Wine Country Wedding | Alchemy Fine Events

Tuscan Wedding Inspiration by Alchemy Fine Events & Mike Larson at Tenuta di San Giusto

Modern Seaside Tuscan Wedding Inspiration by Mike Larson at Tenuta di San Giusto

Last spring we held our 2nd annual Mike Larson Wedding Photography Workshop that we designed and styled at my dear friend Francesco’s villa in Chianti, Tuscany dating back to 01AD. This beautiful villa served as the perfect backdrop for a modern yet beachy interpretation of what our ideal Tuscan Wedding would look like by marrying our greatest passions in Italy, both the Tuscan hillsides and the Tuscan coast.

With inspirations of an Italian love story in mind, we created the vision of Terra e Mare, or Land and Sea for a new twist on a Tuscan Wedding for the Mike Larson Tuscany workshop. The story is this… a seaside beach beauty in love with a dapper polo player wed amidst the vineyards in Tuscany, bringing together the land and sea for a juxtaposition of styles.

The invitation to this intimate Tuscan wedding featured modern typography on a textured cardstock that was carefully nestled inside of a dove gray silk invitation box with a seashell adornment on top.

This vintage green gem was tucked away in Francesco’s garage and was actually given to him by his father as a teen. It was truly a piece of art and was so perfect for our shoot!

Dressed for a casual yet romantic ceremony, our bride was styled in an ethereal ruffled skirt and vest by BHLDN. Our ‘sposabella’ cradled an eclectic bouquet featuring lush white peonies, lisianthus and gords with sea urchin shells nestled inside of them. Clad in a nautical inspired casual yet preppy attire, our groom’s garb boasted a royal blue blazer. After changing into casual glam evening look our ‘bella’ bride boasted a 40’s inspired beaded gown by BHLDN and dangled rhinestone and fabric earrings to make her eyes sparkle as she gazed upon her.

Set against the backdrop of the rolling vineyards of Chianti in a Romanesque villa, Tenuta di San Giusto was the locale for this magical Tuscan wedding shoot designed with modern, classical, seaside and rustic elements. For an updated twist we paired white mid-century modern Arne Jacobsen chairs with a rustic wine tasting room wood table and layered on vintage battenburg lace napkins, sterling silver chargers and bone inlaid flatware. To combine the romantic and modern inspirations onto the tablescape we painted leaves and greenery an opaque white and mixed them into the arrangements of white roses, lilies and lisianthus along side sea shells and neo-baroque candleabras.

Stay tuned for future updates on the next European workshop coming soon! This Tuscan wedding inspiration workshop shoot was featured on Style Me Pretty seen here!

Photography by Mike Larson

Art Direction, Design, Styling, Flowers & Stationery: Vanessa Van Wieren of Alchemy Fine Events

The Luxury Villa: Tenuta di San Giusto

Fashion Styling: Stefania Warren

Bridal Fashion & Accessories: BHLDN

Groom Fashion: Zara Men

Bride Model: Carolina Rosini

posted by Vanessa, 24th January 2013 , Categories: Destination, Education, Italy, Mike Larson Italy Workshop, Wine Country Wedding

Provencal Parfumerie Wine Country Wedding in Paso Robles

A Wine Country Wedding at Hammersky Vineyards in Paso Robles

We are so excited to finally show you a wine country wedding we designed last fall at the beautiful and intimate Hammersky Vineyards. This beautiful setting was the perfect backdrop for Lauren and Mike’s Provencal parfumerie inspired wedding. With impeccable taste, Lauren and I worked on so many exciting custom designs including waterjet cut copper pieces, custom linens and pillows and many more.

There are so many delicious details and gorgeous photography captured by the talented Lindsey Hahn that we still can’t share them all even with this ultra long post! Please see more details and photos on our features on Style Me Pretty and Style Unveiled!

Lauren’s stunning Lela Rose gown and lacey Louboutin’s.

Lauren from Adornments created one of the most beautiful bouquets I had the pleasure to lay my eyes on! This stunning piece featured a variety of roses, blooms and wild greenery for a textural effect.

Guests were greeted at the ceremony via a custom waterjet cut sign we created and glasses of lemonade and lavender cookies to tie them over until cocktail hour, the perfect welcome to a wine country wedding in Paso Robles!

To decorate the vintage church pews used for guest seating we featured bouquets of red roses tied with vintage lace and custom designed toile pillows we designed with Nena Von.

Guests lovingly tossed wildflower seeds at the couple after they said their sweet I do’s.

For the cocktail hour we presented a fun cheese table served on vintage copper dishes and paired each cheese with unique pairings such as stout beer.

In lieu of traditional tags, we featured etched spoons for cheese markers.

For thoughtful guest gift I designed custom labels to go around Lavender and Verbena French soaps by Mistral and passed them out with jars of golden honeycomb.

For a fun start to the day, guests were picked up from their hotels on the Central Coast Trolley, the perfect start for a wine country wedding.

During the cocktail hour we let guests create their own potpourri sachets by blending their favorite dried flowers and then asked guests to write out their well wished onto squares of fabric later to be made into a quilt.

For a very Provencal style table design we started with long wooden farm tables and layered on our custom designed black toile table runners. From there we presented lush and wild arrangements in vintage French teapots and pitchers Lauren scoured far and wide to find.

For a unique take on the traditional menu I created a letterpressed and laser cut menu and then bolted them onto cut sheets of copper we had made.

For a fun twist on the standard bar we created another fun waterjet cut copper piece to hang behind a vintage armoire. To keep in line with our French country perfumerie inspiration we hung racks of dried flowers from the signage and backlit it for a warm glow in the evening.

To create a unique photo opp backdrop we designed a very Victorian inspired cameo design with Mike and Lauren’s initials and framed it in toile curtains for guests to pose in front of.

For a French country style dessert bar we had Two Little Birds Bakery whip up some delicious pies, cookies and pomegranate panna cottas we presented in vintage cut crystal glasses.

To keep guests cozy in the brisk valley air we offered spiked white hot chocolate served in cups wrapped in custom designed toile print we create fro the couple.