Napa Valley Wedding for The Bride’s Guide

As some of you know, we’ve cozied up to Darcy, Shira and the fabulous team at Martha Stewart Weddings to offer up a Style Me Pretty Real Wedding every month on The Bride’s Guide. It’s been such a fun collaboration (I mean come on, people…it’s Martha) and one that we are so excited to unveil every few weeks. Our next real wedding, which is up in lights right now, was sent to us by what might be the world’s most stylish, fabulous bride. And one of those brides that didn’t take her day too seriously, filling it to the brim with THE. MOST. AWESOME. DIY projects a girl could ever wish for.

To see all of the wedding images, click here.

{click here to see the full wedding by Jamie Grenough}

Our wedding was all about rustic, raw beauty. Durham Ranch is a stunning property that is so well-suited to the rolling hills and farms of that part of Napa, and we wanted our wedding decor to integrate seamlessly. We picked a fairly neutral palette — mostly white, natural beige, gray and sage — to match the surroundings, with a few pops of red to mimic some of Durham Ranch’s own red accents.

We had a number of DIY projects — the biggest of which was making the chandeliers for the barn. We bought wood planks from a reclaimed barn, had a woodworker saw holes into them, glued mason jars in, dropped candles into the jars and strung them up with sailor’s rope. We also bought vintage grain sacks from a seller in Austria via Etsy and turned them into table runners. We used Ikea curtains to make pillows for the outdoor furniture. We stuck flip cams on the tables and asked our guests to serve as videographers. (And I want to note that, while we executed them, the ideas for the chandeliers and table runners came from our amazing designers at Atelier Joya).

We also integrated a few of our local favorite things into the event. My husband’s a pizza chef in San Francisco and has a lot of strong relationships in the city. His friends at Humphrey Slocombe created a custom Muscat-Peach sorbet for us and his friend Kiri Mah, the pastry chef at Pizzaiolo (where he used to work), made us an incredible coconut-passionfruit-blackberry cake. My husband also spent months meeting up with small wine makers before we settled on Peay Vineyard’s Scallop Shelf Pinot Noir, Stony Hill’s Chardonnay, Volker-Eisele’s Gemini White Wine and Robert Sinksy’s Vin Gris. And, lastly, because my husband is also a candy freak, we gave guests’ San Francisco’s Sweet Revolution caramels (a big hit).

During the cocktail hour, people milled around the pool and we served a full bar including a signature drink of “Lavender Mojitos.” The flower girl, my adorable niece, also tossed lavender when she walked down the aisle and we included it in all the bouquets and boutonnieres. We also used a lot of gardenias in the bouquets and table arrangements and, between them and the lavender, the place smelled amazing. We also set out picnic blankets and pillows during the cocktail hour so people could relax on the grass and watch the sun start to set (and pass out later in the evening!).

We also DIY-ed our huppah. The tallis belonged to my husband’s father, who passed away a little over 10 years ago. We tied it to birch branches we bought at the SF Flower Market. We also bought cheap fake birch flower pots, which Lisa Boone, at Atelier Joya, painted white for us. We then bought PVC pipe from our local hardware store, stuck it in the middle of the pots and poured cement around the pipe to make it stand straight. We then stuck the birch branches into the pipes. We did this all in our apartment’s breezeway.

The entire wedding was inspired by the book “The Giving Tree,” which was one of my favorites growing up and something my stepfather referenced in a toast shortly after we got engaged. Our invitations, which I must say were absolutely beautiful, had the light imprint of tree bark, which carried through all the paper pieces, and a sketch of a tree with our initials carved in a heart (you see that logo on a lot of things) designed by our friend, Michelle Beilner for Jot Creates. Part of what we loved about the symbolism of a tree is how old their roots are, how gracefully they mark the passing of time, how seemingly permanent they are and so on. We really wanted to pay respect to our own roots at our wedding, hence being married by our parents, being married under Jon’s father’s tallis and the family photos, going back generations, in the barn.

There’s so much more I can share — like dancing to She & Him’s phenomenal version of “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” walking down the aisle to Goh Nakamura (a local musician who I discovered via YouTube, where I work) singing his incredible rendition of “Just Like Heaven” (available on YouTube!) — but I’ll stop for now. Here are the vendors who helped make our day so beautiful…

Wedding Flowers & Design: Lisa Boone and Priska Kaspar of Atelier Joya / Venue: The Durham Ranch, Mint Locations / Catering: Living Room Events / Wedding Photography: Jamie Grenough / Wedding Cake: Kiri Mah / Coordinating: Elissa Thorp of Delysium / Lighting: Ben Davis of Refraction / Ceremony Music: Goh Nakamura /  DJ: Thomas Golubic (a great friend, former KCRW DJ in LA, music supervisor extraordinaire) / Wedding Hair: Ashley Smith from Oxenrose / Wedding Make-up: Alexia Ogle of Shu Uemura / Wedding Dress: Monique Lhuillier / Wedding Invitations ad Paper Goods by Michelle Beilner for Jot Creates