As much as I love that Jenny Packham dress or the easy elegance of this whole affair, the thing that really stands out is the pure beauty of the images captured by Delbarr Moradi Photography. Those moments like the flower girl and ring bearer making their way down the floral petal aisle or a kiss between the Bride and Groom in the hazy light of dusk. It’s all so wildly magical and reminds me just why I love weddings so much. For the perfect moments in between all those gorgeous details. See even more right here.
From the Bride…As soon as Ben and I started planning our wedding we knew we wanted an intimate, casual and elegant wedding outdoors. It was also important for us to find a venue where our family and friends could gather for the entire weekend, kind of like summer camp for grown ups. The wedding was the first time our families had met and having time together was so important to us.
Dawn Ranch, a charming resort built in 1906 on the Russian River, was the perfect place for us on so many levels. The Russian River area is a place my family often went in the summers, the scenery is reminiscent of upstate New York where Ben is from, and the grounds reminded me a bit of Kellerman’s in Dirty Dancing in the best way possible! The weekend was perfect, filled with family, friends, kids and dogs running around having a great time. The 1920’s inspired dress I wore as well as the grounds of Dawn Ranch inspired a kind of Great Gatsby summer camp mash up. The planning and design of the wedding came fairly easily, although the implementation proved to be a lot of work! But at the end of the day we wouldn’t have done a thing differently.
We included a lot of personal details over the weekend and everything we took on was to show our guests love and appreciation for sharing this time in our lives. If it weren’t for many of their help we wouldn’t have been able to make everything happen. People we enlisted to help make homemade jam favors, put together welcome bags and hundreds of drink flags, my uncle made the drink koozies, and my aunt did the entire wedding parties hair. I did all the graphic design for the drink flags, favors, welcome bags, and drink koozies and made all the burlap table runners we used for the reception. Our house was covered in burlap for months, but they looked amazing!
In addition to all the DIY details, We included some very personal family items into the day. I used lace flowers from my Mom’s wedding dress on the ring bearer pillow as well as on the handle of my bouquet. Our cake topper was my grandparent’s topper from their wedding and our silver cake cutter was my Nana’s. Our grandparents are no longer with us, so including them in the day meant so much to us. It all added up to be the best weekend of our lives and we were so grateful to everyone who helped it come together!
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Photography: Delbarr Moradi Photography | Floral Design: La Fleuriste | Wedding Coordinating: Enchanted Weddings | Venue: Dawn Ranch Lodge | Make Up: Cindy Chan | Hair: Jeannine Ratti (bride’s aunt) | Rentals: Wine Country Party and Events | Cake: Fleur de Lisa | Paper: Flywheel Press | Wedding Dress: Jenny Packham | Grooms Attire: J.Crew | Jewelry: Various | Hair Accessories: BHLDN | Flower Girl’s Dress: Olivia Kate Couture