Elegant Bohemian Wedding in Sonoma Valley
Bash, Please just might have the lockdown on crazy beautiful bohemian bashes. It's official. Because time after time they craft affairs that are all at once elegant and classic yet have that certain wild beauty we just can't seem to get enough of. Now couple that with blooms by Brown Paper Design and magic making imagery by Our Labor Of Love plus a film by Sharkpig that will rock your socks off and you have this beauty in a nutshell.
From The Bride...Brad and I visited Napa shortly before getting engaged and fell in absolute love with the terrain's simple, casual glamour. When we started planning our wedding, I asked Brad where in the world (if he could choose anywhere) he'd like to get married. Even as I asked the question, I knew my dream wedding would be an intimate, curated, al fresco affair celebrating our most cherished pastimes - family, friendship, travel, food, and wine - under the California sun. I was overjoyed when Brad looked at me and, without hesitation, responded, "Napa." With little free time due to our jobs in BigLaw and being not-so-conveniently situated in Philadelphia, we relied heavily on Melissa and Sydney of Bash Please for the design and coordination of our destination, multicultural, interfaith soiree. They happily took up the task. Overall, we wanted the day to feel organic, casual yet befitting of the occasion, and lush but not over the top. Bash Please was able to strike the perfect balance. They crafted a bold, romantic color palette of juicy fall tones, natural textures, and navy accents for us. The ceremony was officiated by my younger brother (a recent Harvard Law grad and exceptional orator) and held in an open field, under a massive oak tree adorned quite simply with an airy cream drapery backdrop, and anchored by an antique wine-colored rug. Hearing my brother's heartfelt and deeply personal words was one of the standout moments of the day. We set down a bouquet of flowers on one of the front benches in honor of Brad's recently deceased grandmother. As a nod to my Latino heritage, guests before the ceremony sipped on Sangria, and afterwards enjoyed paella and a Spanish guitar trio.
Our reception was held in the ruins of an old winery -- an open air but enclosed space with cobblestone walls enveloped in ivy. The reception decor took its cues from the deep burgundy tone of wine. Bash Please handcrafted wine-dyed table runners and a matching Smilebooth backdrop, as well as wine-dipped escort cards with navy calligraphy. To keep things from being too stuffy, they designed calligraphed Kraft menu bands that encircled the napkins. And as a play on the surroundings, the table numbers were displayed on cobblestone and calligraphed leaves served as place cards. Hand-drawn leaves inspired by our custom invitations also adorned the signage displayed throughout. Brown Paper Design created breathtakingly lush, wild arrangements of garden roses, dahlias, and antique hydrangea interspersed with local plums, cherries, and grapes. Brown Paper also hand-dyed just the bottoms of the oversized cream, curtain panels that served as our makeshift doors for the reception space. Dinner was served family style to encourage interaction and skewed toward what was in season and locally grown (with some of our favorites, including churros and affogato instead of a wedding cake for desert). We nixed the traditional activities and kept only the toasts and first dance, which we had secretly choreographed, but never in a million years thought we'd be able to pull off. Surprisingly, it was so much fun and, among such dear family and friends, felt completely natural. We’ll always cherish sharing wine country with our loved ones (most of whom had never visited before) and especially hearing about all of their travels up and down the West Coast and forays into San Francisco. At our wedding, a friend of ours told us it reminded her of A Midsummer Night's Dream. That description feels right in a lot of ways, but mostly because marrying Brad and having the people we love fly out to Cali to witness it all was, in fact, a dream I'd had since Brad and I first fell in love. I was elated and very lucky to have seen it realized in such spectacular fashion. We're forever in debt to all of the folks who made it possible.
Our reception was held in the ruins of an old winery -- an open air but enclosed space with cobblestone walls enveloped in ivy. The reception decor took its cues from the deep burgundy tone of wine. Bash Please handcrafted wine-dyed table runners and a matching Smilebooth backdrop, as well as wine-dipped escort cards with navy calligraphy. To keep things from being too stuffy, they designed calligraphed Kraft menu bands that encircled the napkins. And as a play on the surroundings, the table numbers were displayed on cobblestone and calligraphed leaves served as place cards. Hand-drawn leaves inspired by our custom invitations also adorned the signage displayed throughout. Brown Paper Design created breathtakingly lush, wild arrangements of garden roses, dahlias, and antique hydrangea interspersed with local plums, cherries, and grapes. Brown Paper also hand-dyed just the bottoms of the oversized cream, curtain panels that served as our makeshift doors for the reception space. Dinner was served family style to encourage interaction and skewed toward what was in season and locally grown (with some of our favorites, including churros and affogato instead of a wedding cake for desert). We nixed the traditional activities and kept only the toasts and first dance, which we had secretly choreographed, but never in a million years thought we'd be able to pull off. Surprisingly, it was so much fun and, among such dear family and friends, felt completely natural. We’ll always cherish sharing wine country with our loved ones (most of whom had never visited before) and especially hearing about all of their travels up and down the West Coast and forays into San Francisco. At our wedding, a friend of ours told us it reminded her of A Midsummer Night's Dream. That description feels right in a lot of ways, but mostly because marrying Brad and having the people we love fly out to Cali to witness it all was, in fact, a dream I'd had since Brad and I first fell in love. I was elated and very lucky to have seen it realized in such spectacular fashion. We're forever in debt to all of the folks who made it possible.