Working with a great caterer is the first step in creating your perfect wedding menu. Barbara and Company Caterers of Santa Cruz have over 20 years of experience, and know how to make your wedding dreams come true.

As you decide on your menu, keep your theme in mind. If you’re going for a rustic feel for your wedding day, consider something like a BBQ menu. A seafood-based menu is perfect for a nautical theme.

Of course, in any theme there is plenty of room for creativity and your own favorite foods. Barbara and Company can help you with a presentation for your menu choices that will suit your wedding’s style, too.

To find out more about Barbara and Company, and to see their sample menus, check out their website. You can also reach them — and plenty of other great wedding vendors — through our vendor listings.

When it comes to your wedding day, you’ll want to trust your hair to an experienced professional who has helped many other brides have a perfect do for their big day. Carmel-by-the-Sea’s Salon at Lincoln Lane is the ideal choice for your wedding day styling.

Salon at Lincoln Lane offers a full service treatment for brides and their bridal parties. They work with brides ahead of the wedding to plan whether you want an updo or flowing locks. Planning in advance, and having a trial consultation, can help you feel more relaxed on your big day.

As you get ready to walk down the aisle, you’ll want every hair in place. To find out more about Salon at Lincoln Lane’s bridal services, get in touch with them through our member directory or through their website.

When you have more than one wedding day location, you need wedding transportation. Using the services of Main Event Transportation, you and the rest of the bridal party can travel in style.

Super Stretch Limo by Main Event Transportation

The most reputable firm on the Monterey Peninsula, they cover everything you want from your wedding day transportation. You want the vehicle to match your day — it needs to be the best, most fantastic, most elegant possible vehicle with a chauffeur dressed to the nines.

Of course, if your wedding is going to include a few venues, you might also want to consider offering transportation for your guests. Out of town guests will particularly appreciate not having to find their way between venues, and it’s an environmentally friendly choice.

To find out more about arranging your perfect wedding day transportation, and to see more of what Main Event Transportation can offer, visit their website. You can also find out more about them and many other vendors through our directory.

Terrence Farrell

Have you ever heard him play?  OMG!  He is absolutely amazing..and yes, he plays private events.  From the classics to popular standards, from the Latin to the Spanish and Flamenco repertoire for which he is renowned, Terrence is the perfect accompaniment to an otherwise perfect day.  He’s internationally acclaimed but makes his home on the Monterey Peninsula.  If you have a wedding, corporate event or private party coming up, I highly recommend you consider having him play there.

Here’s a link to check out more details about him.

Have you heard him play?  If so, tell us what you think of him below.

Created by BC Design Studio

Black and White Damask Invitation from Crescent Moon Paper Co. 

In many ways it sets the tone for your wedding.  

• If you want a fun, light hearted wedding then you can send a fun light hearted  invite.
• Or you can go the other way and send a save the date card followed by a formal invite.

Your wedding should represent you and your fiancé so why shouldn’t that come through in your stationery. If you are having a themed wedding then make the stationery relevant, be it something simple like

• a color theme or
• maybe you are going for a vintage look.
• Perhaps you are having a destination wedding and would like the stationery to be linked in some way to the destination you are going to.

There are so many options for you to choose from to make your stationery stand out and help towards creating you special wedding.  Whatever it is you are after, the professionals at either BC Design Studio or  Crescent Moon Paper Company, two of our preferred Monterey Bay wedding invitation professionals will certainly create your once in a lifetime invites for a once in a lifetime event.   Please check out more preferred wedding professionals at http://mbwep.com .

• Silver touches are the perfect Gatsby touch. This can include your flatware as well as serving dishes. Also look for items like candelabras and other decorative touches to add a real sense of glamor.
• White linens are the perfect way of finishing your Great Gatsby style wedding tables. The idea here is clean, crisp, and reminiscent of the finest restaurants.
• Flowing champagne can instantly transform your wedding into something Jay Gatsby would be proud of. A champagne fountain is the perfect way of bringing a modern twist to the Jazz Age spectacle.
• Along with the champagne, you also need the right glassware. Whether you want the heavy richness of cut glass crystal or the delicate champagne flutes, your guests will be transported back to the 1920s.

If your reception venue doesn’t have all of these elements, don’t worry. You can call on the services of a rental company to turn your Great Gatsby style wedding dream into a reality.

Santa Cruz’s Alexis Party Rental are experts at making weddings fabulous! Get in touch with them through their site or via their listing to find out more about how they can help you!

Fleurish has been serving the area since 1991 and bring that experience and professionalism to every job they do. Their work, using local and exotic flowers for stunning results. Whatever your budget, Fleurish can help give you the flowers that will make your wedding complete.

They also provide a wide variety of rentals, making the decoration of your wedding venue even easier. This can also save you the money involved in purchasing the vases and containers yourself.

More than any words can say, the quality of Fleurish’s work is simply beautiful. To see more of what they can do, check out their galleries or give them a call.

