This San Francisco wedding is a true reflection of its gorgeous surroundings. A little bit modern, a dash of industrial, with whimsy and beauty tucked in there too. The brightest blooms and floral draped chandeliers by Angella Floral Arts softened the industrial feel of the space and when paired with printed linens and chic modern details by Volare Events it’s all together stunning. See what modern meets color looks like with imagery by The Nichols plus a film by Gold & Gumption below.
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From the Bride… After we got engaged in Santa Monica in July 2015, we immediately knew we wanted our wedding to be in the SF Bay Area. After looking at dozens of venues in wine country and Marin county, we realized the only place we really wanted to host our wedding was in San Francisco, not only because it is our favorite city in the world but also because it is where we started our lives together after moving from Boulder, CO in 2012. We now live in LA, but SF will always be our home!
We knew right off the bat that it was important to bring on a planner/designer we trusted since we were going to be planning the entire wedding from LA. And it’s safe to say that our wedding would have never come together without the absolutely incredible partnership and work of Karen Oliver of Volare Events who truly brought our vision and ideas to life. Beyond just helping to shape my ideas into reality, she created the overall event design and completely understood our vision and how to elevate it (we were always on the same wavelength!). Every single detail of our wedding was touched and meticulously crafted by Karen and she did a fantastic job managing all the vendors and making the day feel so unbelievably unique and custom to us. From the venue and vendor selection, the floral design, the catering, the day-of-paper materials and all the way down to the smallest details of napkins and silverware, Karen made sure every single decision was intentional and beautiful and true to the event. Karen became a friend throughout the process and made the entire wedding planning journey so much fun and totally stress free. I cannot say enough good things about Karen’s talent, artistry and event management… she is everything!
Once we had settled on SF, it didn’t take us long to decide that our ceremony had to be in Lafayette Park in Pacific Heights — both of the apartments we lived in during our time in San Francisco were within 1 mile of the park and we frequently spent Saturday afternoons in the sun lounging on the green fields. (Didn’t hurt that the park is perfectly positioned between our apartments, forming the letter “L” for love when connected on map!). The park is gorgeous and has a relatively private gathering meadow surrounded by fragrant eucalyptus trees with stunning views of the city and its infamous hills, offering peeks of sailboats cruising around in the bay. We also loved that as guests arrived at the venue, they’d be walking up wide concrete/stone steps surrounded by green hills and trees blowing in the wind. A small sanctuary from the frantic SF streets!
For the reception, we loved the idea of giving our guests a classic San Franciscan experience so we were thrilled when we discovered the recently renovated Gallery 308 at Fort Mason. It is right on the water with sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge with an urban/minimalist feel (also a blank slate that definitely required a creative layout, personalisation and warming up). Our vision for our reception was a warm dinner party with friends — not stuffy, more casual and fun! The design ultimately took the shape of crisp white accented with lots of greenery, white florals mixed with warm hues & a combination of long wooden and square linen covered tables, each type of table with their unique style of chair, napkin, etc. For the decor, we wanted to integrate some mid-century modern and retro design (with a splash of boho inspiration!) which was achieved through hand-picked lounge pieces and furniture rentals. After Karen dedicated a ton of time and resources to layout and design, the night of our wedding couldn’t have looked more perfect and we were so lucky to have golden light pouring in through the windows giving the whole space a warm glow and an even more stunning view of the bridge.
For the invitations and day-of print materials, we really wanted fresh yet romantic pieces which was achieved via stationery that was entirely hand-written (calligraphy) accented with simple greenery illustrations. Katherine from Script Merchant worked closely with Karen on the design and totally nailed the look we were going for on every single piece, even down the fun and colorful “escort flags” that were displayed in long planters filled with tiny ferns. Every single day-of piece was perfectly coordinated — including the wooden signs that Kevin’s mom had made for us in Bend, Oregon with the same font designed by Katherine.
Kevin + I met in chemistry lab at CU Boulder during our freshman year of college.. We were both in the same major (Molecular Biology) so we thought it would be special to incorporate some fun science inspired moments into the day. One of our favorite cocktails is Gin & Tonics — it’s a Prodehl family favorite (they always would joke you could tell how drunk you were by the number of limes in your glass!) and our love for them solidified after a 2 week trip to Spain where G&Ts are a staple of every happy hour. During our tasting with Jessica Lasky catering, we were all spitballing ideas about how to infuse a science theme into our bar and the genius idea of creating a gin & “Tonic Lab” was born – where guests could mix and match and experiment with different types of infused gins and garnishes. We loved the idea and couldn’t be happier with how it was executed, down to the beakers & flasks used for the gin & garnishes and pops of florals in test tubes. The look was of course completed by amazing signage designed by Katherine at Script Merchant with a nod to Breaking Bad.
