When our editorial team sits down to plan our magazines, the goal we always have in mind is that we want to inspire our readers. It’s really no different with Real Weddings Magazine. We want you, our beautiful brides, to be inspired—through the pages of our magazine and through the pages on our Web site—to create the wedding of your dreams, no matter your budget.
With that goal in mind, we’ve packed this issue with ideas and resources meant to encourage your creativity and to help guide you throughout your planning in the months ahead.
In this issue, we present 25 gorgeous real weddings and an additional six real weddings featured exclusively online at realweddingsmag.com. When we select the real weddings for the magazine, the first question we ask is, “Will this wedding inspire our readers?” These 31 real weddings certainly inspired us, and we hope you’ll find elements from their weddings that will inspire you to make your wedding your own.
Also in this issue, our Always a Bridesmaid Darren Elms presents some fabulous ideas to help make your special day even more special. Our resident travel writer-girl Jenn Thornton explores six alternative honeymoon destinations. Can’t figure out what to give to your bridesmaids? No need to fret, just check out Melissa Camilleri Magliola’s fabulous gift idea finds for everyone in the wedding party. Your wedding is just the start of you and your partner’s lives together. To inspire romance, respect and a deeper love for your chosen one, Rev. Jeri Murphy presents questions to ponder as you embark on your journey together. And, of course, our editorial team presents the Style Files: Your Local Wedding Planning Resource Guide from Sacramento to the Sierra. Our team has assembled fabulous photos featuring exquisite flowers, scrumptuous cakes, fun favors and glamourous invitations—all from local wedding professionals—along with usable tips, helpful hints and extensive local vendor resources to help you assemble your wedding dream team.
And last, but certainly not least, we present our cover model finalist feature with this issue’s finalists Autumn, Amelia and Emily. All I can say is, “WOW!” You ladies worked your booties off this past March at our photo shoot at Carvalho Family Winery at Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg. Beautiful young women, talented hair and make-up teams, gorgeous dresses, fabulous flowers, amazing headpieces, a little bling and, of course, the spectacular Sarah Maren Photography team all came together on a picturesque March day—thank you all so much! And, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank our dedicated editorial team for their tremendous hard work and contributions to this piece (not to mention the magazine as a whole!). We hope you find this feature as inspirational as we do.
Real Weddings Magazine is a labor of love for our team. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy producing it for you! As always, I’d love to hear from you—feel free to email me at wendy(at)sierrastyle.com.