St. Regis Monarch Beach / Arthouse Feature / Megan & David

Today’s guest blogger is Megan. Megan and David’s wedding was a blast. Their reception was filled with surprises all night long- you’ll just have to watch to see how incredible it was.

David and I both went to USC and even had similar friends. However, it took us 7 years after I graduated and match.com to bring us together! It must have been the USC football references that put our matches together. David is self-employed and put his business degree to use! He owns 3 businesses. He manufactures car care products. I have my Doctorate in Occupational Therapy and work for children with special needs. We were together for a year and a half before we were married and my proposal was perfect! One of my favorite movies is “Say Anything.” Lloyd Dobbler is the male lead in the film and has melted many a girl’s heart. In the most famous scene from the film, Lloyd stands beneath his girlfriend’s window wearing his trench coat and holding up a boom box blaring “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel. I lived on the 10th floor of a building and on the big day, a girlfriend called and told me to look outside my window. David was in front of my building standing in a trench coat, holding up a boom box that was playing the song. My entire building opened their windows to see what the commotion was all about. He nervously dropped to one knee. He popped the question and of course I said Yes!

Wedding planning started the very night I got proposed. Ok, I didn’t go crazy right away but we did go back to the store for more champagne and I picked up my first bridal magazine. From there every time I went into a store I didn’t leave without a magazine. I even had David getting them for me when he went into the store! (He’d kill me if he knew I said that.) I first pulled out pictures of things I liked. Colors, outfits, anything that I liked and tried to find out if there was a theme or certain commonality I was drawn to. I took all of these pictures and separated them into categories. I also cut pictures of things I didn’t like out so I could describe to vendors why I didn’t like them and show them a visualization. The magic happened when I met my wedding coordinator. I pulled out my loose pile of pictures and she put them together into a vision. The creative juices were flowing and she just took them and pulled it all together in a classy, elegant, and jaw dropping event. I found my vendors from my wedding coordinator. A terrific coordinator will not just give you a list of vendors, they will find out what you’re looking for and guide you to 2 or 3 vendors to interview. They did half of the leg work for us!

The day was perfect! Who knows if it was flawless, the day of I was actually able to let go and not worry about if anything was going array. I think the champagne helped ☺ The wedding coordinator was invaluable here as well. There was a complete timeline drafted and 4 people to make sure it happened. No one in the wedding party or family had to worry about anything. We had someone telling us where to be and what to be doing. I got to sneak a peek at the ballroom in the morning and I think that got me even more excited. We could also see the guests arriving from our suite so that was fun as well. Put your 5 best friends, your mom and a few bottles of champagne in a room while you’re getting pampered and you’re going to have a blast! Starting the day out right was the key. I just soared on cloud 9 for the rest of the day. When you’re that happy and don’t let little things bother you, you will have a wonderful time. Why sweat the small stuff you can’t change anyway? What’s done is done so make sure you enjoy yourself and the time with your new husband, friends and family.

I couldn’t have been happier that I hired a wedding event filmmaker. Talking about wow factor, the same day edit is where it’s at! For the cost, you can not beat the shock value your guests will get. I tried to tell a few people about it before but I guess they thought it was going to be cheesy or they didn’t understand. I can’t believe what they can do in that short time period. Seriously, leave money in your budget for the same day edit. It puts your wedding over the top! People couldn’t stop talking about it. It was also neat that the guests got to see themselves at the wedding. If you look at the Same Day Edit it captured me literally floating onto the dance floor. The videographers captured so many emotions, yes emotions that you will want to remember. We just received our full length video. Now, I know it seems kind of silly when you read “you will get 5 leather bound copies…” wow. The presentation was amazing. Not only are they in beautiful cases but they put artwork on the DVD and the beginning page with the options to select chapters etc. was expertly done. We have had viewing parties to watch the DVD and every time we watch it we catch something new. The wedding wasn’t that long ago and it was scary to see how much we had forgotten even after planning for a year! Definitely worth every penny. I highly highly recommend! Just watch other people’s videos and you will want the same thing.

Advice for other brides:
Ever heard “don’t worry about the specifics and all the details, no one will remember them anyways”. DON’T LISTEN TO THOSE PEOPLE! I think what put my wedding over the top WAS all the details. Whatever you choose. I wanted crystals throughout for example. The flowers, rotunda, invitations, seating cards, etc. People were absolutely stunned and commented A LOT on all the little details of the wedding. People actually commented on specifics (other than the crystals) that I thought they wouldn’t notice. Like our initials on the sweets bag sticker. Do whatever you want to do and do it well! Be specific with what you want and go to blogs of wedding coordinators, photographers, and florists and cut and paste pictures that you like. Then let your wedding coordinator pull it all together. NEVER be pushy but definitely be opinionated and speak up for what you want, it’s your day. And regardless of what people say, it will last more than one day to you. So make the day count!

-Megan

Vendors:

Caterer/Hotel: St. Regis
Wedding Coordinator: Jeannie Savage from Details Details
Florist: Enchanted Florist
Photographer: Joel Eckman Maus
Event Filmmaker: Elysium Productions
Officiant: J.P. Reynolds
Ceremony Music: Angelica Strings
Reception Music: West Coast Music
USC Band: USC School of Music
Afterhours DJ: Mike Soltani
Lighting: Shine Lighting
Chairs/Rentals: Wildflower Linens
Hair: Tiffany Monday
Makeup: Berit D.
Stationary: Details A La Carte
Cake: Let Them Eat Cake
Ice Sculpture: St. Regis
Sweets Table: Details A La Carte
Wedding Dress: Marylinn’s Couture of Beverly Hills
Bridesmaids Dresses: Marylinn’s Couture of Beverly Hills
Tux’s: Men’s Wearhouse
Photobooth: Cheesy Photobooth