Blush & Blue Lake Tahoe Destination Wedding

We can’t picture a more beautiful day than that on which this Lake Tahoe destination wedding took place. The water quite literally sparkles during the lakeside ceremony and the sunset is something truly magical. The bride & groom also managed to choose shades of blush and blue that echoed those natural colors so well. Altogether it’s a romantic, beachy-yet-elegant, and intimate affair.

The planner, Cloud Nine Event Company, shares how the spectular day came together below.

When Shadie and Saul first reached out to me looking for help planning their destination wedding in Lake Tahoe, it was pretty much love at first talk. Not only do we all hail from the same alma mater (Go Trojans!), but there was also just this instant connection to them personally and a genuine desire to be a part of their special day.

Plus, in hearing the description of their ideal wedding, I knew it had all the elements that event dreams are made of…A love story that began at a job interview (she got the job by the way!), a bride with a clear and unique vision for her big day, a creative couple with real design skills, and a romance that led to around the world adventures. I literally couldn’t wait to start planning it!

We spent a few months chatting and emailing, and working around the massive time difference between California and Sydney. Eventually, I convinced them to come to Tahoe to see a few select venues. They settled on Zephyr Cove Resort (which was covered in snow at the time they saw it) because it offered everything they were looking for… sandy beaches, majestic mountains, crystalline waters, pine forests, a laid back outdoorsy space, and breathtaking sunset vistas.

Once that was settled, it didn’t take long for Shadie to reach out to Chloe Moore Photography. After one conversation, Chloe agreed to travel to Tahoe for the wedding and joined the team of vendors that made this day so spectacular. Her photographs truly capture the magic of that special day, the beauty of Lake Tahoe at dusk, and the continuation of a beautiful love story.

My favorite detail from the day were the hanging elements that we delicately dangled from fishing line above the center of the head table. These geometric shapes and glowing lanterns, which the bride had collected herself, seemed to float just above the honored guests. They added yet another personal touch to this truly special celebration.

From the Bride…

Shortly after getting engaged, we moved from our home in Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia. As much as we wanted our wedding to be a celebration of the start of our marriage, we also wanted it to be a celebration of our friends and family who we loved and missed being so far from home. We knew we wanted to do a destination wedding to give us as much time to spend with friends and family as possible – but we also wanted to pick a place that felt accessible for all of our guests. I’d always imagined getting married on a beach and he’d always described his dream wedding as “tacos in a park.” Lake Tahoe, with it’s beautiful hiking trails, great vacation properties and endless lake activities, gave us the perfect playground for a long weekend of celebrations.

Planning a wedding from around the world was a bit daunting at first, but luckily we found Lindsay from Cloud NineEvent Co. who really helped us bring our complete vision to life. She helped us find a dream team of vendors and looking back there’s not a single thing we would have changed. We chose Zephyr Cove Resort for our venue because it showcased Tahoe’s beauty in all its glory. We were married on the beach, held our cocktail hour on a grassy lawn, had a big, beautiful tent for dinner and set up our dance floor in a forest, under the stars – all within steps of one another.

For the design of the wedding, I was very inspired by Lake Tahoe at dusk. The sky lights up in vibrant pink hues and is offset by sparkling, clear blue waters and a dense pine forest. To showcase these colors, we picked flowers that included everything from chocolate dahlias to burgundy ranunculus to bright pink peonies to black & white anemones with green eucalyptus. I did all of the graphic design for the wedding myself and again was very inspired by Tahoe’s natural beauty.

Despite planning from so far away, we really got to be hands on with the design process. For our escort and place cards, we printed photos of each of our guests. Then, we found a cool, vintage California highway sign which we used to showcase them. We also worked with a local vintage furniture rental company to get our logo embossed onto a wooden sandwich board. We absolutely loved the way it turned out and love that we’ll get to have a piece of our wedding in our house for years to come. Not ones to miss out on a little DIY action, we also hand dyed our dinner napkins to match both the lake, as well as some great blue goblets we’d found.

We’ve been lucky to live in a lot of cities known for their great foods. For our appetizers and dinner menu, we picked our favorite dishes from our favorite cities to serve. We had everything from New Orleans jambalaya to cheese tarts from Switzerland. For our cake, we chose two layers – one with chocolate cake, chocolate ganache and strawberries and one with coconut cake, caramelized pineapples and a cream cheese frosting. Because we live so far away, we weren’t able to save the top layer of our cake so we have decided we’ll create our own tradition of re-creating our wedding cake on our anniversary.

The night ended with all of our guests singing at the tops of their lungs on the dance floor. It was both of our dreams come true.