Hotel Californian Micro Wedding // Emily & Julian

Hard to believe it’s already 2021 and it’s been 7 months since our last blog post! January is always our time to reflect on the past year of weddings and share some highlights. It's so fun being able to relive these happy celebrations for our clients! 2020 was a year like no other for the wedding industry and all the couples involved. However, despite so many changed plans, pivots, and disappointment for many couples, there were some pockets of total joy throughout the year that we’re excited to finally share.

Emily & Julian’s micro wedding this past September was one of our all-time fav’s. Their original plans were turned upside down when they were forced to downsize their 150 guest wedding to just 9 people, their immediate family only. They also had to find a new wedding venue with just a few months notice with the help of Jane Alexandra Events.

By the time their wedding day arrived, you would have never known these two had been through so much stress and changes leading up to the big day. Em & Julian are two of the most radiant and positive people we know. They were just so happy to be getting married and had the best attitude towards everything. All the extra stuff that goes into a wedding just became less and less important to them.

They landed on their new venue, Hotel Californian. It's a chic, monochromatic, impeccably designed space in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. With the help of Jane and her girls, Hotel Californian, and Unique Floral Designs, this dream team was able to create a day that was so special and perfectly reflected Emily & Julian as a couple.

Some highlights of the day included: swapping wedding day gifts while they were getting ready and totally surprising each other! Julian got Emily a stunning diamond bracelet and Emily got Julian a dapper new watch. Julian walked down the aisle with both parents to the Lion King theme song. Emily’s parents made an incredible backdrop of 1,000 paper cranes, a tradition from Emily’s dad’s family. Their trusty vintage truck, Nash, made an appearance for a few photos. with the bride and groom. The speeches were both hilarious and heart warming, and you can’t deny that the love between these two families runs deep. I still can’t get over how beautiful their reception table, decor and florals turned out. Unique floral Designs did such an incredible job!

When catching up with Emily & Julian after their day was all said and done, they agreed that their wedding ended up being exactly what they had always hoped for, just about the important stuff. They had no regrets about going much smaller and loved how intimate everything felt.

In the months since their wedding, they have taken their experience and created something so cool and creative for couples who have been affected by the pandemic. Julian started his own podcast company, StudioPod, and together they have developed a podcast all about being a bride in the times of COVID, Bride to Have Been. Emily is the host! They just launched it a few weeks ago, so if you are a 2020, 2021, or 2022 bride, you must check it out wherever you listen to podcasts! Geoff and I will have an episode up sometime in January or February 2021, so make sure you listen to that as well.

I love that Emily and Julian took a situation that many would perceive as being a huge bummer and turned it into a positive, and are now giving back to other soon-to-be-married couples. They are an inspiration and we are so grateful we got to be a part of such a special day for them!