Emily and Rob have been together for twenty years, and when they decided to plan a wedding they wanted they day to be symbolic of both the life they've already lived together and the new journey they were about to embark upon. Their entire vision was based around the day they decided to get married - the first day of spring! I adore so much about this event - the relaxed vibe, the bride in such unique and beautiful attire, and of course the gorgeous location. But instead of my blathering on, Emily has been kind enough to share some of the day with us in her own words:
We created our ceremony with our officiant to be based around spring/renewal/nature/the four elements and so the programs we made reflected this as they detailed the ceremony, while they also celebrated our past by featuring bios of the wedding party chronicling moments shared over the years. I tied them with yarn as we also had a whimsical homespun thread running through the wedding (which feels springtime to me), and I threw in some long ribbon details on the program baskets and on our bouquets to further bring in the whimsy of springtime. I chose charcoal grey and chocolate brown as the wedding colors so as not to compete with nature, and just threw in some bright and mix-matched patterned favor cones, cocktail napkins, and escort cards to brighten it up a bit and to continue the whimsical thread at the cocktail hour and reception.Our DIY reception decor was all natural elements, moss/rocks/wood, and...birds! We felt that the enormous freedom and a new journey that renewal and spring means for us was perfectly embodied in birds, so we brought that into the DIY decor with bird escort cards, owl table "number" holders, a few bird statues, and the birds cake topper--the escort cards and cake topper in particular again continuing the whimsy and color we wanted as well. To celebrate our past adventures together at the reception, we brought in colorful vintage-looking postcards (some made from pictures I had taken during our travels) of some of our favorite places in the world to use as table "numbers", and the aforementioned cake topper had elements of who we've been together--a map of the California coast, a ukulele, headphones, newspaper, book, all representing the traveling we've done, our love of music (and travel to see our favorite bands), Rob's musical talents, our involvement in current events and our love for and time spent in cultural pursuits. The cake itself had the nature design from the invitations on each tier.All of the beautiful images were captured by
Sabine Scherer Photography, and you can see more details from the wedding
on her blog. The remainder of the vendors are listed below:
Location:
Calistoga Ranch
Location coordinator: Jen Beranek
Wedding planner: Lisa of
Bellisima Vita
Florist: Paul of
Tesoro
table Cake:
Calistoga Ranch
Cake topper:
Rainsend (from Etsy)
Bride's skirt:
Carmen Marc Valvo
Bride's blouse:
Chloe Dao (from Project Runway!)
Necklace:
J.crew (a nod to Michelle Obama actually)
