I wasn’t the type of girl who pre-planned my wedding day. I wasn’t sure what kind of dress I wanted or where it would be. Those details never really mattered to me. I dreamed about my prince charming and my family around me. When Ian asked for my hand in marriage I didn’t have a lot of opinions. I knew I wanted a small, intimate wedding. I started looking at venues. I found a small quaint garden in the Malibu Hills that catered to 30 people. I thought it was perfect. Ian laughed when I told him the number it would hold. Since we hadn’t been dating that long, I hadn’t met his family yet. I didn’t realize how big his family was or how many ties he still had to his childhood friends. He had a list of at least 100 people. I had 5 plus my 3 brides maids. It was time to find a wedding planner. I knew I couldn’t do this on my own. Ian reached out to some friends and we hired the amazing planners at YourBash! After having our first meeting, they told us about the perfect venue. It was in Newport Beach, a beautiful resort called Pelican Hill. Everyone could stay there from out of town. The ceremony would be out on a lawn under a beautiful gazebo looking out at the ocean at sunset. There were rooms to get ready, beautiful spots to take pictures and an amazing reception hall. It was a little more glamorous than what I imagined my wedding to be, but I also don’t think Cinderella imagined hers that way either. I was going to go with the flow.
Ian was really involved with every aspect of the wedding planning. He wanted to talk about every detail right down to the shade of purple on the ribbon for the invitation. I left Ian to decide on the big details, from the bar to the food to the music. He was on a creative mission. Ian’s favorite color was purple and mine was pink so the wedding planner used those two colors to get creative with the planning. When we first spoke to Pelican Hill, they said the only long weekend for the year available was Memorial Weekend. That was only 5 months away!! May 28th was our day.
While my event planners were getting to work filling in all the details of the wedding, it was my time to find a dress. I had no idea how long it was going to take to get a dress. Most of the dress shops I called said I didn’t have enough time to get a dress from them. I was scrambling at this point. I found a little dress shop in Glendale that said they could get the job done. After trying on about 100 dresses I finally settled on a style that I liked. The dress shop told me to check out the shop they worked with, by the dress designer Ines DiSanto. It was a beautiful shop in Glendale at the Americana. It was sparkly and the dresses were stunning. I was in awe. The women who were working at the shop told me that Ines DiSanto herself was coming into town and would love to design a custom dress for me. I made the appointment and flew my mom in. It was so exciting. Together we picked a simple, strapless, mermaid style in a shimmering ivory satin. We sipped champagne and had the best mother daughter day ever.
Sketch of my dress by Ines DiSanto
The tables were designed by YourBash! They were fun and eclectic. They worked out all the details and my last job was the cake. I decided that I couldn’t have a cake. The new trend was cupcake towers and I just had to have one. I worked with the Vanilla Bake Shop to create the ultimate tower. I picked fabrics from the fabric store that I felt went with the look YourBash was creating and I ordered vintage bride and groom cupcake toppers. I was so excited to see the final project. It was one of the only pieces that I designed during the wedding.
Since the inside was fun and eclectic (like my husband), I wanted the ceremony to be simple and beautiful. I asked for white flowers by the gazebo and sprinkled down the isle.
When the wedding weekend arrived I felt that the event planners had everything under control. It was way to big of an event for me to even stress about. I sat back with my bubbling glass of champagne to watch everything unfold. The weather was beautiful and sunny. I met so many people from the East Coast and I was having a hard time keeping track of all the names. Ian invited 90 people, of whom I knew 10. We decided not to have kids at the wedding. It was a hard decision but we would have had 50 extra little guests if they were included. That is a lot of extra meals and a huge extra expense. I also feel like when there are a lot of kids at a wedding people can’t relax. They are constantly worrying about what time it is and getting their children home to bed . We didn’t want our wedding to die down at sunset, so a strict no kids policy was in place. Having children now, I still like this rule !
It may sound crazy, but I never thought twice about what I was doing. Some people say they get nervous before their wedding or wonder if they should really go through with it. I didn’t have that feeling. Maybe my friends kept me really occupied, or my mother kept me calm.. whatever it was I was relaxed and ready. My dress was new. I borrowed my mothers brooch and used Ian’s mothers brooch in my flowers for something old. My garter was blue. I was ready. Both of my parents walked me down the isle. Ian was escorted by his brothers, since his parents had passed away. 3 of my best girlfriends accompanied me at the chuppah along with my parents during the ceremony. Ian chose not to have any groomsmen. We wrote our own vows. Ian’s were very romantic. Mine was short and to the point. He has always been better with words than me. Writing our own vows made me nervous, but I knew it was important to him. When the Rabbi asked us to take each other in marriage, he pronounced Ian’s name wrong! Most people do, but this was our wedding. Ian’s face was priceless. I think he asked the Rabbi for his money back right then and there. We quickly broke the glass and walked through the sunset to our party!
By this point Ian was a little toasted. He had been doing tequila shots with the men and drank a full glass of wine during the ceremony. Ian is not a drinker. It doesn’t take much for him to get toasted. Before entering the ceremony I gave him a little pep talk about not dropping me or stepping on my dress during the first dance (which would cause it to fall down in the front). We walked into the most beautiful reception full of so many people. His cast of 90210 all came to support him in our marriage and they were all so lovely and stunningly beautiful.
Ian started our wedding party with a shot of tequila for all the guests and I spent the night walking around and talking with our friends and family. My girlfriends gave the funniest, drunk toast and my father read a contract to Ian about keeping my dog. We danced the night away. I don’t think a single person was sitting. The party went all night. At 2 am we finally left the venue. It was a blast. It was a whirl wind. We were in love and nothing was stopping us. Except we were exhausted and passed out in our wedding attire. But, after we recovered from the fun, nothing was going to stop us!
*all photos by Robert Evans
for more about Erin and Ian check out- Our Love Story- How we met
