Hollister Ranch Wedding by Ellie Grover

Posted by Josie | 2 comments

Marissa and Dan had a breath­tak­ing and joy­ful wed­ding. Located at the beau­ti­ful Hol­lis­ter Ranch in Santa Bar­bara, CA, this cou­ple sure picked an amaz­ing place to get mar­ried. With gor­geous views of the Pacific Ocean all around them, they were in pure bliss. The ocean mixed with some nat­ural tones really cap­tured their per­son­al­i­ties. Ellie Grover was there to pho­to­graph all the fun and whim­si­cal moments of this per­fect day. Enjoy!

Girl Meets Boy…

We met at UCLA, dur­ing finals week. Even though Dan was a math major and I was an Eng­lish major, we ended up study­ing together. Ten months later, we started dat­ing and never wanted to stop hang­ing out. We’d been together five years when Dan pro­posed to me on the cliffs of Santa Cruz, after an after­noon of surf­ing. I was so sur­prised I started cry­ing and said, “Will you marry me too?”

Wed­ding Plan­ning Inspiration…

We love camp­ing, surf­ing and, sim­ply, being out­side together. This loca­tion holds deep mean­ing for us as a cou­ple, a place where we spend much qual­ity time together. We wanted our wed­ding to be vibrant with color, while also nat­ural with an ele­gant touch. We hoped it would be respect­ful of tra­di­tion and seri­ous about the com­mit­ment of mar­riage, while also play­ful, whim­si­cal and–of course–fun.

Details…

I loved the recy­cled glass can­dle pil­lars, which were part of our din­ner table cen­ter­pieces. I also loved the hand­made nap­kin rings (paper flow­ers on wire rings), cre­ated by a dear fam­ily friend. One of my favorite touches is the arch, beneath which we were mar­ried. Dan con­structed it, out of drift­wood we col­lected together. Our wed­ding day was very windy, so the arch’s struc­tural integrity was tested–and passed with fly­ing colors!

Color Palet…

We selected char­coal gray, blue and coral. I wanted my brides­maids’ dresses to be char­coal gray because, to me, it feels clas­sic yet inno­v­a­tive. Dan’s favorite color is blue, and we loved the col­or­ful flare of the coral. I loved the arrange­ments our florist put together, which com­bined a ton of wild­flow­ers, in all dif­fer­ent hues.

Mem­o­rable Moments…

Before I headed down the aisle, I had to take off my veil because it was so incred­i­bly windy on the bluff where we were mar­ried. I was there with my father and step­fa­ther, and my best friend, about to head down the aisle to my groom–and, in that moment, I knew that details like a veil didn’t mat­ter in the least!

My maid of honor gave a speech that I will always remem­ber. She unearthed emails I’d writ­ten to her, from back when Dan and I first started dat­ing. She shared excerpts, woven with her own reflec­tions on us. Dan and me, and all our guests, laughed through the whole toast.

Lastly, I loved danc­ing at our wed­ding. Dan and I hoped we’d dance like crazy at our wed­ding, and boy did we get to! We danced together and with our friends and fam­ily. It was the per­fect way to mer­rily cel­e­brate our marriage.

RADDEST Wed­ding Vendors…

Lisa Vil­hauer of Fleur de Lis did an incred­i­ble job with flow­ers. She brought together the organic tone, bright col­ors and spe­cific types of flow­ers I’d hoped for, while on a budget.

Ellie Grover cap­tured beau­ti­ful and fun images. We feel that we got the best of both worlds–classic wed­ding high­lights and key moments, while simul­ta­ne­ously inti­mate and creative.

Touch of Style (Laura Robert­son and Taryn Ruiz) were amaz­ing on our wed­ding day. Any unfore­seen com­pli­ca­tion that arose and they were there to take care of it! We are very grate­ful that our wed­ding day got to be peace­ful for our­selves and our fam­i­lies, thanks to them.

Phil’s Catering’s staff was friendly and warm, on the day of; and we received rave reviews from all of our guests about the food.

Advice for Other “New­bie Brides”…

Have an amaz­ing time with the ones you love!

Wed­ding Artists | Pho­tog­ra­phy: Ellie Grover Pho­tog­ra­phy | Venue: Hol­lis­ter Ranch | Caterer: Phil’s Cater­ing | Flow­ers: Fleur de Lis Flow­ers | Hair/Makeup: The Queen’s Bee’s | Cake: Solvang Bak­ery | Rentals: Tent Mer­chant | Linens: La Tavola Linens | DJ Enter­tain­ment: Good­beat Productions