A Wedding Planner’s Modern Romantic Wedding in Napa Valley

Melissa Hammam
July 24, 2023
Categories: Real Weddings, Romantic, Summer, The Blog

[section title=”The Planning”]

[field title=”Wedding Colors”]

The wedding colors were black, white, dusty rose, mauve, blush, taupe, and burgundy.

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[field title=”Design / Vibe / Vision”]

For years and years I had saved inspiration photos and watched my style and aesthetic grow and evolve. As a lover of all things black, I knew I wanted to incorporate the color in a grand way without taking away from the lightness of the day. I am forever inspired by the contrast of light and dark, the natural beauty of the outdoors with a Tuscan influence, and modern elements with a romantic touch. I worked closely on curating every detail to flow cohesively and loved bringing in some moody elements with the modern details, and added some blush, dusty rose, mauve and burgundy to tie in the romantic feeling which felt forever timeless. We wanted the day to feel intentional, and even with 140 of our closest loved ones, we wanted an intimate experience where we all got to be together and share every moment with one another.

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[field title=”Proposal Story”]

Matt and I could not have been luckier for how our love story unfolded. Over 7 years ago, I moved to the Bay Area to pursue a career in wedding planning, and along the way have met other vendors that have become friends. One of those friends is Michelle, the owner of Olivia Grace Events. During the summer of the pandemic, we had a picnic together for an accountability group we were in, and she mentioned setting me up with her step-brother, and for the 3 weeks that followed, she persistently brought it up in her meetings, and I finally thought “Wow, you really think I’m good enough to be with someone you love. Okay then, let’s do it!”. After our first date, the rest was history. 2 months later we moved in together, and 6 months after that we were engaged, all thanks to this incredible wedding industry! Matt planning a surprise proposal at a local park in Danville, CA, the town where his family lives, and what I thought was just a casual walk in the park before dinner plans, turned out to be the most special moment of my life. With shaky hands, Matt asked me to be his wife, and my best friend, Olivia Marshall Photography, was there hiding behind a tree to capture it all. Afterwards, he surprised me with a small family get together at his parents home, with decorations and treats, and custom shirts worn by our 7 nieces and nephew saying “she said yes!”.

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[board_carousel title=”Getting Ready”]

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[board_carousel title=”Bridal Portraits”]

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[section title=”The Fashion”]

[field title=”Wedding Gown”]

I found my dream dress on Instagram long before I ever knew an engagement would be coming so soon with Matt and I. I loved the Lovers society Nolan Gown so much, the sleek silhouette and crepe material, with the nod of romance with the lace highlight in the middle section. As a curvier bride, I was so nervous to try on wedding gowns, let along a form fitting one, but the moment I stepped into the Nolan dress, I felt like I was already walking down the aisle to marry the man of my dreams. It was a no-brainer, done deal! My two grandmother’s names are Rose and Pearl, and we included special details to honor them as well. I wore a cape down the aisle covered in pearls, that made me feel like my Grandma Pearl was hugging me the entire way, since she couldn’t join us from New York. I had matching pearl heels from Dolce Vita as well.

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[field title=”Bridesmaid Dresses”]With a big bridal party, it was important to me that they felt uniform while still sticking true to themselves. I let me bridesmaids choose their own dresses as long as they were black, and loved the combination of different styles they ended up with – some with bows, velvet textures, one shoulder straps, and so forth. Everyone got dresses they can wear again for other occasions![/field]

[field title=”Groomsman Attire”]The groom wore loafers with a rose embellishment on them, the same symbol we had on our invitations in the form of a wax seal, to honor my Grandma Rose who is no longer with us. He, along with his groomsmen, all wore sleek black suits.[/field]

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[board_carousel title=”Ceremony”]

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[board_carousel title=”Cocktail Hour”]

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[section title=”The Details”]

[field title=”Food & Drink”]

Our signage included quotes from our favorite songs, like “Greatest Love Story” by Lanco which we incorporated in the vellum overlay for our Save the Dates, and as our Signature Drink names. Our dog, Saint, was our non-alcoholic signature drink for our nieces and nephews to enjoy, running around all day talking about drinking “The Sainty”, a virgin Shirley temple! And our catering team at Tre Posti Events & Catering helped us customize our menu where we curated a meal of all our favorite dishes. Guests were made to feel like they were in Tuscany, walking amongst the vineyards and cypress trees, sipping an aperol spritz, dining on delicious caesar and caprese salads with the incredibly fresh and juicy tomatoes, followed by chicken parmigiana and gnocchi with pesto sauce, all under the bistro lights and the fading sunset in the distance. What was so important to us was creating a welcoming environment for our guests and celebrating with them all weekend long. Half of our guests traveled in from the East Coast and we couldn’t wait for them to get to experience Napa Valley and the fresh farm to table food, and see what our life is like that we’ve built out here while we celebrated together all night long.

