Fun and Fancy Wedding at the Bently Reserve

There's no better way to meet a new client than to have them walk in on one of your events during set up, be completely blown away by the design, and then decide right then and there that they've got to hire you to design their own wedding.

That was a true story of how I met Dana. Our team was installing for a beautiful event at the Bently Reserve and was about 75% done when Dana walked in with the venue manager to do a site visit. She was too polite to interrupt our installation but after conveying how much she loved what she saw, the venue manager introduced us. I felt so humbled at all of Dana's compliments at the time, and was thrilled when she reached out to me the very next week, asking me to plan her wedding.

Dana and Hisham lived in Southern California and were both extremely busy with their careers, so they basically entrusted our team with all aspects of the wedding, from the more macro tasks of hiring the right team, to the tiniest of details like preparing comfortable flip flops for her guests to dance in. They flew in once to do their menu tasting, design meeting, table mock up, and final site visit and left everything else to our team.

The Bently Reserve is one of the most classic venues in San Francisco, and is a wonderful blank canvas for us to work with. After curating through all of Dana's pins on Pinterest, we proposed a design concept that conveyed a style/mood of a dreamy luxe garden that would be fancy, yet fun. The details would be refined, yet relaxed, and we would incorporate a clean mix of Old World details and modern touches. Dana loved this concept and so we ran with it, using warm tones of grey, blush pink, and metallic gold.

The results were just what Dana and Hisham envisioned, and we couldn't be happier to watch them walk down the aisle that day! Hope you enjoy these lovely photos from Chung Li:

The awesome team that made our clients so incredibly happy:

Event Design, Planning + Production: Jubilee Lau Events

Venue: Bently Reserve

Catering: Melon's Catering

Bar Service: Best Beverage Catering

Photography: Chung Li Photography

Floral Design: Cherries

Lighting + Draping: Enhanced Lighting

Stationery: Aerialist Press

Rentals: Classic Party Rentals

Linens: La Tavola Fine Linen

Votives: Theoni Collection

Cheers,

KIM + JAMES' WEDDING AT SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL

If you want to get married at the most iconic, quintessential San Francisco venue, that would definitely be San Francisco City Hall. The astounding rotunda surely has a jaw dropping effect on anyone that steps foot inside its marble interior!

Our clients, Kim and James, fell in love with the grandeur of San Francisco City Hall, and instantly picked it as their wedding venue. As with most of our clients, they didn't live in the Bay Area, but had ties to California, so we mostly worked with them remotely to plan their wedding from afar. Our systems in the cloud are perfect for such working relationships, and with just 2 trips out here during our established key points in the planning, everything worked out perfectly. 

The wedding day started off at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown San Francisco, where Kim enjoyed a relaxing morning with her girlfriends. After she and James had their sweet First Look and shared a private moment together, they were whisked away on a cable car trolley with their bridal party to take photos around various San Francisco landmarks.

















We wanted to preserve the classic look of the Rotunda, so we didn't go very elaborate with the decor at all. Kim loved purples and pinks and we had pops of it in various shades to bring some color against the neutral colored marble of the space. 





For the processional, James and the bridal party entered from the lobby level while Kim and her dad braved the long, grand staircase to make their entrance.











Cocktail hour was held upstairs on the mezzanine level, allowing guests to watch the transformation of the rotunda for dinner while sipping on His and Her cocktails.









When guests were invited back downstairs for dinner, the rotunda was transformed into a beautiful dinner space with warm lighting that made the whole space glow softly. Before guests feasted on a delicious meal catered by Melon's Catering, they welcomed the newly weds who made their grand entrance down the long staircase once again.













After heart warming toasts and a delicious 3 course meal, Kim and James opened up the dance floor with their first dance as husband and wife. For the rest of the evening, the guests (both young and old) diligently rocked the dance floor. The only time they took a break was when they hit the Flipbook Booth and bar!













