Sarah & Alon in Stinson Beach, California // a marin county beachside wedding & garden dinner party

venue: historic stinson estate     planner: sasser events     food: shalimar restaurant & on call staffing     florals: arranged by sarah & friends, after a workshop with home sweet flowers     hair: heroes & hairoines

Sarah & Alon's planner, Casey, reached out to me a couple months before their October wedding. For big, important reasons their budget was small and their planning last minute, but they were hosting an intimate celebration in one of my favorite towns on earth - one of my soul's homes, really - and for that reason and a few others I felt strongly that I should be there. I left honored and blessed to have shared the day with them.

They had a beautiful ceremony with some of my favorite Jewish traditions - seven blessings were personalized and read by family, their chuppah also made by family of branches and wild flora from the woods across the street from the estate. They read earnest vows, held hands tightly and tenderly. 

After the cocktail hour, the three of us made our way to the beach to catch the golden light of sunset. I remember my first time driving from Fairfax to Bolinas to Stinson Beach - that afternoon I felt a sense of home that I had yet to feel since moving to California. That was six years ago, at least, and every time I head that way I feel it all over again. It was amazing to share that place with Sarah & Alon, so sweetly in love. We took portraits and watched the sunset, the rest of our lives stretched out in front of us.

Tabitha & Gavin in Los Angeles // a downtown LA wedding & parade

venue: grand park & ledlow restaurant     design and florals: winston & main     dinner: ledlow & baco mercat 

When one of the most imaginative and resourceful creatives you know hires you to shoot her wedding, you do a little dance, pat yourself on the back and then head out to the wedding and become as invisible as you can.

Tabitha is a super talented wedding designer who recently left the world of television - much like myself - to leap into entrepreneurship in search of broader creative reach. She is the definition of crafty - making art from home depot buys and a brain full of good ideas (see one of our favorite collaborations for A Practical Wedding here).

Tabitha & Gavin held a small ceremony at Grand Park in DTLA, officiated by her close friend and former wedding client. It was intimate and dear, full of laughter and bright light. Afterwards, in a beautiful statement of celebration and support, they led their guests on a parade - past the Walt Disney Music Hall and the brand new Broad Museum, down below the Angels Flight railway, beneath the hanging lights of Main Street. The parade ended at Ledlow where they hosted a dinner filled with toasts and taxidermy, and followed by four different desserts.

Kelly & Mike in Portland, Oregon // a laid-back multnomah county courthouse wedding and backyard celebration

venue: multnomah county courthouse and kelly & mike's backyard     cake & desserts: sweetheart bakery      dinner:  big kahuna's bbq     oysters & seafood: foster's craft cooking      dress: laundry by shelli segal     cover-up: bhldn     suit: macy's, well tailored

I first met Kelly & Mike when they were sleeping on my pullout couch in Marina Del Rey, sometime in 2012. They had met on July 4th the previous year - a chance encounter on the beach between a tall, lanky bassist visiting for the weekend from Portland and a classic beauty living in LA. They fell in love.

When I met them, they were beginning the roadtrip that would carry Kelly from California to Oregon where they would continue to grow together - entwining their lives, making plans and promises. Three years later, engaged to be married, I got an email from Kelly. Their wedding would be sweet, and small, and I wanted to bear witness. 

Their ceremony was on a Saturday - in a courtroom full of papers at Multnomah County Courthouse. They read each other beautiful poems and personal vows and everybody cried. Mike shared my favorite wedding reading to date; "How to Make Rhubarb Wine" by Ted Kooser.

Go to the patch some afternoon
in early summer, fuzzy with beer
and sunlight, and pick a sack
of rhubarb (red or green will do)
and God knows watch for rattlesnakes
or better, listen; they make a sound
like an old lawn mower rolled downhill.
Wear a hat. A straw hat’s best
for the heat but lets the gnats in.
Bunch up the stalks and chop the leaves off
with a buck knife and be careful.
You need ten pounds; a grocery bag
packed full will do it. Then go home
and sit barefooted in the shade
behind the house with a can of beer.
Spread out the rhubarb in the grass
and wash it with cold water
from the garden hose, washing
your feet as well. Then take a nap.
That evening, dice the rhubarb up
and put it in a crock. Then pour
eight quarts of boiling water in,
cover it up with a checkered cloth
to keep the fruit flies out of it,
and let it stand five days or so.
Take time each day to think of it.

Ferment ten days, under the cloth,
sniffing of it from time to time,
then siphon it off, swallowing some
and bottle it. Sit back and watch
the liquid clear to honey yellow,
bottled and ready for the years,
and smile. You’ve done it awfully well.

Afterwards, Mike and Kelly through a bigger party, inviting their whole community to their own backyard - where they had built a stage, and tables, and benches. Most of their wedding budget went to creating the backyard of their dreams; one where they could bring everyone they love together for good food and sweet talks and dancing - not just on their wedding day, but in the years to come.