Now, on to the featured wedding of the day!

When you read Adrienne and Charles’ story (below), you’ll see that research is exactly what Adrienne did! While planning her Napa Valley daytime wedding, she did her homework (some say too much homework!) and she planned the wedding of her dreams at Auberge du Soleil.

Their wedding, sent to us by Adeline & Grace Weddings, really is as pretty as it gets! The emotions and expressions that Tiffany captured are priceless.

Editors note: Just in case you don’t frequent the Little Black Book Blog, we want to explain that Adeline & Grace Weddings are actually Tiffany and Erica. They are a bi-coastal team ~ from New England to California (and pretty much anywhere in between). We feature their weddings all the time … because their weddings are always sensational! {no advertisement intended; pure, simple truth}

Is Adrienne’s smile not priceless?

Seeing Charles “see” Adrienne for their first look that day ~ well, I think you can pretty much read his mind!

There are so, so, so many more delightful images that tell the whole story of the day on the Adeline & Grace Weddings’ blog AND {here} in our gallery!

Adeline & Grace (a.k.a. Tiffany & Erica) … we know you know … we think y’all rock!

Without further ado … Adrienne & Charles’ story …

People always ask us why we decided on a daytime wedding. We put a lot of thought into the overall weekend, and ultimately decided on an earlier wedding so that our guests could enjoy the beautiful, sunny views (Napa is quite dark and unlit at night). Also, since it was a mini-destination wedding for most of our guests, we wanted to give them as much time as possible to explore the gorgeous Napa Valley. Even though we held a daytime wedding, we definitely were focused on making the weekend as fun as possible for guests. We held a private winery tour and tasting at Paraduxx Winery the day before the wedding, and continued the celebration well after the wedding with an after-party in downtown Napa.

how we met
My husband and I met, in typical college fashion, at a party during our second year at U.C. Berkeley (December 2002). We quickly struck up a conversation and went on our first date soon after. During our first date, Charles gave me a present: a VHS tape (yes, that’s how long ago we started dating!) of “When Harry Met Sally,” which is my absolute favorite movie. He had never even heard of the movie before, but I mentioned it during one of our phone conversations and he ended up buying it before our first date. We watched the movie on our second date…but he fell asleep about 20 minutes in. To this day, he still hasn’t seen the movie in its entirety! Seven years later, the movie still had its impact on our wedding.

how we planned
As a PR professional, I’ve planned a fair number of events and that training definitely came in handy when it came to doing venue/vendor research. Every night, I would pour over wedding sites (especially Style Me Pretty!) for tips and inspiration, and add them to “the binder.” It became a running joke among our family and bridal party on how large the binder would eventually become!

what was important
When it came to planning our wedding, we immediately knew that there were three things that were super important to us: food (we eat a LOT), location/venue and photography. We quickly settled on a wine country Napa wedding – we’re huge wine lovers. Napa is close-yet-far from where we live and Charles proposed to me at Carneros Inn in Napa. We felt it was a fitting location to take our next steps in life towards marriage – in fact, we even had a little map of our lives together created as our save the date!

the venue
After much research, we visited a number of venues in the Napa Valley. As soon as we stepped out of the car at Auberge du Soleil, we immediately knew this was our venue. It has a calming yet elegant feel that immediately screams “wine country.” With its soft golden wood tones, floor to ceiling windows that let “yummy light” (as our photographer always says!) stream in and a view that you could gaze at for days, we knew this was our spot to say our “I do’s.” It’s also well-known for its food, which immediately sold us – like I said, we love to eat and the proposed menus were absolutely mouth-watering!

the photographer
Next up was our photographer. We found Tiffany from Adeline & Grace Weddings fairly quickly, and to this day I am in disbelief that we were able to find someone that could so perfectly “get” us. I’m pretty sure she’s my long-lost friend from another era, because upon first meeting her in person, we immediately bonded over my wedding binder and how organized we both were! From the pre-wedding phone calls/emails, to our engagement session to the big day, Tiffany definitely made everything a breeze. She took absolutely beautiful photos of the day, which our family and friends cannot stop raving about!

the floral design
We found our florist, Lauren from Branch Floral Design, via Style Me Pretty! I was having trouble finding a florist we could both agree on, but as soon as I saw a wedding at Meadowood that was featured on SMP, we immediately knew that she was “the one.” I emailed her that same day, and that was it! We had chosen a light gold, sage green and ivory color palette and, after showing her my inspiration board, she immediately brought great ideas for us to look at. She was super creative and great to work with – she even understood my strange aversion to the color pink!
The flowers at the wedding were so gorgeous; it makes me smile just to think about it. We wanted a very soft, romantic and elegant look, without overwhelming the natural beauty of Napa. For the ceremony, I carried a simple, posy-style bouquet of open white peonies while my bridesmaids carried smaller bouquets of garden roses, lisanthus and tulips in shades of yellow, gold, peach and cream. We kept the rest of the ceremony flowers fairly simple, with a flower garland and flower balls in shades of light green, pale yellow, cream and peach decorating the terrace, and some large white peonies in the entry fountain.
For the reception, Branch Floral Design created beautiful, full arrangements of peonies, garden roses, tulips, hydrangea and lisanthus in cream, gold, peach, pale yellow and muted green that perfectly set off Auberge’s persimmon-colored linens. She also created various arrangements in silver mint julep cups of different sizes to frame our engagement photos, guest book and photos of our beloved dog and cat (we just had to incorporate our pets in the wedding!).

