No bride spends her days wishing, hoping, and praying that it will rain on her wedding day. But, Mother Nature doesn’t always consult the couple for her big day plans. Lucky for brides everywhere, we believe that rainy weddings not only bring good luck to the bride and groom, but make for an extremely warm and intimate affair. An ambiance that just can’t be emulated without a little water from the sky. Example: this California wedding at the Monte Verde Inn was supposed to take place outside in the gardens, but rain changed those plans. And what would have been a beautiful wedding was magically transformed into, what we believe, a even more extraordinary affair. Captured by Stout Photography, flora’ed by Blooms by Martha Andrews, this wedding was beyond romantic. Click here for more.
Stationery by the talented Angela Dal Bon Invitations & Announcements.
Alex and Clarissa met while they were Peace Corps Volunteers in Tanzania. For two years they lived as site mates in the foothills of Kilimanjaro. Alex taught computer training at a teachers college and Clarissa taught biology at a secondary school in a small village up the hill from Alex. Every Wednesday, Clarissa would walk the hour down the hill to Alex’s site so she could get fresh vegetables and fruit at the market. Alex would meet her and they would sit on a bench and have a soda before she hiked back up the hill. Alex started coming up to her site to fix the broken down computers her school had locked in a back room. Six months into their service they were in love.
Since they fell in love in the foothills of a mountain, they chose to have their wedding in the foothills of the mountain range overshadowing their new home in Sacramento. Monte Verde Inn is a stately Georgian Manor nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The couple planned for a spring garden wedding and loved the outside gardens and ring of trees under which they would be married. They were thrown a huge curve ball when Clarissa and her bridesmaids arrived the morning of the wedding to see snow dusting the gardens! The people at Monte Verde were amazing and smoothly transitioned the entire wedding inside complete with candles lighting up the ceremony space. In the end it made for a completely different, but amazingly intimate and romantic wedding.
Clarissa and Alex wanted their wedding to be a reflection of their personal styles: Alex is simple and classic while Clarissa is elegantly earthy. Clarissa and Alex chose their colors and inspiration for the wedding when Clarissa’s sisters fell in love with a tissue taffeta bridesmaid dress by Bill Levkoft in Glacier. Her mother made all the paper cones for the chairs and the string balls that hung in the windows. She also sewed the ring bearer pillow, bow-tie and flower sashes and for the children. The wedding favors were small jars of flavored salt, in theme with the salt ceremony Clarissa and Alex performed. Clarissa and her mom planted lemon thyme in their gardens so they could have enough of the herb to make the lemon thyme salt. They made vanilla salt with vanilla beans Clarissa and Alex had brought back from Zanzibar as they were leaving Tanzania. Clarissa wanted a part of her new home with Alex in the wedding, so Martha incorporated flowers from Clarissa’s garden into the bouquets.
Sadly, Clarissa’s maternal grandmother passed away while she was planning the wedding. To keep her memory and spirit alive during the wedding Clarissa wore earrings and a simple pearl necklace that belonged to her grandmother. This inspired much of the pearl theme throughout the wedding. She bought her bridesmaids drop pearl necklaces from Brighton and Martha added pearl embellishments to the bride’s flowers. Angela Dal Bon tied it all in with a pearl border around the place cards which matched the wedding invitation.
Venue: Monte Verde Inn / Photographer: Stout Photography / Floral Designer: Blooms by Martha Andrews & Monte Verde Inn / Invitation Designer: Angela Dal Bon Invitations & Announcements / Cake & Desserts: Kelly Dalisa at Monte Verde Inn / Wedding Gown Designer: David’s Bridal / Bridesmaid’s Dress Designer: Bill Levkoff