A gorgeous location, astonishing décor, and breathtaking details composed the order for the day that Laura Brizuela and Michael Geliebter would be joined in matrimony.

“I wanted it to look like a fairy tale – one in which everybody felt the romance in the room,” confides the bride, who had quite the group devoted to bringing her every wedding fantasy to life. In addition to an exemplary team of event professionals, Michael’s mother and father leant their support by contributing wonderfully creative ideas to the event design and enthusiastically encouraging a grand and opulent scale for the proceedings respectively.

The Crystal Garden of the world-famous Beverly Hills Hotel was exquisitely tented for the couple’s evening ceremony. Gossamer fabric established an ethereal space lavished with garlands of alabaster orchids. Antique roses bordered a center aisle paved with a custom runner embossed with the couple’s elegant monogram. Branches of glossy green leaves were weaved throughout the décor, including a riot of creamy blooms that composed a dazzling floral arch. Fairy lights and candles cast an ambient glow.

An eight-piece string section played while the tuxedo-clad groom commenced down the aisle accompanied by his parents, followed by bridesmaids dressed in blush chiffon. The bride, escorted by her sons, was a vision in Vera Wang.

The ceremony included the lighting of a unity candle, which is commonly integrated into weddings of the Christian faith, as well as the Jewish wedding tradition of breaking a glass at the conclusion of the service. “It was important for us to include a little bit from each side,” says Laura of the divergent religious customs with which she and her husband were raised. “We wanted to embrace both beliefs.”

Cocktails were enjoyed in an outdoor lounge area where guests could sink into upholstered settees beneath a billowing canopy. Two beautifully ornate mirrors stood sentry at the entrance to an anteroom that led to the reception. Sheer material encircled an expansive seafood bar that featured a variety of offerings on exquisitely carved ice, and hot appetizers were proffered from a station lined with fabric. Once guests passed through the intermediary space, they stepped into a dreamscape that indeed appeared a fairy tale.

The hotel’s famous Crystal Ballroom had been utterly transformed. The ceiling and walls were sheathed in lush folds of snowy fabric, and the carpet was overlaid in glossy white flooring. A seemingly endless profusion of flowers tipped everything in white: orchids were wound around the trunks of graceful birch trees, and masses of roses, hydrangeas, gardenias, and orchids adorned tabletops, bars, and a mirror-front stage. Frosted branches added texture throughout the space, while cut-crystal vases and chandeliers danced with spectacular light. “It was winter in wonderland,” Laura affirms.

Custom-built tables ranged from round, mirrored designs to rectangular banquets with floating glass tops above petal-strewn bases. Monogrammed napkins embellished the place settings of beaded glass chargers and platinum-edged glassware. Rouched Chameleon chairs with crystal-encrusted accents provided the final ethereal touch.  

Thousands of intricate sugar flowers covered the couple’s towering wedding cake, which stood in a place of honor atop a table swathed in blooms. Following the cake cutting, Laura traded her formal wedding gown for a lovely, knee-length sheath, the better to dance in as the beautiful night tipped into the wee hours of the morning.

“I kept telling my wife that I wasn’t going to enjoy our wedding because it had become such a big affair, but it turned out to be great!” Michael admits.

“As a little girl I dreamed of a truly amazing wedding, but never imagined it would actually come to pass,” shares the bride. “So I did it for her – the child in me. And it was a fairy tale come true.”