Navruz & Greg’s Classic San Francisco Wedding

July 23, 2013

post by Alyssa

Navruz and Greg were married last September at one of my all time favorite, classic San Francisco venues.  The Intercontinental Mark Hopkins is an architectural dream with completely breathtaking views – a perfect setting for a lovely wedding.  These two were high school sweethearts, and spent many years engaged before putting together this beautiful day full of family and friends from all over the World.

Their day was full of beautiful, classic details, and my favorite part – a dance party to beat all dance parties!

Congratulations again, you two!

beautiful photos by: Jay Adams Photography

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Ellen & Darryl’s Brazil Room Wedding

July 8, 2013

Ellen and Darryl are one of those couples who can only be described as lovely. Their wedding was focused on family, great food, and lots and lots of fun, all wrapped in the great venue that is Tilden Park’s Brazil Room (one of my favorite venues.)

Also – can we take a second to talk about how cute Ellen’s dress was? It started as a full length ballgown with a train, and was altered into something with a totally different, and totally her, feel (a great reminder to think outside the box when you’re dress shopping.)

Congratulations again you two!

photos: Akiko Photo

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Remembering Weekends

June 14, 2013

This weekend is my first one completely off (no weddings, no meetings, no site visits, nothing) since early March, so I’m heading to the beach to catch up on some sleep, some socializing, and some sunshine (although I may be planning to shoot a tutorial on signature cocktails, so it’s not like my workaholic tendencies have completely disappeared.)

Some things I’ve liked around the internet lately:

And: Lowe House Events is now on Facebook! “Like” us over there for more regular updates on goings on in our wedding world.

Here’s to summer weekends and the Pacific Ocean.

photo: polaroid by me, circa 2002, of the road over Mt Tamalpais.

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Tracy & Leo’s San Francisco Cocktail Party Wedding

June 13, 2013

Tracy & Leo’s wedding last fall was combined so many of my favorite wedding things that it’s almost funny looking back at it. They had their ceremony in the garden of San Francisco’s famous Swedenborgian Church, and their reception in the reception space at the church, which feels like an amazing craftsman house (um… probably because it is.) Except for a few older family members, everyone stood for the ceremony, and the reception was cocktail-party style with only scattered seating. I’m so happy to have these photos because they show how totally lovely this style of wedding can be:

I occasionally mention to clients that cocktail-style is my personal favorite type of reception, and a lot of people have a hard time picturing how it works in a wedding scenario. Here’s what a cocktail-party reception looks like:

I mean, don’t tell me those people aren’t having an awesome time. Tracy & Leo did one of my other favorite ever wedding things, which is personally serve their cake to their guests. It’s a great alternative to a traditional receiving line, and to me is one of the loveliest acts of hosting a just-married couple can do:


Congratulations again you two!

photos: the awesome Maddie Eisenhart of Hart & Sol West

band: the equally awesome Trio Zincalo

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Allison & Kim’s Brazil Room Wedding

May 30, 2013

Allison & Kim’s wedding was one of those fantastically fun, fantastically hot summer days in the East Bay. The Brazil Room is a Bay Area institution and one of my favorite venues for a wedding – everything is central, and both the outdoor and indoor spaces are gorgeous, and you feel like you’re in the middle of the wilderness, even though you’re actually just above Berkeley. And just take a look at how much fun this wedding was (and, I mean, how gorgeous it was):

The advantage to giving your flowers girls bubble guns instead of flower petals is two fold. 1) It’s awesome when they’re coming down the aisle and 2) you get to take portraits with them later:

(also, a note: do I get to work with rad clients or what?)

Congratulations again you two!

photos: the very amazing Maddie Eisenhart of Hart & Sol West.

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Rachel & Danny’s Tiburon Wedding

May 29, 2013

Rachel & Danny’s Tiburon wedding made some of the best use of the Bay that I’ve ever seen. Their ceremony was right on the water at the Lyford House (part of the Audobon Center & Sanctuary) and, I mean, take a look:

The reception was down the road at the Corinthian Yacht Club, which I always say has some of the prettiest views in all of Northern California:

It was also just a ton of fun. Rachel and Danny are one of those couples who are totally full of life, and their wedding was full of laughter, food, and a packed dance floor (also, one of the best pie buffets I’ve ever tasted.) The room was totally bursting with joy.

Congratulations again you two!

photos: the consistently awesome Emily Takes Photos (click the link to see more!)

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Get Sh*t Done

May 28, 2013

Oh hey. If you’ve been following along closely, you’ve probably seen that I’ve been occasionally writing over at A Practical Wedding for the last year or so about logistical wedding planning topics. The lovely team over there and I decided to make it into a regular gig, so starting this week you’ll be able to find me there every other week, with a regular series we’re calling:

I actually majored in Creative Writing and studied (and practiced) journalism in college, so writing regularly again feels nice (even though I may have told Maddie that “I don’t really consider this writing…”) The hope is that it will be a way to help a lot of people figure out their way through wedding planning, especially people who aren’t working with professional planners, and to that end my angle is generally offering advice for weddings that don’t have a ton of professionals working at them (because hopefully if you’ve hired professionals they already know these things!)

You’ll be able to find the whole series here in the future (and can click over now for the first piece – on set up and break down.) Happy planning!

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Summer

May 24, 2013

Summer is by far my favorite time of year – somehow it makes everything feel more possible. Of course, summer also means busy season when you work in the wedding industry, and so I tend to spend it working overtime, last year to such a degree that I ended up feeling like I missed it completely. I’m thankful this summer that I get to work in a house with almost floor-to-ceiling windows, and a backyard that I can move to when I need to take a break. The smell of tomato leaves and hose water – together, the epitome of summer – will always be my favorite smells in the world, and right now the tiny tomato seedling I planted eight weeks ago is practically bursting out of it’s pot (it helps that I moved to the hottest, sunniest part of Oakland) and is covered in flowers and baby fruit. Plants are such a visual representation of time passing that it can sometimes shock me, and I’m working on letting them remind me to occasionally slow down.

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Mad For Love

March 4, 2013

Some of my favorite East Bay independent wedding vendors and I are putting on a mini-showcase at Toast, one of my favorite restaurants and event venues, later this month – and we’d love to see you there! If big wedding fairs aren’t your thing (they’re not mine) then you should feel at home – it’s going to be casual, fun, and un-overwhelming in scale. In addition to being able to check out a variety of rad local vendors who you may want to work with, you’ll be able to enter drawings for a bunch of great giveaways, including an hour of free consulting with me. More information right here! (the complete list of vendors will be up later this week!)

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home

February 7, 2013

 

Last week I bought a house.

It’s still pretty surreal. It was a short sale, and I’d been in contract for over six months by the time we closed. It’s small (although feels huge to me), in what people refer to as a “transitional” neighborhood, needs a lot of painting and other cosmetic work, as well as some non-cosmetic work (hello new sewer lateral!) But it has original 1925 wood floors and trim, a meyer lemon tree in the backyard, half of a neighbor’s orange tree hanging over the fence, and a breakfast room and a backyard deck with a view of both of them.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been more excited about anything. And please forgive me if I show up to a meeting with stray paint in my hair.

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