It’s always a plus to have creative friends when it comes to planning one of the most special days of your life. This San Francisco bride hit the jackpot with her wedding designer bestie, Tyler Waldorf, who helped her envision + execute a fabulous (and totally personal) fête! Together they decorated the Terra Gallery in the coolest industrial chic style and it was all captured by The Marin Studio. See the rest here!
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From the Bride… Our biggest goal was to create a day that was purely reminiscent of the two of us. Above all, we wanted our guests to leave feeling like they had witnessed the union of Katie and John, not just some pretty wedding by the bay. With the help of my best friend (and blossoming wedding designer extraordinaire), Tyler Waldorf, and the amazing staff at Terra Gallery, the aesthetic and mood of our day was, without a doubt, 100% Katie and John. Tyler, an architect based in Chicago, has a knack for all things creative — it is guaranteed that anything his hand touches will be beautiful.
I was probably most nervous about flowers for our big day because Tyler and I decided to do them ourselves. On the plus side, our venue, Terra Gallery, is so beautiful in and of itself that you hardly need to decorate, so our primary need for flowers resided within the areas of centerpieces, cocktail tables and bouquets. John and I wanted to keep our color palette as natural and rustic as possible — green, brown, ivory, gray, etc. So succulents and a combination of white flowers felt right. I am a sucker for yellow though, so we were able to sneak a few accents in via billy balls (crespedia) to brighten things up a bit. Tyler created beautifully random bouquets for me and my bridesmaids and boutonnieres for the groomsmen, fathers and our officiant (who happened to be my grandpa). He had never made either of these things before, and I have to tell you, he NAILED it. The best is that he was still assembling and putting on the finishing touches AS we were sitting in the back room waiting to walk down the aisle for the ceremony! The ceremony space and aisle/altar is one of our most favorite details of the day. As I mentioned, Terra is so beautiful that you hardly need to decorate. But we did want to do something that would draw attention to the special place where we cemented our vows. Having been an art history major back in college, I had seen some extremely fantastic installations where artists only used lights. So we worked with Terra to create the most perfect altar framed by only market bulbs that pooled at the bottom and then delicately lined the aisle. The intimate, candlelit affect it created exceeded our most optimistic expectations tenfold.
Sonya and Gabe of Tiny Home Music are a local duo who sing beautiful acoustic arrangements (both covers and original songs) that are simultaneously romantic, folksy and elegant. We commissioned a couple songs that mean a lot to me and John and then had them play an assortment of their favorites. Their music will go down as one of my favorite details of our day. And, by night, they were able to completely switch gears and provide some amazing beats for our reception a la their DJing services. They worked with us to ensure our vision for the dance party was in alignment with theirs and assured us their interaction with the audience would keep people moving. And boy, did it. For a couple that truly values quality fresh and creative food, we were a little worried about the effect “mass production” might have on the fantastic menu Melons Catering created for us. But our fear was misguided because the farm-to-table meal tasted as bright and delicious as it did when we were doing a tasting for two. Ramin Rahimian of The Marin Studio captured the most beautifully REAL story of our day. Ramin is an inspiring balance of cool, calm and collected and immensely creative. And he fit in so naturally with our event that we hardly even knew he was there (there are several amazing candid pictures we didn’t even know he took). Our priority was to get the editorial magazine-spread version of our big day, and we sure got it. The photographs Ramin captured are precious ones we’ll treasure forever.
Wedding Photography: Ramin Rahimian of The Marin Studio / Wedding Venue: Terra Gallery in San Francisco, California / Event Design + Planning: Tyler Waldorf (A Friend of the Bride)+ The Bride & Groom / Floral Design: Tyler Waldorf (A Friend of the Bride) / Catering: Melons Catering / Cupcakes: Cups and Cakes Bakery / Wedding Invitations: Tyler Waldorf (A Friend of the Bride) / Music: Sonya Cotton + Gabe Dominguez of Tiny Home / Wedding Dress: Marisa / Bride’s Shoes: Vince Camuto / Hair + Makeup: Kristy White / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: After Six / Men’s Attire: J.Crew / Tie Bars: Spiffing Jewelry