A Divine Occasion: Ivy & Peter: An Extraordinary Beach Wedding

Ivy and Peter hit the jackpot when they won The Orange County Register's Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort and Locale Magazine's Sweepstakes Wedding! After making it into the final round of couples to the top five; Ivy and Peter were announced the winners at Locale Magazine's Launch Party. A dream come true, their prize was an amazing $150,000 wedding at Hilton's Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach.

The wedding included, but was not limited to, a breath-taking beach ceremony, a first dance on top of an acrylic dance floor covering the pool at sunset, a fire-dancing performance, a beautiful candy buffet, and to top off the night a build-your-own Waffle-Palooza station!

Ivy and Peter are two of the most down-to-earth individuals I know. It was perfectly natural for them to want a beach wedding, since they both grew up in Redondo Beach, California. Peter proposed to Ivy with dinner at the beach during a multi-color summer sunset in a secluded area of Palos Verdes.

Ivy and Peter always knew they would get married outdoors, near the beach. It was especially important that their wedding be fun and filled with great music and food. Ivy envisioned plenty of time to dance with her husband, friends and family at her reception.

We wanted to create a beach wedding that was unique and elegant. People often assume a beach theme has to be very casual and it doesn't. We created a tasteful color scheme of various shades of blue and beautiful sand tones.

It was very important to Ivy that her grandfather perform the ceremony at her wedding. It added such a personal and lovely touch to the wedding; and her father, step-mother, brother and sister flew all the way from Moscow, Russia to walk her down the aisle.

During the planning process, we had to be very mindful about the guest count. The room at the Hilton maxes out at 170 people; and of course, a lot of friends and family wanted to attend. It was difficult to determine who got an invite. Ivy and Peter would've loved to have invited everyone!

The reception turned out to be so beautiful; and my favorite design piece was a navy sequined overlay on the dining tables, which created a gorgeous effervescent effect for the reception.