Once upon a time I lived in Larkspur for a blip of a moment but that blip was so, so stinkin beautiful. It’s one of those places that’s as pretty in person as in the images by onelove photography; all rolling hills and easy elegance with San Francisco a mere hop, skip and a jump a way. It’s pretty perfect and this wedding crafted by Claire Curran + Chestnut and Vine brings me right back to that time. Check out the full gallery right here.
From the Bride…Our goal was to throw an awesome party with all of our favorite people and planning the party was truly a team effort. When it came to making our day unique to us it was all in the details. My aunt is an insanely talented graphic designer and lucky for us she offered to help with all of the printed material. She worked with us to develop a design for each component from the invitation, to the program, to the jam favor labels. We decided to use natural driftwood for the table card stands. Our dads actually collected it together with John and my dad cut slits through the center of each piece to hold the table cards. John and I worked together to create the table cards, each of which was a different animal we’d seen together. I watercolored each animal as John gave me his expert advice on animal biology. John’s mom hand sewed beautiful little pillows for the ring bearers. My sisters came up with an amazing playlist for the DJ. Our families surprised us with a slideshow of our lives before and after meeting eachother that played during the reception. All of these personal touches are what stand out when I think back to our wedding day.
As an architect, the spatial environment is something I’m always thinking about. We had no idea where we wanted to get married when we first started planning, I just knew it had to be an indoor/outdoor space with high ceilings and timeless architecture. The ceremony took place in a gothic catherdral in San Francisco. It was grand and romantic, but very traditional. The reception was a transition to a more relaxed and rustic atmosphere. We wanted to incorporate a very natural feeling to the dcor, beginning with the venue itself. The Tavern helped set the tone for this, being a restored Victorian set in a redwood grove, and the dcor added to the affect. We focused heavily on the flowers and softer elements of decor. Our florist was amazing! She ensured us that all the flowers to be seasonal. We went for a wild and whimsical look with a lot of texture. The ribbon canopy over the outdoor bar was an element I’d envisioned from the very beginning as a way to define that space and bring in some elements of color. We were thrilled with the final result. In fact, one of my favorite moments was entering the cocktail hour with John and experiencing everything wed worked so hard to plan in real life, with all of our friends and family right there to greet us!
Johns grandfather was a fisherman from Italy and seafood has always been huge for his family. John always brings oysters to family gatherings at my house, and we all have so much fun eating them together. Its a fun food to eat because it’s all about the experience of doing it with others. And thats exactly how it played out at the wedding. The oyster bar was a huge hit!
Our reception was a short drive from the church, across the Golden Gate bridge to Marin. We wanted everyone to be able to enjoy the evening without worry about driving home so we provided buses to take guests to and from the reception. We stocked the buses with coolers full of beer and champage so our guests could get the party started right after the ceremony. Our goal was to throw an awesome party and I knew I’d be ready for a drink after the ceremony, so I figured my friends would too! Since Johns family lives on the east coast as well as most of my extended family, most of our guests were visiting from out of town. We had the buses stop at the Golden Gate lookout point for a quick photo before heading to the cocktail hour.
John and I met when he mistakenly messaged me on Facebook. He confused me for his friends girlfriend, also named Lindsay, who he was supposed to meet for the first time that weekend. After realizing his mistake John threatened to de-friend me which I took offense to, and so began a playfully comnbatic conversation, the first of many. We shared our ultimate to do lists” and spent the first few months getting to know each other through emails and phone calls. Eventually, John came out to San Francisco from Denver to take me on our first real date. After a terribly awkward thirty minutes at my apartment, where my roommate stuck around to make sure John wasn’t a psycho killer, we went out and had the best date ever! On our second date, a month later, we went skydiving and John stayed for the weekend. A month after that John packed his car and moved to San Francisco. Being active and pursuing adventure together is what connected us and continues to be a huge part of our life together. Our wedding needed to represent us a couple and finding ways to incorporate these aspects of who we are was what made our wedding day unique to us.
I am much more detail oriented while John tends to looks at the bigger picture. Planning our wedding was a huge learning experience for us and as silly as it sounds I can honestly say that we are stronger because of it. Learning to compromise and not to get stuck on any particular idea was huge for both of us. Being open to the opinions of others and staying grounded in making decisions that were best for both of us was not always easy, but relying on each other through the process is what made us stronger. Everyone has an opinion when it comes to your big day and its so easy to get overwhelmed with the details. Choose a handful of things to focus and and prioritize from there.
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Photography: onelove photography | Event Design + Coordination: Claire Curran | Rentals: Classic Party Rentals | Officiant: Father Emmanuel | Floral Design: Chestnut and Vine | Caterer: The Tavern at Lark Creek | DJ: Moments to Memories | Cake: Leland Tea Company | Stationery: Patricia Carey (bride’s aunt) | Cocktail Hour Music: Amy Dabalos | Hair + Makeup: Milvali Salon | Wedding Dress + Veil: Amy Kuschel | Shoes: Badgley Mischka | Jewelry: Amy Kuschel | Bridesmaid Dresses: J.Crew