By now you may know that I am simply bonkers about wedding flowers and gorgeous arrangements can send me over the edge into la-la-land. When I saw these wildly beautiful bouquets and centerpieces my heart melted into a little pile of goo. And when I learned that they were all created by the bride's mother and her friends not only was I completely in love but quite impressed as well. The rest of this Portola Valley wedding captured by Gia Canali Photography is equally as breathtaking. Click here to see all the romantic details!
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From the Bride...Everyone told me while we were planning the wedding that I shouldn't spend too much time focusing on little details because the day is such a whirlwind that you won’t even notice them. This ended up being so true! I spent weeks gathering old wedding photographs and mementos from my family and Brian’s family to display at the reception including my great-grandmother’s wedding shoes from the early 1900’s! The display was put up in a separate room that would have been easily accessible if the weather was nice, but I never even saw it set up on our wedding day. I was really glad our photographers took so many pictures of the display so we could at least see what it looked like!
There were so many details though that made the wedding very special and personal. Some of my favorites were the flowers, inspired by the wildflowers that were supposed to have been blooming at Portola Valley and on Stanford campus that were arranged by my talented mother and her friends, the shoes worn by our wedding party – white leather golf shoes for the guys and special pumps for the girls – and all the music chosen for our ceremony and reception.
Brian and I love to travel, and when he proposed he gave me a ring with seven stones to represent the seven continents in the world that we would travel together. We used this as a theme throughout our wedding planning and our wedding invitations and details at the reception featured vintage maps and photos from our travels together to date. Our first dance was to “See the World,” by Gomez, a concert we went to at the beginning of our relationship and the promise we made to each other on the day we got engaged. After we kicked off the dancing, we enjoyed grooving to everything from the Beatles to Katy Perry! The photo booth was another highlight, a place where our guests could put on costumes and props and take silly pictures of themselves. We can’t stop laughing at what everyone came up with! Our guests were so creative!
My favorite part of the day happened in between our ceremony and reception, after Brian and I had taken our photos at Stanford and left to make our way to the Portola Valley Town Center. Our “getaway car” was my cousin Harry’s ’57 Chevy Nomad, a gorgeous black and white classic car. We took some great photos in and around the car before we left Stanford, and as Harry drove us our wild party, Brian and I had a little quiet time, our first few minutes to enjoy being husband and wife. That 15 minute drive was so special -- recounting the vows we said to each other in the church, some of the “bloopers” that had happened before the ceremony, and just being able to take a few breaths to let the fact that we were married wash over us.
Wedding Photography: Gia Canali Photography / Ceremony Location: Stanford Memorial Church / Reception Location: Portola Valley Town Center / Caterers: Savory and Sweet Catering / Wedding Cake: The Prolific Oven / Cupcakes: Sibby's Cupcakery / Floral Design: Nyna Dolby + Friends (Mother of the Bride) / Hair: Linda Thomas-Mayfield / Bridal Gown: Watters / Bride's Shoes: Converse / Make-up: Chanel / Bridesmaid Dresses: J.Crew / Groom's Suit: Banana Republic / Groom's Tie: Burberry / Groom's Shoes: Footjoy / Groomsmen Ties: J.Crew / Film Work: Richard Photo