Thank you to the awesome team that worked with us on this extraordinary wedding:


Event Planning + Production: Jubilee Lau Events
Event Design + Styling: Gloria Wong Design
Venue: San Francisco City Hall
Catering: Melon's Catering
Photography: Weeks Photography
Cinematography: Luke Goodman Cinematography
Floral Design: Hunt Littlefield
Stationery: Good on Paper
Makeup + Hair: JBeautique
Cake: Studio Cake
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals
Lighting + Draping: Enhanced Lighting
Flipbook Booth: The Laugh Box
DJ: Dennis Infante
Transportation: Classic Cable Car


Cheers,

BLACK TIE WEDDING AT THE BENTLY RESERVE

If you're looking for a classic, quintessential San Francisco venue, the Bently Reserve should surely be on your list. Once an old banking hall known as the Old Federal Reserve Bank Building, it's Beaux-Arts exterior has been an iconic building in the heart of San Francisco's financial district for many, many years. It's classic, marbled banking hall inside is one of our favorite spaces to plan and design weddings! 

Alice and Randall fell in love with the space for its clean lines, high ceilings, and beautiful chandeliers. From the start, they imagined a formal, black tie wedding at the Bently filled with glamorous details. We had so much fun getting to know them through the planning, which helped us greatly in creating a wedding that truly reflected their personalities and style. 

On the morning of the wedding, Alice and her ladies got ready at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, conveniently located just blocks away from the Bently Reserve. Randall and his men were even closer, at Le Meridien Hotel, right next door to the Bently. Both places offered stunning views of the city! 

The two had their first look at the Embarcadero, and I don't think I'll ever forget the way Randall teared up when he saw his beautiful bride. It was such a sweet, sentimental moment, and the first of many times that day in which Randall teared up. 

We arranged for a cable car trolley to take them around San Francisco for their bridal party photos. Alice, looking absolutely remarkable in her Vera Wang gown, definitely made a lot of head turns as even tourists were snapping photos of them along the way.

At the Bently, white chiffon drapery softened up entry ways to the banking hall as ushers welcomed guests to the ceremony. The room was lined with rows of sleek, white Chameleon chairs with faux diamond buckles, and a black baby grand piano sat behind the last row, filling the room with soft, beautiful music.

As I witness the sentimental moment of Randall watching Alice come down the aisle to be married to him, I can't help thinking to myself that every couple needs to always, always remember this moment during hard times in their marriage. That moment of feeling overjoyed and immensely grateful to be marrying each other and all the reasons why they've decided to join union as one. Getting to be a part of such a monumental day in people's lives will always remain one of my greatest rewards of being a Wedding Planner!

The mood always lightens once the formality of the ceremony is over. Guests are ready to kick the party up a notch with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, and the energy is much greater when the newlyweds are present. We advise clients to do the majority of their family and bridal party portraits before the ceremony, so that they can join in on the festivities of the cocktail hour and spend more time with their guests.

A room flip is required at the Bently Reserve, because both the ceremony and reception takes place in the same banking hall. We have approximately 1 hour for the room flip, and to execute smoothly, every logistical detail must be thought through in advance. Each vendor has very specific needs in terms of their set up. The band requires a certain amount of space, access to electrical outlets, space for speakers, and adequate time for sound checks. Dinner tables are set in layers that consists a team effort from the floral team and catering team. The lighting team has ladders and equipment that has to be maneuvered around everyone else. Without a detailed plan in place, it would be pure chaos as everyone would be toppling over one another trying to get their job done in time. 

As challenging as room flips may be, it is also a rewarding experience to see how awe-inspired guests are when they walk back into the same room one hour later and see it in a completely different context! 

For the remainder of the evening, guests feasted on a sumptuous meal catered by Componere Fine Catering, danced the night away to the tunes of their band-- Black Market Jazz Orchestra band, and indulged in desserts that included a nitrogen ice cream station and macarons hung from a faux banyan tree.

Thank you to our hard working team of vendors who helped to make this wedding a huge success! 

Event Planning + Production: Jubilee Lau Events
Event Design: Gloria Wong Design
Venue: Bently Reserve
Catering: Componere Fine Catering
Photographer: Samuel Lippke Photography
Cinematographer: Lighthouse Studios
Floral Design: Hunt Littlefield
Lighting/Draping: Enhanced Lighting
Music: Bay Music + Entertainment
Officiant: Jon Olson
Cake: Studio Cake
Banyan Tree: Blueprint Studio
Furniture Rental: Hartmann Studio
Chameleon Chairs: Classic Party Rentals
Linens, napkins, napkin rings: Wildflower Linens
Paper Goods: Good on Paper
Makeup/Hair: Mimi & Taylor
Transportation: Classic Cable Car

Cheers,