Love at the Walnut Grove: Missy (that's me) & Tim Married!

Real Weddings

Dec 18

Written By

Hello lovelies!Today I have a very special wedding to share with you, mine! Tim and I have almost been married a year and a half and I thought it high time you got to see what happens when a wedding designer, with a tight budget and a dream team of wedding creatives get together to plan the most important celebration of my career, oh yeah, and smack in the middle of peak season!Tim and I got married at the Walnut Grove at Tierra Rejada Ranch. I actually came to this venue for the first time with one of my clients looking for her ideal wedding location (you know who you are, Peyvand!). From the moment I stepped onto the ranch, I knew this was where Tim and I would tie the knot. The natural beauty of the cornfields, bistro lit brick patio, fireplace and plethora of lush walnut and apricot trees made it the perfect spot to celebrate our love with our friends and family.From the very beginning of planning we wanted our wedding to precisely reflect who we are, tell our story and for everyone to have a rad time. Tim is super nostalgic for the ‘good old days’ and I love designing all things vintage, so we knew the whole thing had to have an art deco feel.With Tim being a photographer/cinematographer and my background in theater we decided to go toward a ‘glory days of Hollywood/old theatre glam’ direction for our wedding style, with rustic touches interwoven to bring a laid-back feel to the whole thing. We worked to bring these motifs into the life of our wedding by having all our signage and printed materials use theater and cinema jargon (designed by one of my amazing bridesmaids, Morgan). We said our vows to the backdrop of a tasseled red velvet curtain. Tim stole photos of each of our guests off the web, edited them to have a retro look and then we strung them up to an old door. People found their table by finding their photo! Each of our guest tables was named after a play or movie that was near and dear to our hearts. We wanted to give the tables a hint of old school theater lighting, so I set out to create DIY mercury glass that we later filled with candles to make the table-scape glow!We choose estate blue, mustard yellow, grey and pops of ruby red for our color pallet (we just like so many colors, we couldn’t choose!). These colors came to life through our flowers, signage, linens and fashion. We wanted to juxtapose mostly dry/rough/sharp textures with super soft/lush petals. Enchanted Gardens brought our ideas to life fabulously! We scoured LA flee-markets and antique shops to gather vintage wine, beer and apothecary bottles to house our flowers. We went crazy with old camera, frames, and lanterns galore to fill in each and every delightful corner of the venue. As part of the gift to my ladies, I gave them each a unique mustard/gold art deco headband to adorn at the wedding.Tim and I are both proud Italians and it was important to us that we give a nod to our heritage throughout the party. Unfortunately, all the New Yorkers weren’t able to make the long trip to LA. To keep my family close, we tethered my grandmother’s engagement ring to my bouquet for my walk down the aisle. We also stole all the old photos from our grandparents and parents that we could get our hands on to have an homage to our ancestors by the lit fireplace.We really wanted the whole party to be crazy fun for the two of us, our bridal party and all our guests. Music was a huge part of that. Our guests arrived to the ceremony with the backdrop of the blues. Our whole processional was to instrumental versions of modern songs (our parents walked into ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ and had no idea!). Tim is half Irish, and we both really love bagpipes, so we surprised everyone by ending the ceremony to the Jurassic Park theme song on the bagpipes! We all danced the night away, and for those who aren’t fond of frolicking, we had a photo-booth and s’mores for all to enjoy.A weathered dictionary served as our guest book: we had guests ‘reference’ their love for us by choosing a word of well wishes and signing their name… people said the funniest things! One of my personal favorite details of the day was our two wooden love-birds atop our cake. We put together burlap sacks, filled with walnuts and brought together with a cute tag, as our favor. We ended the evening with an Italian tradition, fleeing the scene of our wedding through a sea of twirling napkins. I’ve always loved the old-school wedding getaway car, so we turned my little blue versa into our own ‘just married’ honeymoon vehicle with tin cans and everything. I’m happy to say that it was seriously the most fun, most fabulous day of our lives, everyone had a great time and Tim and I wish could relive every second of it!Vendor Love: