Today we’re off to the redwood forests of California for a beautiful celebration that is my idea of perfection! Rob & Adrienne combined vintage inspired glamour with rustic elegance, to create the most romantic woodland wedding with a hand fasting ceremony in a circle of towering trees and a reception under the moon-lit sky…..

After a surprise proposal on Marshall Beach, Adrienne and Robert spent 2 years planning their dream day – an intimate celebration with their nearest and dearest , somewhere in the Californian redwoods. They knew finding the perfect spot for their woodland wedding was key, but decided to enjoy the planning process rather than let it overwhelm them.

“Our wedding planning journey was very special.  We wanted to really enjoy the process, and not just see it as something that we had to endure in order to get married.  We also found that people love celebrating with you when you get engaged, so that was an added bonus.  We started out by looking for a venue, and found this to be the most challenging part.  We decided that it was equally important for us to have a beautiful place for our ceremony, as it was for our reception, so this took some time to find one place that offered both.  Once we had our venue, everything else just started to fall into place.  We did all of the planning ourselves, and although grooms get a bad rap for disappearing once the planning starts, Robert helped every step of the way.  Having him totally involved and made it really feel like a shared journey.”

One of my best friends, and bridesmaids, was visiting me from Los Angeles.  We were in Union Square, San Francisco, and while I hadn’t made any appointments to try on dresses, we were hoping to visit some showrooms.  With no real agenda, we stood on a street corner and happened to look up, where a bridal salon, Jin Wang was four floors above us.  She said “there’s one!” and in the window, I saw the most beautiful dress, that I knew would be it.  The girls at Jin Wan were so accommodating and allowed us to come in and look around.  I was immediately drawn to the gorgeous dress in the window.  I made an appointment for the following week, and brought my mom.  We both knew it was the one.  The dress was from the Atelier line of Pronovias, the style Vicenta.  I loved that it made me feel both elegant, and sexy.  I knew that this was the dress that I wanted to marry Robert in.

“Finding the venue was a big adventure for us.  We knew that we wanted to get married outdoors, in the California redwoods, and wanted something that felt intimate and unique, not another venue that hosted that same wedding every weekend .  We searched the internet and took trips almost every weekend, looking for the perfect place.  It was very important to us that the place where we said our ‘i do’s’ was special, not just the reception space.  We saw so many beautiful places, but kept coming back to a photo of a wedding in Occidental, a tiny town in Sonoma County, tucked between the coast and wine country.  This area was nostalgic for me, because growing up, I had spent many summers camping here with my family.  We had some difficulty finding the venue that matched the photo, and finally realized that it was a private estate.  The moment we saw it in person, we knew!”

“I had a medium sized bouquet.  It was hand tied with pale pinks,greens and creams. Flowers included roses, dahlias, hydrangea, ranunculus and seeded eucalyptus.  We found Petal Town Flowers online while doing a search for florists in the area of our venue.  We met with the owner shortly after a few exchanges of emails, and knew we were in the right hands.”

“I had my two sisters as my maids of honor and my six best friends, including my now sister-in-law as bridesmaids.  I wanted the dress to be as easy as possible for everybody, and I also wanted everybody to feel comfortable and beautiful, so I chose three different complementary styles from David’s Bridal, in the color portobello, and let everybody pick their own style.  I asked that they wore beige heels, and gave them each a delicate gold necklace.  They all chose their own hair and make-up look, and for those who wanted it done professionally, they also used Devotion Studio’s girls.”

“Robert chose his tuxedo, and the look for his groomsmen.  He chose a slim black Hugo Boss tuxedo with a shawl collar, and a Hugo Boss bowtie. Robert asked his groomsmen to wear a two button black suit, white shirt, black dress shoes, and a matching slim black ties.”

“My favorite floral piece was the altar decoration.  It was really beautiful and exceeded our expectations.”

“My mom walked me down the aisle and gave me away.  The second we walked out of the door and into the view of our friends and family, I was hit with so much emotion.  I had never been looked at with so much love and tenderness.  It really floored me.  I got choked up, but then when I looked at Rob, I had never felt more at peace and like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.”

