Clare & Nick | Colorful Midsummer Wedding at West Shore Cafe, Lake Tahoe

Featured on Martha Stewart Weddings.

This bright and colorful midsummer wedding took place at the West Shore Cafe in Lake Tahoe. Working with their wedding planner, Jenn Robirds Events, Clare and Nick decided on a relaxed, yet romantic vision for their big day, complete with muted blues and a sunset-inspired floral design. Clare’s bouquet included white icelandic poppies, peach and pink ranunculuses, yellow zinnia, soft pink foxglove, soft blue tweedia, white astilbe, lisianthus, white peonies, Koko loko roses, garden roses and the only “greenery” element was bleached ruscus. It was perfect for Clare - a traditional floral-only bouquet with a modern shape. The lush ceremony arch featured many of the same and looked like a flower explosion!

All these incredible florals accented her lace Carolina Herrera gown beautifully. She chose a simple A-line dress with bold floral lace overlay a unique fabric that had golden thread in a honeycomb pattern. Clare says, for the other details, “I tried to match the earrings, shoes, hairpin and belt with organic feeling and the delicate golden honeycomb detail and the natural setting. The pearl earnings had a jacket of golden vine with leaves, the shoes had floral details, and the belt had golden undertones and a pop of sparkle with opal stones. For my wedding band, we worked with the jeweler to add in one sapphire to a diamond band to represent Lake Tahoe. It was my “something blue” and a little daily reminder of our wedding day and the commitment we made to one another.”

For her bridesmaids dresses, she had each bridesmaid choose from a variety of blue Jenny Yoo dresses that all complemented each other. She was taken by the beautiful Ohana print from Jenny Yoo and built the other colors around.

About the invitation, Jenn Robirds says “the invitation suite was a completely custom design. We wanted to showcase the venue in a fun way so we added a gorgeous line drawing to the invitation and had it letter pressed in a custom mixed blue ink. We added in some modern touches like a vellum map of the lake. To tie the suite together we used a paper with bark embossed details and closed it with a custom wax seal. The playfulness of the paper and the palettes of blues set the perfect tone for the wedding weekend.”

To achieve the relaxed, romantic lakeside wedding vibe, Jenn says “We opted for low arrangements in alternated sizes and vessels down the linear table scapes to create movement. Organic Flora literally blew us away and the product she sourced was perfect! Our initial direction included long tables with linens, but one afternoon we received a call from the groom letting us know he wanted farm tables - so we made the switch and added gorgeous gauze-like runners from La Tavola Fine Linen. The china in a gorgeous soft blue with amazing details along the rim was another stand out element. We sourced tumbled glass from Canada for the place cards for an understated detail that played to the brides love of sea glass. Letter press menus pulled it all together with the epic venue rendering adorned on the bottom.”

When a couple chooses me to photograph their wedding, it is truly such an honor and a privilege. It’s also so exciting to see the design they come up with for their wedding day! This wedding in particular was chock-full of amazing details and incredible colors. I would get giddy every time I’d receive a text messages from Clare in the months leading up to the wedding with sneak peek photos of all the fun details to come. A few other standout details from the day were the perfect blue plates, terra cotta elements, sea glass place cards and glass jugs for the escort display. See them all below!