Wedding Story
How did you meet?
Our story began at Cal – Chris was on the swim team and I was on the track team. We had lots of mutual friends and I actually lived in a big house with a few of his good friends (including his best man!) but it wasn’t until our last year when our good friends Hannah and Nick (who I set up a year and a half prior) invited us both to a halloween party in San Francisco. Chris was dressed as Buzz Lightyear, I was dressed as a pirate. We danced the night away and ended with late night La Burrita and King Pin Donuts (a couple Berkeley favorites). Chris asked me out on a date the next week to a make your own pizza place. He picked me up in his bright red, stick shift Audi and we listened to The Strokes. I almost forgot to eat my pizza we were having so much fun. We learned we both had a Carolyn and a Claire and that we were living in the same apartment building. We fell quickly and Chris asked me to be his girlfriend on New Year’s Eve shortly after. He first told me he loved me standing at the Big C (a man of romantic gestures!) …the rest is history!
How did you know you were the one for each other?
About 6 months into our relationship I knew Chris was the one. We graduated from college, went on an epic trip through Asia together and then experienced the struggles of graduating from college and not knowing what the heck to do with our lives. Despite how challenging that time was, it was amazing test to our relationship and we were there for each other without a shout of a doubt. That summer after a fairly unpleasant move, we were driving across the golden gate bridge and he looked at me and said, “You’re the love of my life, you know that?”
Tell us about the proposal:
When we moved to New Zealand I began to think about proposing. Shortly after the new year, we had a trip planned back home for a work trip of Sarah’s, and I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to propose. We have a family home in Carmel and spent many weekends on the beach with Heidi, and it is the place where we grew closest and have some of our fondest memories together. The big obstacle was coordinating with Sarah’s family to get down there on short notice. It was very important to me to ask Michael for her hand in person. I was left with one week before the planned proposal and luckily he enthusiastically said yes and he jumped into action arranging their schedule to head down to Carmel.
Our typical Carmel morning routine is to throw on exercise gear first thing, grab coffee and take Heidi to the beach. This day I suggested we got ready for wine tasting before the beach. My suggestion landed and we got ready for the day and headed into town. It was an absolute perfect Spring morning. As we got closer and closer to the spot on the beach where we usually sit and relax my heart rate sky rocketed (check photo page for evidence!) and I could not keep the smile off my face. At this point my memory gets a big foggy, but I knelt down on one knee, looked Sarah in the eyes and told her that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, how much I Ioved her and asked her if she would marry me. Lucky for me she said yes! – Chris
Bridal Q & A
Q1: Tell us about your wedding! What was the inspiration behind your day? Did you have a specific theme, style or color palette? Did you incorporate any cultural or religious traditions in any part of your day?
A1: Our favorite thing in the world is to bring people together for a good time. We love hosting dinner parties, organizing fun trips, camping and being outdoors. For a year and a half before our wedding we were living in New Zealand. Some of our closest friends from our time there planned to come out for our California wedding which was such a dream come true to get to bring people together from all parts of our life! When we began to plan our wedding we wanted to create an awesome weekend-long experience for all of our family and friends coming from near and far and incorporate a lot of those things we love. When we found the HideOut we absolutely fell in love and would have been willing to sell our souls to get married there. The venue drove a lot of our vision – it was the perfect, naturally beautiful setting for a fun-filled weekend bringing together our favorite people. The remoteness and stunning beauty reminded us a lot of New Zealand and also offered a unique experience for our friends traveling from far away to be there.While the venue was rustic, we still wanted our wedding to feel elegant and classy. The decor inspiration came from all over the place – a combination of classic but unique, and happy bright colors in the florals to compliment and contrast the natural woods setting.
Q2: Let’s talk wedding decor. How did you decorate your space for the ceremony and the reception? Was any part of the decor DIY?
A2: The HideOut is so beautiful we didn’t feel like we needed to do much. I found an amazing florist who really understood my vision and she did such a fantastic job with a stunning statement floral piece on the giant wood altar for our ceremony. The reception was held next to the barn – we chose to do big long tables and family style dinner to create the feel of a giant yet intimate dinner party in the woods. The string lights added a nice romantic touch! We did most of the printing work ourselves (menus, seating chart, etc).
Q3: What were the florals like in your wedding? Did you use flowers in any of your design elements like the bridal bouquets, centerpieces or ceremony backdrop? Did they play an important part in the overall style of your wedding?
