Amber and Aaron wanted their wedding to feel causal, comfortable and authentic. They chose to host their wedding at Harvest Moon Café on the historic Sonoma plaza, which not only had the natural, relaxed atmosphere they were looking for (and fabulous food), but was also located across the street from the spot where they first met—the duck pond on the plaza. Their relationship came full circle and it felt like good luck for them to have their comfortable and authentic wedding where it all began. See their lovely day go full circle in the full gallery here, photographed by Megan Clouse Photography.
Two cocktail hours
We wanted our wedding to feel more like a fun dinner party than a wedding, so we kept our guest list small, and had two cocktail hours instead of one! We greeted our guests with champagne as they arrived (Cocktail Hour #1) and hung out with everyone before the ceremony got started, in addition to the more standard post-ceremony cocktail hour (Cocktail Hour #2). The ceremony was just as non-traditional as we didn’t have a bridal party, we walked down the aisle together, and we had my dad officiate using a loose ceremony outline that we’d written a few days prior.
Trust your vendors
I decided to hire people I love to work with and whom I’d already had the pleasure of working with many times, and let the whole thing fall into place organically. Trusting them to be the experts and allowing them to do their thing was the best decision I made. I really didn’t have a set idea of what I wanted (other than that I was making my own wedding cake, of course!), so I was more than happy to just help pick out a few elements, then let the final product be a surprise on my wedding day. Between the incredible vendors (we could not have done it without our A Team), the amazing food, and all the personal non-traditional touches, it was the perfect culmination of our relationship and the start of our new lives together.
DJ Wars
Even our guests embraced the lack of tradition as a few of our tables started a game of DJ wars during dinner, each trying to top the other requesting songs about Aaron and me. At the end of the evening we hired a caricature artist for a fun twist on the photo booth, and it proved to be the hit of the party! Between the incredible vendors (we could not have done it without our A Team), the amazing food, and all the personal non-traditional touches, it was the perfect culmination of our relationship and the start of our new lives together.
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