Breathtaking Bali!
I’m not really an island girl, but Bali stole my heart.
Our clients Ben & Sherry live in Hong Kong and wanted a destination wedding, and Bali was their locale of choice. Ben is the brother of one of my former clients. I was so delighted to get the call from his fiancé Sherry as I love doing multiple events for the same family. Always so fun to reconnect with the family and the guests.
I met with Ben and Sherry while they were visiting CA for the holidays….and was presented with two big challenges…
Challenge #1: Although Bali was the destination of choice, Sherry didn’t want anything too colorful, too Balinese, or pretty much anything tropical at all!
Challenge #2: Sherry is severely allergic to the sun. Like…breaks-out-in-intense-rashes allergic.
Hmmmm… ok. No problem. A non-Balinese wedding in Bali….(in the shade)!
As you know, I love design challenges…so we took this one on full force. We had only a short time to plan this wedding, and could only do 1 site visit. Mindy and I were scheduled for a 3-day site visit (that would be 3 actual work days + 22 hours of flying each way!). The plan was to do some rapid planning, sourcing, and designing in those three days and then meet with Ben and Sherry in Hong Kong on our way back from Bali and present the entire design to them. Yikes. No pressure what-so-ever!
(Shopping in Denpasar for floral vessels. Photo by Aaron Delesie)Ben & Sherry had selected the amazingly beautiful Amanusa Resort for their wedding celebration, and had selected a hip restaurant in Jimbaran as their rehearsal dinner location. So the locations were done – we just needed to view the locations and design each event for them.
So…off we went to Bali! Within only a few hours of landing and shopping in the local markets, Mindy and I knew instantly that Capiz was destined to come to the wedding. When we work on destination weddings, our first priority is to figure out what is indigenous to the area, and more importantly what the local artisans can produce for us. The capiz products from Bali are stunning and we knew using capiz as a décor foundation would give Sherry that romantic (and non-tropical) feeling she was after.
(Photos by Aaron Delesie)
Our design included custom capiz chargers, all capiz vessels for Mindy’s florals, and the pièce de résistance…. a giant capiz wall as the backdrop for Sherry and Ben’s nuptials. We also incidentally later found a source to make church pews for us for the ceremony. So…the finished design included…church pews, the capiz backdrop, and capiz chandeliers flanking the “altar”. Unbelievable!
Within our short 3 days, Mindy and I had mapped out the entire design, figured out our sources, and were ready to head over to Hong Kong.
One thing was unsettling to us though…it was a tad heartbreaking for us to do an event in Bali without doing something traditionally “Balinese”. We absolutely loved our wedding day design and we knew Sherry and Ben would love it too. But…we didn’t love the idea of having everyone fly over to Bali and go to a restaurant for the rehearsal dinner.
As we flew from Bali to Hong Kong to meet with Sherry and Ben – Mindy and I prepped and designed an entire traditional Indonesian BBQ as a potential rehearsal dinner option for them. While in Bali – we spent a whole day in downtown Denpasar at the gorgeous, gorgeous markets and found the most extraordinary produce, florals, pottery, and vessels for a traditional Balinese rehearsal dinner. Our only challenge now was to convince Sherry and Ben that this would be so much more enjoyable and memorable for their guests than just going to a restaurant. We were armed with the most extraordinary photos from downtown Denpasar…so we were certain we could convince them.
(Video of Mindy and I shopping in Downtown Denpasar)
And…SUCCESS!! Sherry and Ben loved the idea and gave us the green-light to pull the plug on the restaurant rehearsal dinner and move it over to the beach for a BBQ. Sherry was perfectly content to have a traditional Balinese BBQ as their rehearsal dinner since we were giving her a beautifully romantic and ethereal (and non-tropical) wedding. Mindy and I could not have been happier! And…don’t worry…I set the timing of the event to start just a few minutes before sunset…so Sherry was perfectly fine to be out on the beach for this event!
The wedding and the rehearsal dinner were unbelievably gorgeous! And we are so grateful to Sherry and Ben for letting us do our thing. They had a tremendous amount of faith in us and we knew we wouldn’t let them down! Check out Aaron Delesie’s photos in my gallery under “Breaktaking Bali” and “Indonesian BBQ”. Both the wedding and the rehearsal dinner were featured in Town & Country Weddings, which you can view in my press gallery. The spread looks fabulous.
(Video about Balinese rain stoppers)
And…as an added bonus of our Balinese adventure… Warmana – the Reiki master at the resort singled me out (perhaps I had a little too much “energy” as I was buzzing around at this event??) and gave me private Reiki lessons. As an event planner – Reiki is invaluable. Warmana ended up initiating me in First Degree Reiki, which is a huge honor. He has initiated 700 people worldwide, and I am number 701.
Namaste.
(Photos by Aaron Delesie)
4 CommentsSite visit San Sebastian, Spain!
I’ve been to Spain many times, but never to San Sebastian. I love working in new places. New locations mean new design challenges, new artisans, new inspirations, and another new culture to appreciate and understand (oh… and more new food and new drinks to try!).
The fabulous Mindy Rice joined me for this site visit. She is one of my favorite travel partners….not only because she is one of the most talented women I know, and one of the funniest women I know…but mainly because she will eat and drink ANYTHING! We have a blast sampling the local cuisine and the local libations together. San Sebastian is home to a high concentration of restaurants boasting Michelin stars – so what better place for a gastronomic adventure?
Our mission for this site visit was to find specific locations for our client's rehearsal dinner, their ceremony, and their wedding dinner reception. From the moment we stepped foot in the “Parte Vieja” (old part) in San Sebastian, we knew a “pintxos” tour was a must for our client's guests. Pintxos are essentially the Basque version of tapas, and in San Sebastian, you basically belly up to the Pintxos bars, enjoy a few, then head on to the next bar. So - rather than doing a traditional seated rehearsal dinner, we will be giving our client's guests an authentic taste of San Sebastian by doing a Pintxos tour. Delightful!
On the pintxos tour, we’ll also make sure the guests are able to sample the traditional libations of San Sebastian as well….Basque cider, Txakoli (Basque wine), and my all time favorite….Patxaran. Our darling Basque friend Fernando turned us on to Patxaran which is a delicious liquor made from soaking sloe berries, a few coffee beans, and a vanilla pod in anisette. You sip it chilled after a full pintxos meal and it is the most delicious digestif. I may have accidentally brought a bottle (or three) home for myself!
For the nuptials, we selected a gorgeous Basilica. It goes without saying that the churches and basilicas in San Sebastian are mind blowing. I get chills every time I walk through the church doors, and I can already picture the groom's face as his bride walks through the Basilica doors and down the aisle towards him. A-ma-zing.
(Images from Mindy and my 16 mile walk to Getaria)
My absolute favorite part of the site visit was the day trip Mindy and I took to Getaria (a small fishing village just outside San Sebastian). We were looking at Getaria in hopes that it would work for a small day excursing for our client's guests. It ended up being too far to be practical for a day trip…but holy cow…I’m so happy Mindy and I got to experience it. The town is straight out of a storybook, and is the birth place of many famous commanders in the Spanish Armada, as well as many famous Spanish explorers.
(Gorgeous La Concha bay in San Sebastion)An incredible journey and yet another incredible learning experience! This wedding is coming up in May – so stay tuned for more photos after the wedding!
Vamos a Zacatecas!
When traveling to Mexico, I never leave home without the fabulous Lewis Barker. He was born and raised in Guadalajara, and in addition to being a brilliant lighting and set designer, he is the most extraordinary tour guide in Mexico! Lewis can strike up a conversation with anyone and he has this magic way of getting people to say yes when they say no to everyone else. He has gained us access to some extraordinary locations in Mexico and is always able to get us out of “situations” that occur while traveling in Mexico (ummmm…yah…kind of like the time we got pulled over by the Federales on our way from Puerto Vallarta to Costa Careyes with $7000 of alcohol in our car. We purchased the alcohol for one of our client’s events. Nothing illegal…we just didn’t have the right paperwork – but had Lewis not been there, I was certain I would have ended up in a Mexican prison!).
So….off we go to Zacatecas! Lewis and I took a red-eye from LAX, landed at 7:00 am in Zac City and literally worked non-stop until we boarded the plane back for LA. Was exhausting and exhilarating all in one. One of the most efficient site visits we’ve done. Amazing what you can make happen when you are pressed for time! It was the “quick fire” challenge of site visits!
(The beautiful monastery ruins will provide the backdrop for our ceremony)
We had 3 formal menu tastings to complete during this site visit (no complaints from me or from Lewis on this!). We packed in the food in between sourcing vendors and locations for Regina and Zaheen’s events, and everything was incredible.
This event is coming up in June. I know I say this about every event – but seriously - so excited about this one! Zacatecas is a charming old silver mining town, and is known for its amazing pink stone buildings. I adore our clients Regina & Zaheen, and everyone knows working in Mexico feeds my soul – so it’s a match made in heaven for me!
The ceremony will take at an incredible museum. It is the site of a former San Franciscan convent and the ruins are insanely beautiful. For the cocktail reception…we’re going to do a traditional Callejoneada (parade) from the ceremony location to the dinner reception. Burros will carry Mescal and Tequila for the guests. Can’t wait to dress up the burros!
(Lewis Barker taking measurements of the old bull ring)