There aren’t enough adjectives to fully describe a KT Merry wedding. Her camera can turn even the ordinary into art, so when you put her in front of an absurdly gorgeous Sonoma affair (despite a downpour of rain just minutes before the ceremony!) and she won’t disappoint. L’Relyea Events orchestrated all the lovely, and Lovespun Films captured the film you can’t afford to miss.
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From The Bride…Andrew and I finally met in early 2009, after more than a year of hearing each other’s names. I would come home from grad school and one of my best friends would tell me about this “Dobies” guy who plays professional baseball with her boyfriend. Apparently Andrew had also been hearing my name from my best friend’s now-husband. After graduating from the University of Michigan, I moved back to Seattle and in with my best friend. Andrew must have heard my name one last time, since out of the blue he contacted me and slowly we developed a really great social media, then phone relationship. We had been dying to meet and a couple months later while I was in Michigan visiting my sister and he was playing baseball in Akron, Ohio, I did what anyone would do and drove 2.5 hours south to the middle of nowhere (at least that I had ever been), to meet this Dobies guy for our first date. When my nerves finally wore off, we found this magical little park in the middle of nowhere and spent hours matching each other’s faces and expressions to the voices we were used to only hearing. It was a pretty perfect day.
Since that day, we knew we had to be together no matter what else happened, or despite that little fact that I lived and worked in Seattle and he played baseball all over the country. So we did what love makes you do, and we traveled madly across the country to be together whenever and wherever we could, with me racking up frequent flyer miles flying, and Andrew racking up miles every off-season driving to Seattle to live with me. As a result of his career in professional baseball, Andrew and I have always had moving and changing variables in our relationship; ones that literally and figuratively moved him and us around, and at times brought chaos and uncertainty to both of us. But we always found ways to adapt and keep our love and commitment to one another strong. All those years of adapting and adjusting, all the uncertainty and separation only made us stronger as individuals and as a couple. One of the most important lessons we’ve learned is that staying each other’s teammate and constant throughout and despite all those changing variables is what has made our love so strong and enduring.
Andrew proposed on a Florida beach at sunset the day after Christmas in 2012, he’d been playing Winter baseball in Mexico for the past two months, but he apparently pulled it off with the help of our friend (and ring designer extraordinaire) back in Seattle. So sneaky! Since then, we’ve had many transitions; we’ve moved together cross-country to NYC and we were married in Sonoma in April 2014.
Our wedding day was absolute perfection. Despite it raining all morning and even pouring (and hailing, I was told!), just ten minutes before the ceremony, the skies opened up and it stopped raining. Since visiting Trentadue Winery that weekend exactly one year before, Andrew and I had envisioned being married outside with the rolling hills and vineyards as our backdrop. So when the rain stopped Andrew insisted that everything be moved to the lawn, it was go-time. The Groom, his dad, his Groomsmen, all took off their jackets and hauled everything outside. If there is one thing about Andrew, he will move mountains to make me happy, that’s just him (even if it meant getting his tux dirty right before we even said “I do”). Our ceremony was perfect, even better than we had envisioned it. One of our guests told us later it was like someone came and vacuumed the lawn, it was completely dry. Not even ten minutes after the ceremony, it started to sprinkle, so we got extra good luck that day…and even a rainbow out of it! I have so many favorite moments from that day, but one of my most favorites was when Andrew and I were walking out into the vineyards at dusk with our photographers and KT Merry spotted a wild bunny in the vineyards, it was a symbol that always lets me know that my parents who are in Heaven are with me, and they were right there with us that day.
We wanted every guest at our wedding to feel comfortable and have a good time, to feel like they had just been invited to a really great dinner party with amazing food and wine, where could also dance and laugh and even a sit outside by a fire pit with a cigar and glass of port wine. I feel like we accomplished that! We worked with the best professionals in the business and they all made our Big Day feel absolutely seamless. It was certainly our most special and favorite days of our lives so far, and one that we will treasure in our hearts forever.
Photography: KT Merry Photography | Event Planning: L'Relyea Events | Florist: Cherries Flowers | Cake: Costeaux French Bakery | Ceremony Venue: Trentadue Winery | Bridesmaids' Dresses: Amsale | Catering: Park Avenue Catering | Hair + Makeup: TEAM Hair and Makeup | Officiant: Michael Leblanc | Transportation: California Wine Tours | Bridal Gown: Wedding Atelier | Bridal Sache Made By Bride: M&J Trimming | Bride’s Shoes: Badgley Mischka | Ceremony + Reception Music: AMS Entertainment | Custom Engagement Ring: Creative Tactics Unlimited Llc | Groom + Groomsmen Attire: Vera Wang | Invitations, Stationary + Calligraphy: Little Miss Press | Rentals + Lighting: Wine Country Party | Wedding Filmmaker: Lovespun Films