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[field title=”Florals & Decor”]

Since I can remember, I’ve always been inspired by Bloomwell & Co.‘s work. Throughout our time in the industry together, Allie became not only a colleague, but a friend. She was well was in that accountability group with Michelle and I, and present at the picnic where Michelle mentioned setting me up with her step brother. After Matt and I’s first date, I called Allie to tell her all the details, so naturally when it was time to begin wedding planning, Allie was one of my first calls! Having a friend as a vendor was so special, she could read my mind, take my personal style and translate that into her beautiful craft of floristry, and exceed all of my wildest dreams! We used a lot of black ceramic vessels and bud vases to bring in modern elements, but the blooms themselves were so romantic, accented by sandstone colored candles. Fountains were filled with Gardenias to bring a fresh and beautiful scent to the day, and rose buds floated away in our champagne tower because I must have flowers anywhere and everywhere!

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[field title=”Wedding Cake”]

I always dreamed of having a wedding full of food and dessert, and loved working with Natty Cakes on 3 different wedding cake designs! Our main cake was a two tiered white buttercream cake, floating in a floral bed, and our accent cakes were each 1 tier, 1 of them was a full black ganache coated cake on a super modern grey and black marble cake stand from CB2, and the other cake was blush ombre on a white marble cake stand with gold accents. Guests were able to indulge in any of the 4 flavors, berries and buttercream, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate salted caramel, or DF/GF chocolate raspberry. Along with our cake, we brought in dessert bites from my favorite local bakery, Sift Dessert Bar, which were set out on a display created by Shimmer & Stain with lyrics from my favorite Dave Matthews Band song “Sweet like candy to my soul, sweet you rock and sweet you roll”.

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[field title=”Readings, Ceremony Music, Reception Songs”]

Right before I moved to the Bay Area, I had been freelancing on a non-profit event in NYC and had a moment where I questioned if moving from New York to California, away from all my family and friends, would be the right thing. A colleague convinced me to give it a shot, just as a beautiful song began to play on the speakers, “My Best Friend” by Hollywood Anderson. The moment felt surreal and I still remember it to this day, because I told myself while listening to that song, streams of tears falling down my face, that I would one day walk down the aisle at my own wedding to it. And on my wedding day, with my brother by my side, representing my Father who could not attend due to medical reasons, the song played and my heart did a million cartwheels as I saw Matthew watching me, and waiting for me to come stand by his side, where I forever plan to be.. Little did I know, he had a little secret planned for me too, after reading his own vows, he surprised me with vows written to me by our dog, who Matthew had for 2 years before we met. After our rings were exchanged and we were officially married, we embraced each other and walked back down the aisle hand in hand to “When You Know, You Know” by Tim and The Glory Boys. It was a perfect moment, we danced and sang and kissed and loved with our whole hearts, while everyone looked on and cheered. I couldn’t help myself but turn around to all of our people and sing at the top of my lungs during the exact moment when the chorus broke and sang “When you know, you know!”.

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[field title=”Special Detail #1″]Our Officiant, Don, played such an important role in not only our wedding day, but in the lives of the groom and his entire family. Don previously officiated the wedding of the groom’s father and step-mother, followed by officiating the weddings of the groom’s two older brothers. It was a full circle moment to have him then officiate our wedding, after watching Matthew grow up over the past 25+ years and officiating 3 other Wondolowski family weddings.[/field]

[field title=”Special Detail #2″]

Music has always been something that bonded us together, and played a big roll in we made our day feel special to the two of us between elements in our save the dates, names of our signature drinks, the title to our seating chart, and our dessert display. Our seating chart by Shimmer and Stain was such a fun backdrop moment for photos, with the title “Welcome to the Good Life” after our grand entrance song.

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[field title=”Special Detail #3″]

When thinking about our vendor team, I had some favorites in mind who I had always dreamed of being a part of our wedding. We could not be more grateful for the way our vendors showed up for us, especially our photographer, Ellie Koleen, florist, Allie of Bloomwell and Co., and beauty stylist, Marisa Perel. And lastly, but most importantly, Bree and Irene with Eat Cake, Dance Often have been freelancing with me on weddings for years, when they decided to start their own wedding coordination and planning business. It only made sense to have the two of them run and coordinate my wedding day for me, as they had my full trust and knew me in and out! Curating my dream team of vendors for our special day was so much fun, and being the bride gave me a whole new perspective on how I approach wedding planning for my couples as well.

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[board_carousel title=”Reception”]

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