Renaissance Inspired Cottage Wedding in California’s Wine Country

[section title=”The Planning”]
[field title=”Wedding Colors”]Green, Ivory, Silver and Gold
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[field title=”Design / Vibe / Vision”]

I had a very specific vision for our wedding aesthetic. I had always wanted a backyard wedding, but soon realized that the vibe I wanted would difficult to execute at a real home. I found our venue, MacArthur Place, via Instagram and loved how the grounds were made up of several cottages with multiple lawn areas, as having an outdoor wedding was my priority. It was important for me that the design elements were cohesive with the space, but not necessarily in a garden party way, which is what the venue leans towards. I wanted to bring in moody elements & a lot of texture to an other wise bright garden space to fit my vision.

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[field title=”Proposal Story”]

Sam and I are high school sweethearts so our proposal was a long time in the making! We started dating when we were 16 and 17 years old, and have been together ever since. Sam proposed to me on the cliffs of Point Dume during sunset. I was looking at the water below, and I turned around to see that he was on one knee. I was so excited that I did not immediately realize that he had a photographer there! After a few moments, I realized not only was there a photographer, but that it was two of our best friends there to capture the moment via camera and video making it all the more sweet to celebrate with two of our favorite people. They were both closely included in our wedding, one as the officiant and the other gave a speech at our dinner reception. Following our romantic proposal and a brief photoshoot moment, the two of us celebrated at my favorite oceanfront restaurant. It was my dream proposal, casual and very us.

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[board_carousel title=”Getting Ready”]

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[board_carousel title=”Bridal Portraits”]

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[board_carousel title=”Flat Lays”]

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[board_carousel title=”First Look”]

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[section title=”The Fashion”]
[field title=”Wedding Gown”]

My wedding gown was designed by Danielle Frankel from LOHO Bride. I had always loved Danielle Frankel gowns as they are very fashion-forward and untraditional- yet timeless. The gown I wore was the very first wedding gown I had ever tried on. I knew immediately, as did my mom and sister who came with me. This was a very special moment for me, as my mom’s wedding gown also happened to be the very first dress she tried on as well- so I just really loved that synchronicity 31 years apart, almost to the day!

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[field title=”Bridesmaid Dresses”]

I really love texture so I wanted my bridesmaids to bring in more dimension with their gowns. I sent them each a vision board for color/vibe and decided no solid or slip dresses. My sister who was my maid of honor wore an ombre and pleated L’IDEE gown, Sam’s sister wore a silk printed halter dress (designer unknown), my sister-in-law wore a sequined gown by Aisha Rao from Kiska Studios and my childhood best friend wore a sequined dress from House of CB. Each of the dresses complimented each other so well and pulled my vision together perfectly.

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[field title=”Groomsman Attire”]The groomsmen kept it simple and all wore black suits and loafers.[/field]
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[board_carousel title=”Wedding Party”]

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[board_carousel title=”Ceremony”]

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[board_carousel title=”Cocktail Hour”]

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[section title=”The Details”]
[field title=”Food & Drink”]

MacArthur Place is well known for its on-site restaurant, Layla. Sam and I were very excited to create a menu for our wedding dinner with their chef who uses all locally sourced ingredients. Cocktail hour was hosted on the front lawn of the property and we offered passed hors devours, which included lamb chops, fresh bruschetta toasts, and truffle arancini. Cocktail hour is also where we introduced our signature cocktails! Sam’s favorite cocktail is a Moscow mule, so it was too easy to coin his cocktail “The Sam-ule”, while mine is a vodka dirty martini that we named “The Liv-Tini”. Both of these cocktails are very recognizable by the glasses they are served in, so it was fun to see what cocktails our guests chose if they opted for one of the signatures! Of course, being in Sonoma we also had plenty of wine options, the first splash being served prior to guests being seated for the ceremony. Our dinner was beautiful, featuring guests’ choice of farm-to-table salads and locally sourced ingredients for entrees.