A3: The florals were what I was most excited about and really the primary decor for the wedding. I shared my color scheme vision (warm and bright – pinks, white, peach, yellow) with our florist and some of my favorite flowers and let her take it and run with it. I actually cried when she brought me my bouquet, it was so stunning and better than I could have imagined.
Q4: Did you personalize the day in any way (food trucks, guest entertainment etc.)? What were some of your favorite parts of your wedding?
A4: We tried to personalize the wedding as much as we could. For the ceremony, we had my very talented cousin play the guitar and sing as everyone arrived and during the processional and recessional. It was so special. She played “The Girl” by City and Colour, a song that was on a mixtape Chris made for me when we first started dating. My aunt and godmother officiated our wedding and she did such a fantastic job speaking to marriage and to our shared values.For the reception – Chris is very into cooking and we both love entertaining people with food. For cocktail hour we served Aperol Spritz as our signature cocktail, a drink we very much grew to love in New Zealand, along with oysters, ahi tuna and wild mushroom toast. For dinner we served duck confit and steak with chimichurri, Chris and I’s favorite foods. Dessert was funfetti cake – my favorite!After dinner we served late night grilled cheese, a candy bar and smores by the firepit next to the barn where the dancing took place.
Q5: Let’s talk fashion. How did you both choose your wedding day look? Describe the looks in detail.
A5: Both of our wedding fashion had some New Zealand inspiration since we were living there when we planned a lot of our wedding. I think people express themselves a bit more there.I had never pictured my wedding dress but after we got engaged I found my dress fairly quickly from an Australian designer, Made With Love. I went to try it on and fell in love and knew it was the one. I then found some gorgeous pink velvet shoes from a NZ designer Chaos and Harmony. As we got closer to the wedding day my dress designer came out with the tulle wings for another dress of theirs. I went to try them on while looking at veils and was sold! They made me feel like Super Woman. To many people’s surprise Chris had a lot of strong opinions about his attire. :) He wanted something a little different than the norm and was very excited when he found his suit from Suit Supply – it looked classic navy from afar but had a really neat texture. Chris also wore a pair of brown lace-up leather boots from an Australian company called RM Williams that he loved.
Q6: How did you meet? Tell us about the proposal.
A6: Chris and I met in college, he was on the swim team and I was on the track team. We had lots of mutual friends but never connected until our last year at school when we were invited to a Halloween event in San Francisco with friends. He was dressed as Buzz Lightyear and I was dressed as a pirate, we danced the night away and ended up at late night donuts. We learned we were living in the same apartment building at the time and both had immediate family members with the names Carolyn and Claire. We instantly connected and were fairly serious pretty quickly. We were on a trip home to California and we went down to his family beach house in Carmel, our favorite place where we’ve spent tons of time together just the two of us. Walking the beach is our favorite pass time there. We woke up, grabbed a coffee and walked along the beach with our dog Heidi – our classic morning routine. I was slightly suspicious as Chris had encouraged me to get ready for the day, usually he’s rushing me out of the house before I barely have a chance to brush my teeth. We got to the middle of the beach and Chris stopped me, held my hands, got down on one knee, and told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. The whole world felt like it stopped! We spent the rest of the day sitting in the sunshine in the backyard daydreaming about the rest of our lives.
Q7: What was the most anticipated or special moment of your wedding day?
A7: I think we were both the most excited about the ceremony. Walking down the aisle next to my dad with all of our special and most supportive people surrounding us, with Chris waiting for me at the end of the aisle, was a moment I will never forget. Just after the ceremony once we walked back down the aisle, our wedding party met us in the woods and we all hugged and it was such a special and happy moment!
Q8: Do you have any wedding planning or marriage advice that you’d like to share with other couples planning their day?
A8: Stay true to yourself and try not to let people persuade you to do things that you aren’t comfortable with or that don’t feel like you. At the end of the day the people who truly love you will be excited that you had the exact day you wanted together. With that said, it is only one day of your life, so don’t sweat the small stuff and try to enjoy every moment! The exciting part is after the wedding you get to be married and start your life together.
Vendors in this Wedding
Venue: Private Residence
Cinema and Video: Mabble Media
Apparel: Suit Supply
Jewelry: Zoe and Morgan
Jewelry: Shreve & Co.
Shoes: Chaos and Harmony
Bridesmaid Dresses: Leave Her Wilder
Dress Designer: Made with Love
DJ: Heart of Gold DJs
Bakery: Delicious Designs
Floral Designer: Bloom Generation
Ceremony Location: The HideOut
Caterer: Blend Catering
Photographer: VILD Photography
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