Ryan Phillips Blog

Thao and Shawn had an amazing wedding at one of Southern California’s premier wedding venues. You might recognize Villa De La Vina from the Bachelor and Bachelorette TV shows but if not, let me tell you it is one of the most amazing pieces of property in Malibu. With over 10 acres of indoor and outdoor space you are sure to have enough room for any event. The property is the work of Marshall Harriden of The Marshall Group. His other works include several restaurants in Las Vegas and Westlake’s own Suki 7. The house looks like an italian villa complete with roman aquaduct over the swimming pool. The miles of stone work around the property were all imported from Nebraska and 100 year old tiles from a french church can be found throughout. It also features an amazing life sized fresco of the Madonna from a church in Mexico.

Anyway, enough about the property since it will be one of the last times anyone has a wedding there since the house is now on the market. Anyone have $14,000,000 they can spare?

We started out the day at Thao’s house for a traditional Vietnamese Ceremony and then headed over to VDLV for the western ceremony and reception. Mia Bella Weddings did a flawless job on coordination, I highly recommend them. There is so much I could say but the pictures say at all, so enjoy…

Coordinator: Mia Bella Weddings
Dress: Pronovias
Caterer: Command Performance Catering

Carrie shot these the morning of Thao and Shawn’s wedding, it was a great surprise to see it when I downloaded their wedding later that night.

Next time you hit the newsstand check out The Knot (National Edition) for our latest spread. One of our fabulous brides from last year, Sophia, is in print. Check it out…

Sheree and Robert had a very cool wedding at the Long Beach Museum of Art. It is a really neat place with all sorts of possibilities. We started out at Saints Peter and Paul Church which I think is one of the oldest churches in Los Angeles. It was a really cool church, the altar is spectacular! Now when I say cool, that does not have anything to do with temperature cause it was HOT! And so was Sheree in her Monique Lhuillier gown. 

Sheree and Robert’s wedding was all about the love, they way they lit up when they saw each other for the first time was amazing to watch and you could see it affect everyone around them. 

Tiffany Cannis Events transformed the lawn of the Museum into a turqouise wonderland with the help of Flower Allie.

Fifth Avenue Orchestra kept the party hopping all night.

Sorry for the long wait for new posts, Carrie and I have been out of town for a few weeks on the East Coast for a little R&R with the family in The Berkshires. We have lots of great things to post including a fabulous wedding in Vermont at The Hildene.

Amanda and Jonathon had a rockin’ wedding down at Strawberry Farms in Irvine. Unbeknownst to the guests, the videographers (8 of them) were there from TLC to film them for a new reality show called Rock The Reception which airs Tuesday at 8:30pm on The Learning Channel.

It was an energy charged day with a HUGE wedding party full of characters (that’s nice talk for some CRAZY people!) I had never shot there before and there were some realy cool places to take advantage of. Here’s a few of our favorites…

Don’t forget to tune in to TLC this Tuesday at 8:30pm to watch Jonathon, Amanda and their wedding party shock the guests with a surprise version of Poison’s “Ain’t Nothing but a Goood Time” for their first dance. Highly entertaining!

Really, there is no pressure shooting a wedding coordinators wedding, no really :-) Naomi and Larry had a very unique wedding at an “empty canvas” called Eucalyptus Lane in Ventura. There is a perfect little barn, great light, and a fantastic ceremony site! All you need is a little imagination and you have the ingredients for something special. Naomi is part of DNT Elite Events. She has designed amazing weddings for everyone else and now it was time to plan her own. She put together the perfect rustic country wedding.

As you can imagine the details were flawless. From homemade jams in custom labeled jars as party favors to the country lemonade served in mason jars every detail was perfect. 

Wedding Coordinators: DNT Elite Events
Wedding Dress: Songi Bridal
Hair & Make-up: Design Visage
Flowers: BeBuds Florist
Videography: Buckley Videography
Wedding Cake: Deanna Nakamura & co