A Sherwood Country Club Wedding: Sara and Ed's Blush and Navy Celebration
A real wedding at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, told from behind the camera: dusty pink and navy styling, a Georgian brick backdrop, and a couple whose story started with a mentorship.
Some weddings feel like a checklist. This one felt like a thank-you note. Sara is a nurse. Ed is a hospital administrator. They met when Sara interned for him during her bachelor's degree, and he was the one who convinced her she would make a great nurse. She pursued nursing in New York, they stayed connected through her schooling, and five years later we were photographing them under the oaks at Sherwood Country Club.
Sara found us the way a lot of our couples do, through a Google search a year before the wedding. What followed was one of the most cohesive wedding designs we photographed that season at Sherwood Country Club: dusty pink and dusty blue against navy, silver glitter accents, ivory linens, and a cascading bouquet of blush roses and white phalaenopsis orchids.
The Proposal Story We Still Tell Other Couples
When we asked how Ed proposed, Sara called it the Hallmark proposal she always wanted, and honestly the details back her up. He planned it with her entire family around their annual Fourth of July trip to the river in Arizona. He talked her into getting her hair and nails done by offering to get his nails done with her. He picked out her outfit for the party, a white dress and sandals, without tipping his hand.
While Ed took Sara out on her mom's boat for a night cruise, her family transformed their cabin, the one they call the love shack, with flowers, candles, and lights. They walked back down candlelit, flower-lined stairs while Sara kept asking why everything was so decorated. When they turned the corner, her whole family was gathered on the deck, and Ed dropped to one knee.
We share this story with planning couples for a reason. The details you choose, and the people you involve, are what your photographer builds a wedding day narrative around. By the time we arrived at Sherwood, we already knew this was a family-first couple who loved a little glam.
Getting Ready at Sherwood Country Club
Sherwood Country Club sits in the hills between Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village, wrapped around Lake Sherwood, and its Georgian brick clubhouse is one of the best getting-ready backdrops in the Conejo Valley. The bridal suite has tall French windows with soft, wraparound light, which is exactly where we photographed Sara with her bouquet before the first look.
The detail styling did a lot of work here. A blush invitation suite, a foil-stamped vow book, velvet ring boxes, and a Mother of the Bride robe in the exact dusty pink the bridesmaids wore. When a couple commits to a palette the way Sara and Ed did, every detail image feels like part of the same story instead of a random collection of objects.
A First Look on the Portico
Sara and Ed chose to do a first look on the clubhouse portico, under the white columns with the brick and ivy behind them. We recommend a first look to most of our Sherwood couples for a practical reason: the clubhouse, the rose-lined drive, and the lake overlooks are spread across the property, and seeing each other early buys you a relaxed portrait session at each spot instead of a rushed one after the ceremony.
If you are deciding whether a first look belongs in your own timeline, our guide to formal wedding photos walks through how it changes the flow of the day.
A Dusty Pink Ceremony Overlooking the Santa Monica Mountains
The ceremony took place on Sherwood's terrace pergola, white chairs dressed in blush chiffon and roses, rose petals lining the brick aisle, and the Santa Monica Mountains standing in as the backdrop. Sara and Ed read personal vows from matching books, and the recessional was pure Sara: arms up, laughing, bouquet in the air.
This is the part of Sherwood that surprises couples who only know it from golf broadcasts. The ceremony sites face open hills, the light in late afternoon is generous, and the whole sequence from processional to cocktail hour happens within a few steps of the clubhouse.
A Reception With a Splash of Glam
Sara described their vision to us as timeless, classy elegance with a splash of glam, and the ballroom delivered it: a monogram wash on the sweetheart backdrop, gold-embroidered linens buried in blush and ivory roses, uplighting, and a dance floor that stayed full. Their grand entrance set the tone for the whole night.
After dark we stole Sara and Ed away for ten minutes for the image at the top of this story, lit against the string lights outside the clubhouse. Night portraits are a signature of how we photograph weddings, and Sherwood gives us one of the best canvases in Los Angeles for them.
Planning a Sherwood Country Club Wedding?
We have photographed Sherwood Country Club many times, and our first-hand Sherwood Country Club venue guide covers the ceremony sites, the light through the day, and the portrait locations we return to. If you are comparing venues across the Conejo Valley and greater Los Angeles, our venue guide index is the best place to start.
If their day feels like the kind of coverage you want, you can check your date and build live pricing in about a minute, or start a conversation and tell us what you are planning. We photograph weddings across Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, and worldwide.
