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Ventura Beach Wedding

I love photographing Ventura beach weddings, especially at the Crowne Plaza. I’m at this venue quite often and I also live nearby so I’m very familiar with multiple beautiful areas for photos! Terri and Erik’s wedding was right on the beach and they got such a perfect day. Not only was it not windy, but they also got a gorgeous sunset. I loved working with them at their wedding, they were so fun and easy-going!

Terri and Erik shared some details with me about their wedding day, and here’s what they said:

What are you most looking forward to on the day?

“All the details of our special day together; the ceremony, seeing friends and family, the food and everyone celebrating our special day together.”

What inspired your wedding décor?

“We wanted to use colors from nature since we liked the way the different greens combined to give a sense of new life and growth. We also like the vintage feel of using “Ivory and tulle”. On the sweet treat bar, tulle and ivy was used with rustic wood platters and glass jars to give a relaxed and natural feel to display the home baked treats. The tables contained ivory and green cut flowers in square vases to give the sense of garden planters. The tablecloths were ivory accented with natural greens to help with this vintage and nature inspired theme.”

Did you have a theme in mind?

“Since we were getting married outside but the reception was inside, we wanted to continue the theme of using nature in our reception. We leaned toward a variety of greens instead of just one. We also used rustic and vintage elements to give the sense of a garden party.”

Why did you pick the venues that you chose?

“We chose the Crowne Plaza for its location and scenic views. We also wanted to get married on the beach. Crowne Plaza offered an intimate package that provided for a beach ceremony complete with arch and seating as well as a cocktail hour and reception at the hotel steps away from the beach. We were planning on an intimate size of wedding (30 people) so we liked that if offered a smaller but majestic room with sweeping views of the beach.”

What is your favorite feature about your wedding venue?

“I liked the fact that we could have a beach wedding in a beautiful location. It was truly magical to be able to make my vows to my beloved while the sun glistened, and waves gently rolled in and out. It was mesmerizing. There is not a better decorator than the almighty.”

Is there any particular vendor that you are really excited to have for your day?

“Our DJ and Photographer were top notch! As a photo enthusiast I knew I wanted an excellent photographer so we could have some beautiful pictures that we could look at any time. The first look photos were all amazing and we are so excited to see the rest. The instructions that the photographer gave was so helpful with our posing. She had the most amazing artistic eye and created incredible memories. I will treasure these photos forever. Our DJ was awesome at bringing up the level of excitement which is not easy to do with a smaller wedding size. He did a great job choosing music that involved everyone.”

Tell us about the food/drink at your wedding.

“The wedding food was a “surf, turf and luau” theme. For cocktail hour, there was a tropical fruit platter with chicken skewers. The dinner was sit-down with a spinach strawberry goat cheese salad with a strawberry vinaigrette and a choice of either a miso glazed salmon or filet mignon with a red wine reduction sauce. Dinner was paired with choice of cabernet or chardonnay. There was a champagne toast. The cake was a two-tier lemon zest white cake with a lemon chiffon layer and a vanilla buttercream icing. It was decorated with white-on-white pearl design on one layer and white on white scroll work on the second. it was adorned with flowers similarly contained in the bride’s bouquet.

The bride prepared a “sweet treats” bar for the quests. It contained glass jars of vanilla caramels, sees lollipops, butter mints and a variety of chocolate. The bride also home baked salted caramel cookies, double chocolate brownies and almond brown sugar heart shaped cookies decorated with almond royal icing using similar white-on-white decorations as the wedding cake. There was an open bar throughout the wedding serving a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.”

Which part of your wedding did you want to WOW your guests?

“We thought being announced to Prince’s “Let’s go crazy” would be a blast. There is a lot of build up to the intro of the song, so walking out was a real treat. People clapped and blew bubbles. They were so excited for us. Erik’s tux was gorgeous and seeing him formally dressed on such an important day was probably something new for our guests. Erik is always in his gym clothes!”

Anything else you want to add?

“We still talk about our wedding. I couldn’t think of anything that would have made the day better. The people, the food, the pictures, the DJ, the location; we will never forget what a special day it was. We are so thankful we have amazing pictures to help memorialize such a beautiful moment in our lives as we became one.”