The Buttery has been a Santa Cruz fixture for over 25 years. Starting with just a few cases of breads and pastries, they’ve grown to be one of the area’s favorites.

They really excel when it comes to wedding cakes, too. Their cake team works with couples to come up with the perfect cake for the occasion. They see the cake as a reflection of each couple, and what is important to them.

Of course, they do much more than wedding cakes. Offering a wide selection of pastries and breads, they can provide an extensive dessert table for your event. They also offer catering services that are an ideal choice for family style meals or relaxed events.

To really see what The Buttery can do, stop by their bakery and cafe!

Wedding desserts are an essential part of your wedding- to some, even more important than the the fancy dress! Here in the Monterey Bay area, we’re seeing new trends unfolding for the 2013 wedding season.

Mini Desserts-

Not a huge fan of cake? No worries! Mini desserts are super popular as well. From miniature pies and tarts to delicious cookies, your guests will able to select their favorites and enjoy!

photos by Edith Meyer Wedding Cakes and John Kaemmerling Photography

Modern Floral-

Wow your guests with a modern zing of color! Large floral with bright colors is a great way to take your cake from drab to fab.

Photo: Cakes by Veronica

Lace-

From traditional to modern, lacy cakes are big this year.  Often a bride will bring a sample of the lace to show their cake designer, who will then create the lace design out of icing, fondant or chocolate. Other times, real lace will be used as an accessory on the cake.

Lace wedding cake by Just Cake

I grew up with an older brother and sister in a small town in western New York State where my mother was the Postmaster and my dad worked on the D.L. & W. Railroad.  We went to church two times every Sunday and I was taught right from wrong and what to believe in order to go to heaven.

While in college I felt called to be a minister and went to Princeton Theological Seminary where my faith was severely tested.  It was there that I discovered a truth, that faith in God isn’t a list of things to believe, but an attitude of trust and a willingness to live with paradox and ambiguity. It’s embarrassing to realize how sheltered I had been, how unaware of other ways of thinking and living.

My first job out of Seminary was as Assistant Chaplain at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. This was during the Vietnam War and and the counter cultural revolution and it was a lively time to be on a college campus.

After four years there, at age 29 I came to Big Sur to visit a friend who was working at Esalen Institute, and I got a job and stayed for 20 years.  I began as a dishwasher and ended as the General Manager.  That was also where I met my wife, and where we had our two children, both born at home.  During those years,though I wasn’t in an official ministerial capacity, I married people, and presided at memorial services and christenings for the Esalen community.  I also served as an EMT with the Big Sur Volunteer Ambulance and as a Captain in the Big Sur Fire Brigade.

After Esalen, I returned to my work as a minister, serving as a hospice chaplain for two years and then as an interim pastor in churches that were going through leadership transition.  I served 4 different churches in 15 years, and then began what has become my current work in Life Celebrations.

How did you get started with your business?

Life Celebrations began when I realized through my hospice work that many people have no one to turn to when it comes to dealing with some important transition in their lives….a death to mourn, a birth to celebrate, a love to consecrate.  I also realized that the Monterey Bay area is an ideal destination for people who wish to

get married so creating this kind of service made a lot of sense and gave me an opportunity to bring my whole self to my work.

What sets you apart from other wedding officiants?

I believe what sets me apart from other wedding officiants is my background and experience.  I’ve made a journey from being the very conservative, “I know the answers” kind of guy, to hopefully becoming a wiser, more open person having a lot of respect for all religious traditions.  My training in seminary, my experience as a college and hospice chaplain, my 20 years at Esalen have awakened in me a profound gratitude for this journey we call life, and there is so much to celebrate about the journey. I also enjoy doing pre-marital counseling with couples who want that.  Having been married for 33 years also gives me some credibility.

Why are you passionate about what you do?  What inspires you?

What inspires me in my work is simply the role I play in the special moments in people’s lives.  I think of myself as being the minister for people who have no minister.  So many people who grew up as I did, either remained stuck and stopped growing,or bailed out on the whole “God thing.”  I find myself able to relate to

them all.  In that sense I can speak many languages.

What is the hardest part about what you do? The best part?

The hardest part of what I do is often the travel.  Living where I do in Big Sur, and making appointments to see people in Carmel for interviews or ceremonies can be a challenge especially in the rainy months when I have to carry my chain saw in my truck.  The best part is the friendships I’ve made with the couples I’ve worked with, and especially with the other vendors of wedding services.

I love this community!

How has being a member of MBWEP been beneficial to you?

“MBWEP has brought me in contact with so many great people who are sharing their passion and gifts as together we help couples celebrate what is perhaps the most important day in their lives.  And I love that we are standing together, telling the story that there are professionals here, in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties that are as skilled and experienced as anyone in San Francisco or LA.  I’m grateful to be part of this organization and look forward to deepening my friendships with my colleagues.”

For more information on Brian’s services you can contact him at 831.626.8570 orbrian@lifecelebrations.org.

Visit his website at www.lifecelebrations.org