“We decided to put a lot of thought into our ceremony.  We felt like other weddings we had been to were all about the party, and don’t get me wrong, we really wanted to celebrate!!  but we also wanted to have our moment, where we really basked in the commitment we were making..  While neither of us is religious, we wanted to find something that felt meaningful to us, and we chose to do a handfasting ceremony and used a beautiful gold silk ribbon for the handfasting.  On it, we found a calligrapher to write some of the handfasting prayer on it.  It was beautiful and unique to our wedding.”

“One thing that we loved about of venue was that we could host both the ceremony and reception in the same place.  We wanted it to feel like an intimate party that we would host, with our closest friends and family. After the ceremony we started off with a cocktail hour, with fresh oysters, and other snacks, before our sit down dinner. Our reception flowers matched my bouquet.  We had a bouquet on each table. “

“Robert and I both have a simple taste and when we started looking for cake inspiration it was no different.  We had our cake made by a bakery in Napa, called Sweetie Pies.  We had three tiers: the bottom tier was a silver white cake filled with vanilla pastry cream and mixed berries and the middle and top tier was a Chocolate cake filled with milk chocolate mousse and raspberries.  Robert is a big ice cream lover so we also had Ben and Jerry’s mini-cups.”

“I wore both a veil and a Brides & Hairpins crystal embellished head garland. For shoes, I decided to wear something fun, so I went with gold Kate Spade “Charm” pumps.  For my “something borrowed” I wore a my grandmother’s wedding ring, now worn by my mother.  I added a blue ribbon to my all-white garter, and chose a delicate BHLDN gold and crystal bracelet for my something “new”.”

“We had a great band called The Class Band.  We love oldies and a good dance party.  I literally did not get off the dance floor once.

I just want the celebration to last longer.  We were lucky to have a whole weekend, we hosted guests from Thursday to Sunday, but it just didn’t feel long enough! “

Pearls of wedding wisdom from the bride…

“Three things: Take a few minutes, even put it in your schedule, to have a moment to yourselves after your ceremony, with no photographers, or guests.  We scheduled 5 minutes for ourselves after our ceremony and it was so special.

Secondly, the wedding is all about your family and friends. Most likely, this will be the only day that all of these loving people will ever exist in the same space, make the most of it and take it all in.

And, enjoy the engagement!”

“The family that owns the venue also has a bakery, where they make these huge and awesome cookies, so for favors we had a huge tray of assorted cookies for people to take with them.  We also had mini bottles of Freixenet champagne.  These were very special to us, because Robert’s grandfather, who passed a few years ago, always celebrated with this champagne.”

Oh now this is my type of wedding!! Don’t you just love Rob & Adrienne’s glamorous yet redwood forests of California for today’s beautiful celebrationlaid back style? A huge congratulations to them and a big thankyou to their photographer Elisabetta of Lilly Red Creative for letting me share their wedding with you. If you love these photographs and would like to see more of her beautiful work be sure to make your next stop her website www.lillyred.it. You can also find and follow her on Instagram and Facebook for daily doses of inspiration and romance.

And if, as I do, you love this woodland affair and are looking for more inspiration for a wedding surrounded by nature, then you might want to see this jewel-toned beauty perfect for Fall, or this bright & beautiful Winter celebration, and this enchanting elopement inspiration all the way from Portugal is not to be missed! Or if you’re after something a little more rustic, then you might like this snowy inspiration board.

Amy

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Contributors & Credits

Photographer ~ Lilly Red Creative // Floral Design ~ Petal Town Flowers, Petaluma  // Shoes ~ Kate Spade // Wedding Dress ~ Pronovias // Boutique ~ Jin Wang // Bridesmaids’ Dresses ~ David’s Bridal // Groom’s Tux ~ Hugo Boss // Wedding Ring ~ Brilliant Heart // Cake ~ Sweetie Pies, Napa // Band ~  The Class Band // Venue ~  The Trees, Occidental // Hair & Makeup ~  Devotion Studio