The cover of The Night Circus caught my attention right away because of the intricate design and the black, white and red colors really draws you. The very first sentence made me want to continue reading and never stop until I was done. “The circus arrives without warning.” I was literally walking and reading from the store to the car, then read myself to sleep. The Night Circus made my imagination and fantasies run wild. I would love to be a part of a magical circus that never had any limits or bounds, but could go as far as your imagination can go. The Night Circus is a very special and important book for me because of the memories I built with my parents and the wonderful roller coaster of emotions for a read.

The venue we chose for this stylized shoot was Bargetto Winery located in Soquel, CA. Bargetto Winery has been wanting to promote their Cellar Room more to brides and grooms, and this was a great way for them to set them apart from other venues. Bargetto Winery were so wonderful and truly committed to this stylized shoot. Cheir and Hannah were there to help in setup and break down every step of the way. As a team we all united for a common goal to embrace the possibilities and showcase the Cellar Room for future brides and grooms.

The Bargetto rustic red floor and the large chandelier in the Cellar Room was a great chance to be able to do an intricate theme, such as a circus. We wanted to embrace the colors of the book cover: black, white, and red. We feel we really took this stylized shoot to another level from the draping of the ceremony, the hand dipped flowers, the dresses the bride wore, make-up of all the models, the plate setting of the sweet heart table, costume design, having live entertainment, and the list goes on.

I wanted to give the feel of being in a circus but keep it elegant and fun. We also want to be able to show that having an extravagant themed wedding can stay low cost. By doing this we ordered the ceremony and reception dresses for the bride model from Rent the Runway. For the brides who are being cost conscious and don’t see that they will want to keep their wedding dress this is a great place to get your dress.

We were thinking of being cost conscious not only with the dress, but with all aspects of the stylized wedding:Floral:Floral can be very expensive, so we purchased 4 dozen roses from Costco. What a lot of brides wouldn’t think about is getting their roses from there. It is a huge surprise and a great cost saver to get 2 dozen roses for only $16.99. We used those roses from Costco and hand dipped them in wall paint samples we got from Home Depot. The effect of dripping paint on the flowers was meant to give the feel when you read The Night Circus, showing the romance and sorrow within the book.

Additionally, we would like to add that this is the first time Megan and I ever had to do floral arrangements and we both quite enjoyed it. Megan did the garland at the ceremony and bridal bouquet. I did the floral at the cake and sweet heart table.Ceremony:We wanted to be very minimal with the decor for the ceremony site. By adding in red draping from Ikea and black sheer curtains from Amazon, gave the dramatic effect we wanted to add. By having the hooper, Hailey Gamma, act as the officiant it gave the circus effect needed to make the onlookers feel they were really in a circus.

Cake Table: We wanted to give the cake table a dramatic and effect by using the vanity mirror. The vases are from the dollar store, but my favorite part about this table is to save on costs but to have the dramatic effect we used our antique glasses found right in our cupboards. We used The Night Circus and Water for Elephants books along with Bargetto Winery’s wine box to give elevation and dimension to the cake table.

Sweet Heart Table: The sweet heart table was incredibly fun to create because we wanted to go with the current trend of not having to use matching plates. The details of this table was so fun. We had mosaic tea light elephants from Pier 1 Imports, ivory elephant from India, fake book drawer set from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.