Modern Black-tie Palm Springs Wedding Weekend

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 13

If you’re a frequent reader of Bridal Musings, you know we can’t resist sharing a stylist Palm Springs wedding!

Being a Palm Springs-ophile & expert myself (read my Ultimate Guide to Planning a Palm Springs Wedding here) I was elated to see this modern take on the desert wedding. While yes, Sarah & Drew’s wedding featured so many of our favorite vendors from our own list, they made their day absolutely their own.

With help from planner Michelle Isabel & Co, the couple transformed the famed midcentury Frederick Loewe Estate into a sleek, mod space filled with black details & punchy fuchsia bougainvillea – so unique!

Palm Springs brides (and fashionophiles) will likely be taking plenty of design & bridal inspiration from this day. Ahem, major applause for bride Sarah’s four different wedding weekend looks – this is exactly why you book your photographer for extra sessions, people!

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 33

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 40

Our Love Story

We were friends and coworkers at a previous job, and we got together after about six months of knowing each other. It all started as a platonic friendship and evolved during our trips to a music festival (Desert Trip in Indio) and concerts together. Drew proposed at Coachella, which is one of our favorite weekends of the year with close friends.

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 19

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 23

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 22

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 20

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 17

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 2

The Venue

Palm Springs is a very special place for us, so it was a natural fit for a destination wedding. We love mid-century modern architecture and fell in love with the Frederick Loewe Estate for an outdoor wedding ceremony and dinner – the guests were able to wind their way through the house with champagne before the ceremony to really soak up the quintessential Palm Springs style!

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 3

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 26

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 27

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 6

The Photography

Mary Claire Roman was recommended to us by another vendor and we are so thrilled she captured the day! In lieu of an engagement photo session, we asked Mary Claire to come to the Frederick Loewe Estate before our rehearsal dinner for a photoshoot around the grounds. I was able to wear some fun, non-bridal outfits and really take advantage of the drama of our venue. This helped us get to know Mary Claire and vice versa, and by the next day, we were old friends.

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 35

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 31

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 32

The Planning

Our goal was to throw a really fun and authentic party for our people – so we decided to let our intuition, rather than wedding tradition, guide us.

The ceremony was officiated by our close friend Justin, who was such a hit he may have a second career as a wedding officiant.

Our florist created a beautiful take on a chuppah made up of bougainvillea, a classically Palm Springs flower.

Sarah didn’t want bridesmaids per se, so our sisters were part of the wedding party and chose their own dresses – they looked amazing.

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 36

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 7

Favorite Moments

Having a good friend marry us made it so much more personal and meaningful for us, and Sarah’s uncle Joe played guitar before and during the ceremony. A family-style dinner sparked conversation among guests and kept things lively. Sarah’s mother made challah bread from Sarah’s late grandmother’s recipe for everyone, which brought so much meaning to the table.

Breaking the celebration up by moving to the Ace for late-night dancing was a great way to deal with local noise ordinances and also allowed for a more casual nightclub feel to end the night, after a more chic event at Frederick Loewe Estate. Music was a big part of the night – Sarah’s sister even made custom mixes for the shuttles and restrooms to keep the energy going.

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 50

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 51

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 53

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 10

The Reception

Our dinner was served family-style and the 125 guests sat at 3 long tables – we wanted it to feel informal and fun, yet elevated. The flowers were inspired by the desert environment and added pops of color.

After dinner, the guests all boarded shuttles to the Ace Hotel for a dance party. We didn’t feel strongly about a cake so we had a table of mini desserts (plus grilled cheese and sliders) for those wanting a break from dancing. We skipped doing a first dance and formal dances with our parents (we forgot to practice, whoops!) and instead jumped right into a few hours of dancing. There was also an epic Robyn singalong and plenty of early aughts jams.

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 57

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 45

Advice to Other Couples

We are very grateful to have worked with a wonderful planner Michelle Isabel & Co – making the details of the weekend run smoothly so we could enjoy being with our friends and family. We’d highly recommend working with a planner if possible.

For budgeting – it was crucial for us to gather quotes early in our planning process so we could create a complete budget and pare down from there once we knew the top potential costs. This allowed us to be realistic and pragmatic in our budgeting and vendor booking rather than guided by emotion. It’s worth mentioning we planned the entire wedding in 5 months – it can be done!

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 60

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 58

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 44

More Tips

For some of the events during the weekend, we needed disposable napkins, plates, and glassware. We wanted our wedding to be as eco-friendly as possible and found great compostable products from selfeco.com.

We purchased flip flops for guests from receptionflipflops.com, which Sarah credits for the long dance party.

Many hours were spent on the seating chart and it was worth every minute. We worked hard to pair up friends and family from all around the country (and Hong Kong!) to make new connections and it was so fun to watch the new friendships.

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 64

Ultra-Stylish Palm Springs Wedding with Modern Black Details – Frederick Loewe Estate – Mary Claire Roman 65

The Honeymoon

We took a quick four day trip to Maui right after the wedding weekend – a big benefit to living on the West Coast. We are so glad we took the trip because our longer honeymoon planned for summer 2020 is on indefinite hold due to the pandemic.