Travel Themed Wedding at the Santa Barbara Sea Center

From Magnolia Event Design:

The Wedding Day

The bride and groom were married at Our Lady of Sorrows Church by the groom’s family priest who flew in from his post at the Vatican.   Following their wedding ceremony all guests boarded the Santa Barbara Trollies for a brief tour of Santa Barbara, which ended on the iconic Sterns Wharf.  The trolley pulled onto the wharf and the guests were greeted by servers with glasses of local wine, specialty cocktails or local beer and then encouraged to pet sharks and explore the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center, which was transformed for the cocktail hour.  

After cocktail hour, the white billowy curtains were pulled back and revealed the dining space, which was created on a private finger of Stearns Wharf.  Guests were escorted to their table by custom leather luggage tags that have the coordinates of Santa Barbara embossed on them.  Each table was named after an airport code that Amy and Reagan had visited together.  The band began to play as guests found their seats.  A monogramed napkin with the guest’s initials designated each seat. When the salad plate was pulled a handwritten note written by the bride and groom to each and every guests was revealed, which was just one of the many personal touches Amy and Reagan took the extra time to make for their guests so that they knew how important each of them were to the couple. The bride and groom were announced as husband and wife and took to the dance floor under an open sky and chandeliers, one of Amy’s very few must have items for her wedding day.  

The evening progressed with toasts filled with love and tons of laughs, including bridesmaids in TOMS and oversized photos of the couple.  There was the “gator pile”, a “Friends in Low Places” all out sing along with The Selections, and a Jack Daniels go pro.

The Wedding

The theme of the wedding was simple, yet significant. Travelling has always been important and a big part of Reagan and Amy’s relationship. They once travelling around the world in 45 hours and 36 minutes stopping four times – Chicago, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Seattle, taking off and landing in Phoenix. Therefore, the theme for their wedding was travel inspired. To highlight a few details, the escort cards were designed like luggage tags, the guest tables were named by airport codes of countries the couple had visited, and each menu was personalized with the story of a highlight of the couples travel to the country represented by the menu. Wedding guests came from all over the world – 6 different countries, and 16 different states, with a total of 241,000 miles traveled to get to Santa Barbara. In fact, the bride and groom traveled the second farthest – 8,700 miles from Singapore, with guests from Perth, Australia travelling the farthest (9,300 miles).

A sweet touch – Amy gifted Reagan cufflinks engraved with the coordinates and the date of where and when they met on one cufflink, and the coordinates of the church with the date of their wedding on the other. 

Unique Details

Monograms

The bride and groom both love initials and the classic elegance of them. The groom designed the couple’s monogram that was used on all of the collateral, gobo, cookies, etc. Guest napkins were personalized for each guest with either the couple’s monogram or each guest’s individual monogram. Female family members and bridesmaids received personalized monogram bags, while the groomsmen had custom belt buckles with their monograms engraved in them.

Custom Jack Daniels Bottles

The groom always wanted an excuse to custom make a single barrel of Jack Daniels, but never had a reason until it came time for him to get married.  He gave the men custom bottles at the welcome dinner, and it was also served at the reception.

Ceremony Venue: Our Lady of Sorrows Church | Reception Venue: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center | Wedding Designer and Planner: Lindsey Hartsough, Magnolia Event Design | Wedding Photographer: Linda Chaja Photography | Wedding Florist: NLC Productions | Wedding Caterer: Feast & Fest previously SBB Gourmet | Wedding Cake: Your Cake Baker | Hair & Makeup: Luna Bella, Unveiled | Live Music: The Selections | Wedding Rentals: Classic Party Rentals | Linen Rental: La Tavola Fine Linens | Transportation: Santa Barbara Air Bus, Santa Barbara Trolley | Videographer: Daniel Chae | Drone Footage: JoePro Santa Barbara | Printed Materials: Paperjoy