Napa Micro Wedding
Photography: Brandi Rollins Photography
It all began on September 16, 2017. We were both guests at a friend's party in San Francisco. Alec was telling a story to a group of friends and his big happy laugh naturally caught my attention. I was alone at the party and thought to myself, "Go talk to that guy, he seems to be having a good time." Sure enough, the good times began. After two months of friendship, we were inseparable and our romance developed. After many date nights, dance parties, long hikes, home cooked meals, dinner parties for friends, trips to visit our families in our hometowns of Port Huron, Michigan and Miami and many travels across the world - we knew we were meant to be partners forever.
On August 16, 2019, about two years after we met, Alec popped the question while we were watching the most beautiful sunrise on vacation in Koh Samui, Thailand.
Our original wedding date was 7/31/2020 in my hometown of Port Huron, Michigan. I booked an appointment at Amsale’s NYC salon on 12/3/2019 and fell in love with the Marjory dress from the new collection. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, our big wedding had to be postponed. However, we were ready to get married and did not want to let the pandemic get in our way! We decided to have a smaller, micro wedding in Sonoma wine country on 7/24/2020 (just north of where we live in San Francisco) with 10 of our closest friends. Because it was a smaller, more casual celebration - I wanted to get a different dress. I was so excited when I learned that Amsale had a “Little White Dress” collection as well as a new virtual try-on tool. This allowed me to try on several dresses in the LWD collection right from my home! I fell in love with the Crepe Flared Dress - it was simple and elegant with a beautiful sheer back and an exposed zipper. The dress arrived a few weeks before the wedding and was the perfect fit!
Due to COVID-19, all wedding dress boutiques were closed. Thankfully, Amsale was offering this new virtual try-on tool and it was extremely user-friendly. Using the tool, I “virtually” tried on about 10 dresses from the comfort of my own home. The Crepe Flared Dress was my favorite and I hoped that it would look just as good in person as it did using the virtual try-on tool! (And it did!)
The official wedding took place at the Sonoma County City Clerk’s office and then we had a ceremony and reception at my friend Sarah’s beautiful home in Sonoma wine country which is on 3 acres of vineyards. We live in San Francisco and the Sonoma & Napa wine region is very special to us - we are wine club members and frequent the region with friends. The landscape is filled with beautiful rolling hills and vineyards and it makes for a perfect wedding location. It was my dream to get married in wine country but with the size of our wedding - it made more sense to get married in Michigan. However, when COVID-19 changed our original plans and we were now looking to do a smaller micro-wedding, it made it possible to have a wedding in Sonoma. Our dear friend Sarah offered her home as the location and Sonoma County City Clerk’s office had an appointment the same exact time/day that we wanted to get married. It was meant to be!
The entire day was special. But below are some of my favorite moments.
Unfortunately due to COVID19, our family members and closet friends could not make it to the wedding in person. However, thanks to technology we had all of them there on a Zoom conference call. This was us waving to them right after we said “I Do” and saying hi to them after our ceremony.
My Dad passed away in August 2019, but we could feel his presence right there with us. And had a photo of him at our dinner table.
What tip or piece of advice would you give brides-to-be?
Go with the flow and be flexible and open! Some things are out of our control and plans will change. All you can do is pivot when you hit obstacles, do your best to embrace it and trust the process. It will all work out - sometimes even better than you had planned! The most important part about getting married is that you’ve found your partner and you’re deeply in love. All of the other details will fall into place.
