A Sunset Soiree at the Santa Barbara Zoo

When Alison came to me to design and coordinate her big day, we had no idea that the big day would come three years, one pandemic, one elopement and a pup later. See our feature HERE in Wedding Chicks!

Credits

Planning/Design: LuckEleven Events
Photos & Videography: Wild Whim
Catering/Rentals: Events By Rincon
Venue: Santa Barbara Zoo
DJ: DJ Zeke
Flowers: Wild Muse Floral
Tabletop: Otis and Pearl
Dress: BHLDN
Makeup: Courtney Dapper
Hair: Emily Lynn and Company

The Details

Although good food was always a must, Alison and Connor spent less time on their food and bev versus the activities for guests at the wedding. The did want all the guests to enjoy Santa Barbara summertime and made their signature cocktails a margarita and a mai tai, adorned by drink stirrers with their fur child, Lucky Penny on them.

The florals could not have been more perfect by Morgan at Wild Muse Florals. Because Alison and Connor postponed their wedding twice and were planning for three years, Morgan had quite a few changes from us but never faltered when prices skyrocketed, florals were low in supply and we added so many items to our estimate.

The main reason Alison and Connor got married at the zoo, as opposed to a more traditional venue, was because Connor's grandfather actually worked on the building of the zoo! In particular, he built the train that the guests got to ride during cocktail hour! He still has signage from the original train that they brought to the wedding. Speaking of cocktail hour, Alison and Connor couldn't resist adding some zoo attractions to the day. Guests got to feed giraffes and ride the train around the zoo as they enjoyed cocktails and apps. Alison said that one of her favorite parts of the day was riding the train with Connor post-ceremony. They got some time alone to reflect on the day and ceremony without interruption.

Perhaps MY favorite detail was the sprinkling of animals in the decor. I designed a watercolor seating chart with different animals woven into the numbers and Alison found the accompanying figurine of the animal in gold to place next to the table numbers that she made herself. It gave the tables some character without overpowering the sunset theme. The kids at the wedding loved the animal figurines and got to play with them after dinner!

The Design

The first thing Alison told me about her colors was “do what you would do for your own wedding!” I immediately pulled out all the sunset tones for a summer wedding on the Santa Barbara coastline. I started the design by working with bougainvillea, expanded the palette to sunset tones, then mixed in bohemian decor to give guests a full Santa Barbara vibe coastal. I wanted to make sure that guests did not feel like they were at your typical zoo with animals and snack foods, so I wove in small animal touches but made the more elevated design elements pop.

The Look

"I was so excited when I got engaged, I got a dress at a sample sale but then changed my mind after all of the alterations I was going to have to do to it to make it 'the dress.' I ended up coming across a photo of another dress and decided to look again. When I put on that dress I knew it was the one the second I put it on." -Alison, bride

Our bridesmaid dress selection was a labor of love. With so many bridesmaids, we wanted to add some texture so it wasn't a sea of one bright color. After multiple trips to the Show Me Your Mumu showroom in Venice, we decided to dress the ladies in two shade of pink and the maid/matron of honor in bronze.

Family Connections

The wedding cake was, surprisingly, on the low end of the planning totem pole for Alison and Connor. They decided to have mini desserts and a small cake for cutting. Alison had an inside joke with her mom from childhood when she told her mom that she DEFINITELY did not eat the cake on the counter and a ghost must have done it. So she thought it would be funny to have a ghost figurine behind the cake with a chunk taken out of the cake. We like to think she found it hilarious.