowers created some beautiful flower arrangements to compliment our coffee bean theme.  My bouquet was perfect and she even made Rose Magic Wands for the girls.  Special thanks to Sweet Dreams for our wonderful wedding cake, and another thank you to my parents for driving the cake from Oakhurst to Atwater!  We can’t thank Rich and Gloria Turner for all they have done for us, and for allowing us to host our wedding at their home.  It was perfect, and everytime we visit, I can’t help but remember that perfect day.

Rylee and Keska were a big part of our wedding, the planning, the ceremony, everything!  They even refer to our wedding anniversary as ‘their anniversary’ too!   Thanks to my girls for all their help!  They will make great wedding planners one day soon.

Milne Photography

www.milnephotography.com

Simply Flowers

www.fresnoflowershop.com

Sweet Dreams Cakery

www.sweetdreamscakery.com

Town & Country Party Rentals

www.tcpartyrental.com

The Maryland couple, both Valley natives, chose Copper River for their wedding because of the breath taking landscapes and menu.  The groom, Burton, is a chef and knows what he likes when it comes to food choices for his guests.  With this couple living in Maryland, planning their California wedding was a bit challenging at times, but the end result was beauitful and all the guests had a wonderful time.

The guests were greeted with hand passed Mojitos as they arrived at the golf course for the 6pm ceremony.  Local celebrant, Jennifer Rodgers, created a personal ceremony just for Julie and Burton, even telling their love story to the guests.  After the ceremony, the guests quickly made their way upstairs for cocktails and hors devours.  Julie and Burton even treated their guests to a buffet of sushi from a local japanese restaurant, Sakura Chaya. The sushi was a hit!  The staff at Copper River also hand passed spicy palmiers and fried artichokes.  The guests also feasted on crab cakes and a display of fresh summer fruit.

Once the guests made their way into the reception room, they were given the ‘wow’ factor (the exact phrase used by the groom when he first saw the room!) Media Solutions draped the reception room with ivory fabric and highlighted the walls with purple lights.  The bride and groom were seated at a sweetheart table just for the two of them that was framed by a purple fabric backdrop created by Lanny at the Linen Shoppe.  The Linen Shoppe also created a new look for the reception room by provided their Mahogany Chivari Chairs and deep purple table linens. 

At each table, the guests were ‘wowed’ again by some very unique centerpieces created by Mimi of Apropos for Flowers.  The centerpieces were combinations of lime greens, ivory and purple flowers.  Mimi created very uniques pieces that also included LED lights to create a ‘glow’ at each table’s center.

After dinner the guests were treated to not only a delicious wedding cake from Creme De La Cake, but a dessert table from A Dotted Apron.  After the table of desserts were set up, some of the guests thought it was ‘too pretty to eat’

Mark Janzen Photography helped us through out the day capturing all those special moments!  The bride and groom booked Mark as one of their first vendors, and they really loved his work and fell in love with his creative eye.  We are all looking forward to seeing photos from their special day.

After dinner the guests danced the night away to sounds from Haro Entertainment, and even though it was really hot, everyone stayed and enjoyed the reception.

Special Thanks to all our vendors:

Ceremony and Reception Site: Copper River Country Club www.copperrivercountryclub.com

Linen and Chair Rentals: The Linen Shoppe www.thelinenshoppe.net

Flowers: Apropos for Flowers www.fresnoweddings.net/apropos.html

Draping and Lighting: Media Solutions www.msifresno.com

DJ Services: Haro Entertainment www.haroent.com

Photography: Mark Janzen Photography www.markjanzenphotography.com

Desserts: The Dotted Apron www.thedottedapron.com

Minister: Jennifer Rodgers, Celebrant www.loveandlifecelebrations.com

Wedding Cake: Creme De La Cake www.cremecake.com

This experience showed me once again why I love my job so much.  Sometimes couples get stressed out by all the details that come along with planning a wedding and they loose sight of the most important part of what they are doing.  Starting a life together!  Remember that the wedding is just one day and your marriage is for the rest of your life.

‘Love Conquers All and Weddings By Cassandra Can Make It Happen!”

From the beginning of our planning, Janae and I stayed true to her idea of wanting a very romantic feeling wedding.  She chose black and white as her color scheme and it worked out perfectly!  Damask fabric was used to creative fabric squares for each of the guest tables to act as a frame for the centerpieces.  To complete the black and white table set up, Janae chose white chair covers with a black sash from Town & Country Party Rentals.

 Janae chose Mariah Walton, from Simply Flowers to help create her floral designs.  Gerbera daisies were used in all the bouquets and centerpieces, and they helped tie in the back and white theme.  To add to the black and white theme, Raymond and his groomsmen were dressed in all black from The Black Tie.

The gem of the Damask theme came with the wedding cake created by Frosted Cakery.  Wow!  When it arrived, I knew that Janae would be pleased and she was!  And not only did it look amazing, it was delicious too!

