A day filled with a Jose Villa wedding is kind of like Christmas in July. Now take away the snow and the ugly sweaters and swap them for a stunning gown and modern gilded details and you have this San Francisco gem. It’s simple, edited, laced with gold and captured in a way that only Jose Villa can do. We’re calling it wildly chic with a side of pure gilded magic. See even more right here along with a film of the day captured by Imaginale below.
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From The Bride…Darren and I got married on a cloudy day in the beautiful city of San Francisco, Ca. From the beginning we knew that our wedding had to have several key elements: classy, yet modern, meaningful, and topped with touches of gold (of course!). First things first, we prioritized several things, photographer, venue, and city. The rest just seemed to fall into place. We chose the fabulous Jose Villa to document our special day, James Leary Flood Mansion for our venue, and the beautiful city of San Francisco as our background. Since we chose such a stunning venue, we wanted our decorations to be simple so it would highlight the beautiful architecture of the mansion. Some of our decorations included mirrors with beautiful calligraphy, vintage frames containing photos from our years together and vintage cameras from local flea markets. Both Darren and I are photographers so we thought this would be a nice personal touch. We are also fans of crafts and design so we DIY’ed several things. We worked together to design a logo for our wedding. This would serve as a piece that we could include in other things to make our wedding cohesive. We designed and printed our own invitations, and added gold foil touches (which took several days to do, but totally worth it!) topped with a gold monogram wax seal. We also added gold foil to our table numbers along with some of our favorite quotes on the back side. Instead of a sign-in book for the guests, we had them sign a gold-painted globe which now nicely fits in our home as decor. Our venue wouldn’t allow us to have sparklers for our “get away” and had many other restrictions so we had to get creative and made gold frills so our guests could wave as we left, worked nicely! Since Darren and I have our own photo equipment, we decided to save some money and put up our own photo booth. Our backdrop was a continuous scroll with the words from the song I walked down the aisle during the ceremony in beautiful calligraphy by Jen Halverson. I had our flowers girls (who walked with balloons instead of flowers), bible boy, and ring bearer all dolled up with Ban.do accessories! I had to! The boys had colorful poms as boutonnieres and the girls had sparkly headbands! Lastly, we’re big IG fans so our wedding wouldn’t have been complete with our very own instagram hashtag, #YGDbestdayever!
Some over my favorite parts of our wedding included all the music during the ceremony. We had some of our dear friends perform songs that are meaningful in our relationship. I walked down to “Most Uncommon Thing” by Five Times August (sung by Kevin Straine on the wedding day), Darren learned this song on the guitar and sang it to me on our first dating anniversary 6 years ago. “Ribbon in the Sky” by Stevie Wonder (sung by Fidi Mwero on the wedding day) was sung while Darren and I tied ribbons for our unity symbol. Towards the end of the ceremony, our pastor asked our family to form a circle around Darren and I while he prayed a blessing prayer. I can’t even describe the amount of support and love we felt while being surrounded by our most loved ones. Kevin Straine returned to sing “What A Difference A Day Makes” as we were announced and walked down the aisle. Truly a difference and beyond the happiest day of my life.
I especially feel thankful and couldn’t have asked for better vendors to work with! Jin Wang personally helped me chose my gown and altered it to fit like a glove! Mar from Team Hair & Make-up is seriously one of my favorite persons…ever! If you ever get the chance to work with her she is amazing and will make you laugh tons! Kristi Herrmann coordinated the wedding, she is so easy to work with and chop full of amazing ideas! Lastly, I can’t image what I would do without Jose Villa (photography) and Alejandra of Imaginale (videographer) on our wedding day! They made us feel completely natural and allowed us to be ourselves throughout the day. There were times when I didn’t even know they were there. And the final products they produced are exquisite! I’m so thankful I have these images and video to relive my wedding with!
Photography: Jose Villa Photography | Videography: Alejandra and Jose Vidal | Wedding Coordinator: Kristi Herrmann | Wedding Dress: Olivia Couture | Catering: Melons Catering | Hair And Makeup: TEAM Hair and Makeup | Calligraphy: At Your Side Planning | Favors: 'lette Macarons | Grooms Attire: J.Crew | Groomsmen's Attire: Zara | Wedding Venue: James Leary Flood Mansion | Kids Accessories: ban.do | Mother Of Brides Dress: Ann Taylor Loft | Pianist: Jed De La Paz | Reception Jazz Vocalist: Alejandra and Jose Vidal | Wedding Alterations: jinwang