Elegant Champagne & Pink Wedding Celebration

November 14, 2012

Elegant Champagne & Pink Wedding Celebration

The “Love Story” of Ellen and Jim Damarelos July 14, 2012

Written by our Bride…

“I had been living in Denver since 2006 and my parents decided to move here in 2008. They let me go house shopping with them. There was just something about the house that they ended up buying. I knew that they had to live there and I talked them into buying it. I’m convinced it was fate because their next door neighbor is Jim’s mom. My mom met Jim while he was next door mowing his mom’s lawn. She thought he was so handsome and sweet that she started thinking of ways to introduce us. One day while I was visiting my parents, he was at his mom’s house doing yard work. My mom asked me to come outside because she needed my help and somehow got Jim to come over as well. I liked him immediately. In our first conversation we discovered that we were both members of the same gym. I started going to the gym a lot more trying to run into him. One day I was running on the treadmill and I saw him working out. He was laughing to himself about something and it just tickled me to see what a happy person he is. Most people working out wear a scowl on their face and are so serious looking. He just looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself and that’s when I really knew that I wanted to know everything about him. Eventually he saw me and came over to talk to me. He asked me out and our first date was the day before Valentine’s Day. We’ve been together ever since. ”

Written by our Bride… (continued)

“The thing I love most about Jim is his heart. He is the most caring person I’ve ever met. He seems to know what I’m thinking or feeling without my having to express it verbally. He’s the kind of person who will get up to go to the kitchen for a glass of water for himself and will bring you one as well just in case you wanted one. Jim can make me laugh harder than anyone ever has and he doesn’t even have to try. He is the most genuine and sweetest person I’ve ever met. I feel like I’ve found someone I can love like crazy who will love me the same way back.”

The Bridal Gown

Ellen’s dress was a Galena Signature silk halter dress with a beaded waist. The first thing she did after Jim proposed was to go dress shopping. Her mom and maid of honor took her to David’s Bridal. The only thing she knew was that she wanted a halter dress. Her mom spotted the Galena Signature dress and asked her to try it on. The minute she did she knew it was “the gown.” It was the only dress she could see myself getting married in. It brought to mind what style of a wedding she wanted. The dress was glamorous in a vintage, 1940’s way. It made her picture an elegant, romantic, and vintage style wedding.

What was most important …

“We wanted a wedding that people would remember the little details about. We’ve been to many weddings and can’t remember things like the table centerpieces, or the music, or the overall ambiance after it’s over. But there was one wedding we went to that we remember everything about because it was so romantic. We wanted to have those special personal touches that people would notice and remember.”

“It was important to us to have the ceremony and reception in the same place. We didn’t want people to have to drive from the ceremony to a reception hall and have to deal with the stress of getting from one place to another.”

“We also wanted a wedding where everything would run smoothly. We didn’t want people to be standing around waiting for the next thing. We wanted things to flow well.”

Written by our Groom…

“What I love about Ellen is everything. she is beautiful in all ways. she loves staying home with me and watching movies. She doesn’t need to go out and make the scene. She loves me for who I am, my strengths and my weaknesses, my many weaknesses. I tell her everything and she tells me everything. Nothing else compares to the way I feel about my Ellen.”

Our fondest memories…

“Both of us agree that our very fondest memory was the ceremony itself.”

Ellen remembers…

“We had each spent the first half of the day separated and getting ready. I was so anxious and scared as I was waiting in the dressing room before the walk down the aisle. When I got to the top of the stairs and saw Jim looking up at me, I was just so happy and the nerves went away.”

“My other fondest memory was the father daughter dance. My dad had had some serious health problems the summer before our wedding and I was scared that he wouldn’t make it. To be able to dance with my dad on my wedding night was such a special thing. The song we danced to, “My Girl” was one my dad used to sing to me when I was little. It still brings tears to my eyes thinking about how sweet it was to have that dance.”

“Everything from that night was such a blur. I think that we both felt excited, nervous, and anxious before the ceremony. Once we were on the alter together and saying our vows the joy took over. I cried out of happiness so many times. I felt so much gratitude to our family and friends for supporting us. We had guests who came from all over the United States and from Greece to attend our wedding. I couldn’t imagine it being a more perfect wedding. The only thing I would change if I could do it again is that I would have made sure to take a moment to step back and take it all in. Everything just went too fast.”

Jim remembers…

“My fondest memory was the knowledge that this night was the beginning of our lives as husband and wife. It signified the beginning. As I stood on the alter I was able to announce my love and devotion for Ellen to all of our family and friends. To see how happy they were for us really made me happy.”

The Wedding Style…

“Our style was elegant, romantic, and vintage with sort of a saffron glow. Elisabeth was so great to work with in the design session. It was like she had the exact same picture in her mind that I had in mine about how I wanted the wedding to look. She was able to show us pictures and materials and it all came together so easily.”

“We wanted to combine the Greek and American traditions since we weren’t getting married in the Greek Orthodox church. It was important to us to incorporate as many Greek traditions into the wedding as possible. We had our reverend work in the Greek crowning ceremony where the crowns are exchanged over our heads three times. The DJ was also great to work with because we brought him Greek cds and he worked them in with the rest of the dance music. There was so much Greek dancing and everyone had such a good time. But it was a nice mixture of the cultures so that no one felt left out.”

What our guests were saying…

“Our guests loved the venue. I heard so many guests remark about how nice it was to have the ceremony and reception at the same place. I had one guest tell me that it was so beautiful that she wanted to have her wedding there when she got married. Other guests remarked on how well everything flowed.”

Why we would highly recommend The Bella Sera…

“We had visited a couple of venues before seeing the Bella Sera and the main thing I noticed was that they were both so inconvenient. All of the costs were separate. There were costs for renting the venue, costs for renting tables and chairs, costs for linens, costs for the catering… It was overwhelming. When we visited the Bella Sera, the first thing I noticed was that it was a beautiful venue. It was already decorated for a wedding and it was breathtaking. The next thing I noticed was that Elisabeth is a dream to work with. She broke everything down into two packages. It was so much easier and less expensive than the other venues we had been to. I felt like I would be getting so much more for our money and that everything was going to be handled for us so that we wouldn’t have the stress that so many people have on their wedding day. Choosing the Bella Sera was the best decision we could have made.”