the DIY touches
I’m not a very craft-y person, so I was especially proud of the paper goods, which were a group effort between my bridesmaids, sister and me. My (very patient) sister designed the menu, escort cards and table numbers, which I then printed at home. Charles and I didn’t want to overload our guests with wine country references, so we kept it simple – the escort card holders were made out of sliced wine corks, and the table numbers were attached to empty wine bottles. People liked to tease that we drank more than enough wine to create 90 escort card holders and 10 table numbers – but we actually went the easy (and sober!) route by asking our friend, a part-time waitress, to save old corks and bottles from the restaurant. It was so much easier!

our cake
When it came to the cake, we had one stipulation – it had to taste really, really good. We ended up selecting a simple, four-tier cake with layers of chocolate chip and triple chocolate cake from Two for Two Cakes. All night, our guests kept coming up to us and raving about the cake – we even had people complaining that other guests had stolen their slice because they couldn’t get enough of the cake!

my wedding dress, hair and makeup
For my dress/shoes/hair and makeup, I was pretty low-key: I only went to one salon (Amy Kuschel) and found “the” dress after only trying on five! My mom is still in disbelief that I chose my dress so quickly. It was such a classic, beautiful dress that I knew it was the one right away. My goal for the day was to be comfortable and still look like myself, so I wore little gold flats and kept my hair in big loose curls. Sherrie Long of Sherrie Long Hair & Makeup Effects was an absolute genius – she and her team did an amazing job on five bridesmaids, two mothers and one bride, even though we started at 4:45 a.m. that day {daytime wedding!}

our music
Our music choices were also very meaningful – for our first dance, we chose Frank Sinatra’s “It Had To Be You,” the theme song to “When Harry Met Sally,” as an homage to our first and second dates (I also ended up quoting the movie during my vows). Also, given that my first name is Adrienne and Charles absolutely loves the “Rocky” movie series, our wedding party’s grand entrance was to Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” – it was hilarious!

overall …
We had so much fun at our wedding – it was a beautiful day, and everyone was definitely in the mood to have a great time. We absolutely loved every moment from that weekend and were so happy with how everything turned out. It was definitely a weekend filled with laughter, some (happy) tears and lots of love.

. . .

Photography: Adeline & Grace Weddings
Dress: Amy Kuschel
Venue: Auberge du Soleil
Florist: Branch Floral Design
Officiant: Hearfelt Weddings
Private tour and tasting: Paraduxx Winery
Ceremony musicians: SF Conservatory of Music
Hair and makeup: Sherrie Long Hair & Makeup Effects
Invitations: Painted Tongue Press
DJ: AMS Entertainment
Cake: Two for Two Cakes

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Post tags: Adeline & Grace Photography, AMS Entertainment, Amy Kuschel, Auberge du Soleil, Branch Floral Design, Daytime Wedding, Heartfelt Weddings, Napa, Painted Tongue Press, Paraduxx, SF Conservatory of Music, Sherrie Long, Two for Two Cakes
Post categories: Little Black Book Blog, Traditional Elegance, Wedding Photography

{click here to see LOTS more pics}

We had a short window to plan our wedding, so the list of friends and family who could join us in Inverness, California was relatively small. The upside to a smaller party was the option to hold the event in an intimate space. We chose Manka’s Boathouse a woodsy-chic property on Tomales Bay that already features unique and quirky architecture and decoration. Because the site has style built-in and space was limited, we choose to keep the flowers, linens, and wedding theme clean and minimal, so that it played off the space without overwhelming it. We love the way it came together, because the room felt elegant but still comfortable, and it was cozy enough to feel surrounded by family and friends.

Couples names: Angie and Adam, Founder and owner of Trazzler / Venue: Manka’s Boathouse, Inverness California / Flowers: Branch Floral Design – Lauren Godshall Owner / Cake: Fat Angel Bakery

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Post tags: anemone, Branch Floral Design, California Weddings, Intimate, Inverness, Manka's Boathouse, ranunculus, Small Wedding, Trazzler
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Traditional Elegance

A few more details from Lisa Lefkowitz…

After the ceremony, guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres on the lawn as the sun dipped behind the hills. Kings tables were draped with creamy beige linens and topped with glass chargers. Lauren Godshell of Branch Floral Design created a natural white and green palette and played off the natural surroundings by bringing in wood pedestals and platforms. Guests picked up their escort cards from wooden trays filled with dried green peas.  The tables were labeled with aged wooden table numbers which were staked into the flower arrangements.

And here is a little peak at their menu (so that we can be even more jealous than we already are)…

First Course:  Salad of organic greens, grilled garden peaches, candied walnuts, and prosciutto
Second Course:  Pan roasted halibut, dungeness crab, sweet corn soubise
Third Course: Grilled tenderloin of beef, heirloom zucchini croquettes, and cabernet sauvignon jus

Guests danced the night away inside the Vintner Room under a cluster of Chinese lanterns and enjoyed chocolate cake with raspberry sauce from Perfect Endings.  The event came to an end with the last dance to “Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong and guests were whisked away on shuttles to continue their celebration in downtown Yountville.

Thank you so much to Lisa Lefkowitz and Alison Hotchkiss for sending us today’s GORGEOUS affair. We are in love!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Alison Hotchkiss, Branch Floral Design, California Weddings, Lisa Lefkowitz, Meadowood, St. Helena
Post categories: The Blog, Traditional Elegance