As a girl who married my high school sweetie, I can’t help but get a little weak at the knees for this love story that started in freshman year English class. And following a Catalina Island proposal, these California love bugs began dreaming up their perfect St. Helena day. Allowing the idea of simple elegance to guide their planning process, they let the natural beauty of their setting speak volumes with a classic, clean design and an all-neutral palette. Alisha + Brook Photographers captured the most stunning set of images, and you can linger for as long as you like in the full gallery right here.
From the Bride…Ryan and I met our freshman year in high school. We sat next to each other in English class and the rest is history! We were engaged in October 2011 on Catalina Island. Right away we knew we wanted to find a unique location for our wedding. We considered a few far away destination locations but decided we really wanted to have our wedding closer to home in Northern California. When we saw Durham Ranch in St. Helena we both knew this was the place. It was the perfect mix of modern and traditional and the secluded locale made it feel really special.
Durham has so much natural beauty that we wanted to keep things simple and elegant. Nothing too fussy. Our save the dates and invitation design really helped set the tone of the wedding. We decided on a neutral color palette, long tables and lush arrangements. The food was really important to us and Paula Le Duc created an amazing menu. As guests arrived for the ceremony they were greeted with minted vodka lemonade or iced tea. We wanted to create a lively and welcoming atmosphere and a refreshing drink on a hot day was perfect. After the ceremony cocktails and hors d’ oeuvres were served outside of the barn. Covered hay bales were set up on the lawn for seating and guests sipped on Salty Dogs and St. Germain and champagne.
For dinner we chose long tables covered in neutral linens with French slotted chairs. Beautiful white arrangements in different sizes were placed down the center of all three tables. Guest names were written in calligraphy on each menu. We had custom linen drum shades made that ran the length of the barn. During dinner we played a mix with our favorite music ranging from Van Morrison to the Black Keys. After dinner was finished we headed back outside for dancing with Club 90 and finished things off with our favorite dessert, Celebration cake from Susie Cakes. As the night was coming to an end late night eats were served on the dance floor. I tossed my bouquet and we made our exit! It was an incredible weekend surrounded by all of our family and friends. Everyone we worked with was amazing and we are so grateful to have had such a talented group of people to help us create our perfect day!
[dotted]
Wedding Photography: Alisha + Brook Photographers | Wedding Venue: Durham Ranch | Wedding Planning: Courtney Snyder Bocci (courtneybocci@gmail.com) | Floral Design: Radeff Design Studios | Catering: Paula Le Duc Fine Catering | Lighting: Got Light | Rentals: Classic Party Rentals | Linens: La Tavola Linen | Cinematography: Thomas Hughes | Music: Club 90 + Starlight Strings | Invitation Design + Calligraphy: Holly Hollon Design | Wedding Dress: Jin Wang | Bridesmaids Dresses: BCBG, Shopbop, Alice and Olivia | Hair + Makeup: Wallett Luburich