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[field title=”Florals & Decor”]

Florals are always one of my favorite parts of wedding decor so I really wanted them to be special, Alexa from Vanda Floral Design brought my vision to life! As mentioned previously, I love texture, I wanted our florals to provide just that. Using locally sourced grasses, amaranthus and seasonal blooms such as pee gee hydrangeas, belladonna, orchids, and more Alexa created stunning arrangements, all unique to their respective areas but cohesive together. In perfect harmony with wine country, our florals uniquely included grapes! Our Ceremony florals consisted of blooming aisle arrangements that had the most color of all of the arrangements, alternating purples and blue. These were made to look like they were growing straight from the ground. There is a stunning arbor on site that showcases roses during the spring, however, in August it is mostly green. While the green arbor was beautiful, I wanted to bring in the elements of my bouquet to the space and Alexa created a beautiful arrangement of hydrangeas, roses, and amaranthus that hung above us. Set up under the arbor, we had a green fabric backdrop that flowed into the aisle under our feet. I envisioned my bridal portraits using this, but once it was set up I decided it would stay there throughout the entire wedding day and evening because I loved how much it added to the space. We had three beautiful bars throughout the venue as we had different spaces for each part of the night, all of which had large cascading arrangements on them. Our dinner florals were low and lush making for the perfect complimentary centerpieces to the mixed metal candelabras. The moody elements I wanted to include mostly stemmed from our unique floral centerpieces, dark wood chairs, worn silver, and gold details, and uplighting on the trees as well as string lights above. I really wanted our dinner to harness the feeling of a party from an almost Renaissance time period, with overflowing wine glasses, dripping candles, grapes, and fun upbeat music. Having one long table that sat all 60 of our guests definitely captured that vibe. Along with florals on the bar tops, we also had silver bowls with custom matchboxes- a favorite amongst our guests.

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[field title=”Wedding Cake”]

Our wedding cake was beautifully made by Flour and Bloom, and was so stunning, that most of our guests thought it was fake! I wanted our wedding cake to be classic with a twist, so we opted for a square shape, and bas-relief details to tie in our theme. Sam and I both chose flavors for our cake, one tier was chocolate on chocolate, chosen by Sam and the other tier was vanilla cake with Meyer lemon curd and raspberry buttercream- a mixture of my favorite flavors.

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[field title=”Readings, Ceremony Music, Reception Songs”]

Our ceremony began with a welcome splash of champagne while a string quartet played modern music. As guests made their way to their seats, they were able to grab a custom fan and parasol umbrella to stay cool. Aside from our florals, my favorite design element from the ceremony was the runway-style seating. Sam walked down the aisle as the quartet played Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish. Our wedding party proceeded to “To Build a Home” by Cinematic Orchestra, which was a surprise for Sam. I followed in my mom’s footsteps and had both of my parents walk me down the aisle. They walked out together and waited on each side of the aisle for me just like my grandparents did for her. I walked down alone until I met them at the start of the chairs, while “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey was playing. Our ceremony was officiated by our mutual best friend, so it was very heartfelt and funny. Everyone laughed and cried, including Sam and I. We read our personal vows during the ceremony, as we wanted our guests who have all been apart of our almost 12 year long relationship to feel included in the biggest part of our love story. While our wedding was not religious we included some elements of a traditional Jewish wedding, such as the stepping on the glass and horah dance. Our reception was definitely the main event of it all. I worked closely with our DJ to curate a night full of our favorite songs and we danced all night! We opted to not include any of the traditional wedding oldies and went full out on the 90s and early 2000s throwbacks and our favorite party songs. Sam and I did not leave the dance floor…not once. I did not even see what the rest of the room looked like!

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[field title=”Special Detail #1″]

Each of our guests was given a welcome bag that was inclusive of a custom hat, tote, and some morning-after remedies to help ease the liquor and wine they would be consuming all weekend!

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[field title=”Special Detail #2″]

We had a content creator there on the wedding day (@VeilandVow.Co), and having iPhone footage of every moment, especially the small ones in between the big moments was so much fun to look at the next day!

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[field title=”Special Detail #3″]

Our wedding day was in between two incredibly fun events. The first is our Welcome Party for all of our guests at Ram’s Gate Winery. A lot of wine and a beautiful view was the perfect way to kick things off. Sunday morning brunch was not only amazing but definitely necessary. We hosted this on one of the lawns at MacArthur Place, with lots of food, and a little hair of the dog! It was the perfect way to see off all of our guests, and thank them again for traveling and being a part of our weekend.

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[board_carousel title=”Couple Portraits”]

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[board_carousel title=”Reception”]

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