Anyone curious about the favor for this wedding?  Well, just let me tell you……Janae and Raymond knew they wanted to do something that would be very personal………..and what do you give as a favor at a ‘rockstar’ type wedding?  Why not ‘ROCKSTAR’? Yep, you guessed it.  Janae and Raymond love drinking rockstar, the engery drink, so we gave one to each guest at the place setting. 

Janae and Ray chose Ryan Jones of RCJones Photography to be their photographer for their engagement photos and their wedding.  This was our first wedding working with Ryan, and we were very impressed!  Looking forward to seeing some of his amazing work.  He was even able to get some ‘night’ shots that I’m sure will be very romantic!

Wolf Lakes Park was as usual, wonderful!  They even helped us out during the dinner service, when we needed some more seating because of some surprise RSVPs! 

After dinner the guests danced the rest of the evening away to the tunes of Haro Entertainment.  Haro Entertainment also put together a beautiful photo montage that made everyone a little misty eyed!

Special Thanks to the Following Vendors:

Ceremony/Reception Site – www.wolflakespark.com

Music – www.haroent.com

Flowers – www.fresnoflowershop.com

Wedding Cake – www.frostedcakery.com

Photography – www.rcjonesphotography.com

Chair Covers – www.tcpartyrentals.com

Tuxedos – www.theblacktie.com

“We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto!”……That was what most of the wedding guests were probably saying this past weekend at the wedding of Cassie Angiono and Hal Woodall.  But the wind and cool weather did not stress out this couple.  They were concerned with just one thing, and that was saying ‘I Do’.  Cassie and Hal were married at the home of Lon and Judy Norwood just as the sun was setting on Saturday, May 22nd.  The site for this wedding was a beautiful backyard that looked like it came out of a Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.  The couple exchanged vows poolside with a waterfall in the background.  The pool was surrounded by colorful plants, flowers and rocks, and so many perfect photo spots! 

Cassie chose a beautiful ivory Maggie Sottero gown from Premier Bride’s Perfect Dress and Hal and his groomsmen were dressed to the nine’s by The Black Tie.  The bride chose bright colors for her wedding that really worked well with the backyard setting.  The bridesmaids wore teal bridesmaids dresses and Dana from Awesome Blossoms created some hot pink bouquets of roses and lillies. 

A very special thank you goes out to EXPO Party Rentals for all their assistance with all the rentals we used this past weekend.  There is so much more that is involved in a backyard wedding, and EXPO’s staff took very good care of us.  Tables, Chairs, Dance Floor, our Govenor’s Style Head Table, Cocktail Tables for the Bar area and of course the life saving heaters……..and they set everything up for us.

Maty’s provided bright teal overlays for the guest tables that looked great with the hot pink rose petal centerpieces provided by Awesome Blossoms.  The windy conditions made things a little difficult with all the candles, but everything still looked beautiful.  Above the guest tables, Media Solutions, suspended large lighted globes that gave just enough light for the evening.  The guests were treated to a wonderful meal catered by Pardini’s Catering.  Stuffed mushrooms, cheese borages, fruit fruit and cheeses were served during the cocktail hour after the ceremony.  For dinner, Cassie and Hal, chose a New York Steak topped with jumbo prawns, spinach mashed potatoes and summer squash.  For dessert, the guests were treated to a delicious wedding cake from Creme De la Cake. 

Hal and Cassie hired Chris and Steve Ostoya to photograph their wedding, and I can’t wait to see the photos!  The wedding site was full of so many wonderful photo spots.  I’m sure that Ostoya could have taken pictures all week if we would’ve let them!  It was nice to work with them again.

After dinner, the weather took a turn for the worse.  The wind picked up and the temperatures dropped.  So did anyone leave?  No way!  They made their way up to the dance floor and kept warm with a few beverages and some dancing.  Cassie and Hal hired Alfred from AMS Entertainment, and he did an excellent job!  He kept the party going and he kept everyone warm with some great dancing music.  It would’ve been nice to stay a little longer with the DJ, but we were on a schedule with the limo from Limo for You to get our group home safely, so we ended at midnight.

Another special thanks goes to Michelle Lowe at Exclusive Creations for creating beautiful invitations for this wedding, along with the menu cards,table numbers,  seating chart and some road signs along the way.

Congratulations to Hal and Cassie Woodall, thank you for letting Weddings By Cassandra be a part of your special day!

We were able to work with so many great vendors at this wedding, it made things go so much smoother!  Check out the links below:

Catering – Pardini’s Catering www.pardiniscatering.com

Photography – Ostoya www.ostoya.com

AMS Entertainment – www.amsentertainment.com

Flowers – Awesome Blossoms www.danasawesomeblossoms.com

Cake – Creme De La Cake www.cremecake.com

Invitations, Seating Chart and Menus – Exclusive Creations www.exclusivecreations.org

Transportation – Limo for You www.limoforyou.com

Decor – Maty’s Chair Covers www.matyschaircovers.com

Rentals – EXPO Party Rentals www.expopartyrentals.com

Lighting – Media Solutions www.msifresno.com

Bridal Gown – Premier Bride’s Perfect Dress www.fresnobridalsalon.com

Tuxedos – The Black Tie www.theblacktie.com