Real Wedding: Emma and Pat

First of all, I owe all of you an apology for my absence. This past couple of weeks has been over-the-top busy and I'm just now getting back to all of my real wedding submissions. That said, I have an adorable wedding for you from Santa Cruz, California. Photographer Melanie Duerkopp sent it over--the freedom of the day is so apparent in the photographs and that's why I love it.

Emma and Pat were married in Aptos Village Park. Emma is the associate creative director of food- and drink-related books at Weldon Owen Publishing. As Emma describes it: "It was outdoors in a lovely park in summer. My palette was dictated by nature and the season: fresh citrus green, pops of yellow, orange, and white. We named our wedding day: 'Happy Day in May'."

The flowers were bought by the bride and her family from a wholesaler in Santa Cruz the week before the wedding.

The groom's mom made sock puppets to resemble the bride and groom. They sat on the guestbook table.

Sorry to go Valley Girl on you here, but can we just talk about the incredible lines on her dress? I adore it.

Emma, her mum (she's British), her sister, and two of her friends put together the flowers the Friday before her wedding (and hours before their 100-person rehearsal BBQ at their beach house).

Emma was inspired by a signing book she'd seen on Etsy that used a tree. She had her mom draw a tree and then asked people to leave their thumb prints. "Unfortunately, a fat black marker snuck into the mix but I still love it," Emma says.

From Emma: "We love to entertain with family style dinners and impromptu BBQs. We wanted this day to reflect that--casual, fun, with delicious but simple food, plenty of chilled wine and buckets of icy cold Tecates. Good music and a feeling of freedom were what we wanted to give our guests."

Vendor Guide:

Venue: Aptos Village Park, Santa Cruz, California // Bride's Dress: Herve Lagerfeld // Bridesmaid Dresses: Vintage and Anthropologie and ones they already owned // Menswear: From Kohl's and Vans // Caterer: Tacolicious // Entertainment: Savior Fare // Photography: Melanie Duerkopp