A Gorgeous Italian Garden Inspired Wedding At Willow Heights Mansion

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September 18, 2023

The Planning

Design / Vibe / Vision

I don't love very structured florals, so we went with very "whimsical" shapes instead of uniform bouquets/decor. Italian garden wedding was very much what I based the vision off of and wanted lots of trailing greenery and florals everywhere. We utilized the stairs, bar area, and outdoor fountain and had the decor team use lots of greenery to make it feel more "garden-y" inside and out so all the areas felt cohesive. We DIY'd the wedding logo, table numbers, 2 welcome signs, thank you notes at each seat for dinner, centerpiece tri-folds, seating chart, corn hole set and corn hole bags, and cocktail stirrers.

Proposal Story

We've known each other since we were about 5 years old, but weren't really friends or anything. Our little sister's are really good friends and had us take them trick-or-treating one night when we were in high school and that's how we reconnected and have been dating since we were jrs in high school. The proposal happened in Napa. My friends were in Napa for a separate occasion, so the weekend we were going up, he asked them to help him set up all the photo props. We went around to a bunch of wineries in the area and when we got back to the hotel room, my friends had decorated the room.

Getting Ready

First Look

The Fashion

Wedding Gown

I had two dresses because why not? My ceremony dress was a gorgeous corset A-line style dress designed by Galia Lahav, who was my dream designer. After cocktail hour, I changed into the Francois dress by Fame & Partners for a simpler second look. I went back and forth between deciding on if I should have a second dress, but I'm so glad I did! Definitely loved playing dress-up on our wedding day.

Wedding Party

Ceremony

Cocktail Hour

The Details

Food & Drink

During cocktail hour, we served hors d'oeuvres: bruschetta on crostini, ceviche, and arancini. For dinner, we had chicken marsala, braised beef, roasted veggies and risotto. We offered a veggie tower for our vegetarian/vegan guests! We had beer, wine, and cocktails available, but we DIY'd cocktail stirrers with our wedding logo to personalize the cocktails a bit more!

Florals & Decor

Florals were a huge part of the decor because I was going for a garden wedding feel. The flowers I chose were white cosmos, blush reflex tulips, white chamomile, queen anne's lace, brown/mauve lisianthus, cafe au lait dahlias, cafe latte rose, opened blush tulips, cappuccino rose, italian ruscus, smilax, champagne rose, white majolica spray rose. All these florals were used in decor, bridal bouquet, and bridesmaids bouquets.

Wedding Cake

Our wedding cake was made by Frost Cupcakes in San Jose (fun fact: they won Food Network's Cupcake Wars!). We chose their red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, which was to die for! For the design, we wanted to go with something pretty minimal and classic, so chose a two-tiered cake with white florals to match the overall vibe of our wedding.

Special Detail #1

We customized our own corn hole set along with the corn hole bags and had a photo booth. I loved the custom corn hole set we made because it was very minimally designed and it matched our decor because of the logo we added everywhere to tie it all together. However, I think the guests really enjoyed having a photo booth! It was probably everyone's favorite part and the photos are hilarious and so fun.

Couple Portraits