Kevin’s parents are incredibly talented and creative makers — Kevin’s dad builds beautiful homes in Oregon and his mom is a jeweler who turns junk and used materials into beautiful handmade pieces. It was important to us to have some of their creativity and work incorporated into our wedding so we were honored when they offered to build the wooden trellis that Kevin & I were married under. They built a beautiful light wood structure made out of pine that they drove down to SF from Oregon and constructed at Lafayette Park on our wedding day. Angella from Angella Floral Arts added stunning greenery and florals to bring the structure to life.. It was so meaningful for us to say our vows under the wooden beams so carefully constructed and made with love. Kevin’s mom also made Kevin’s wedding band out of silver and gold and we worked with our officiant to surprise her during the ceremony by incorporating a verse about the rings and their importance to us.
A lot of times during wedding planning it can be easy to focus all your attention on the reception, but we really wanted to make sure our ceremony felt personal and set the stage for the rest of the night. We had a beautiful string quartet playing music and a bartender pouring rose champagne into adorable glass flutes as guests walked in. Beautiful floral arrangements adorned the aisle chairs and delicately dropped pink and coral rose petals were scattered down the aisle. I’ll never forget how I felt the moment I walked down the aisle with my parents, taking it all in for the first time — it was exciting, overwhelming and emotional to see Kevin standing at the end of the aisle and our friends and family cheering us on! We were too distracted saying our “I Do’s” to notice but our guests kept commenting about how many butterflies were flying around all the florals on our wedding trellis. Seriously!? What a fairytale!
For my wedding dress, I wanted something simple, modern and elegant and after looking at dozens of stores in both SF and LA, I was worried I wasn’t going to find the perfect dress. Karen recommended I make an appointment at Amy Kuschel’s studio in downtown San Francisco and I’m so happy that I did — they had just released their new line called “Deco to Disco” and I found the most beautiful silk gown that could not have been more perfect. From the long sheer bell sleeves to the tight bodice with the flowing silk train, I immediately knew the dress was the one (it perfectly embodied our wedding inspiration — both classic & modern with a hint of retro & boho!). Plus, it was made right there at the studio in San Francisco!
I think one of the biggest hits of our wedding night was Silvi from The Poetry Store who set up a poetry station next to the bar and wrote on-demand poems for all the guests. She is so incredibly talented and needless to say, many of her poems brought happy tears throughout the night. Silvi made a carbon copy of every poem – we cannot wait to see all of the poems our guests received that night!
Instead of having a classic wedding cake for dessert, we chose to have our caterer Jessica Lasky set-up a dessert bar with mini pavlovas, mini donuts & pots de creme. For another sweet treat at the end of the night for our guests, we put out mini chocolate bars from Chocolove (a Boulder, CO based chocolatier) that were wrapped with a rose satin ribbon and a tag designed by Script Merchant with a beautiful illustration of the Boulder Flatirons. Each Chocolove bar includes a love poem in the packaging so we loved how it fit with the poetry theme of the evening — plus, we fell in love in Boulder, CO!
Poetry wasn’t the only entertainment of the night — we also had The Lucky Devils Band perform, a full 8 pieces that literally rocked the night away. We’ll never forget dancing all night with our family and friends. Every one of our guests were out on the dance floor, and Kevin & I even got up on the stage at one point. The Lucky Devils Band blew everyone away!!
You can’t talk about a wedding in San Francisco without mentioning an ever present guest: wind. While annoying at times, looking back the wind was one of our favorite elements of the day! One of our favorite moments was standing at the edge of the pier at Fort Mason with the Golden Gate Bridge behind us and the wind blowing my veil all around, encapsulating both Kevin & I. It was so magical!
Photography: Nichols Photographers | Film: Gold & Gumption | Event Planning and Design: Volare Events | Floral Design: Angella Floral Arts | Ceremony Venue: Lafayette Park | Reception Venue: Gallery 308 | Catering: Jessica Lasky | Hair Stylist: Jacqueline Duiganani | Lighting: Got Light | Officiant: Officially Yours Rev Ray Carter | Linens: BBJ La Tavola | Make Up Artist : Bianca Rubi | Poet: The Poetry Store | Print Design/ Paper Goods: Script Merchant | Reception Band: Lucky Devils Band | Rentals: Bright Event Rentals | Rentals: Pieces By Violet
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