Blush Spring Wedding at Calistoga Ranch in Napa Valley

This incredible day captured by Weddings By Scott And Dana comes with SO much more than a collection of pretty images. It comes with my favorite kind of writeup—from the Bride herself. She's taking us from their meet cute all the way to their Big Day and sharing a few things, like why they decided to forgo certain traditions and their favorite wedding day moments! L'avventura Events guided them in their planning process and it's all blush California romance to a T!

From the Bride... Always overly pragmatic on all things love, I was never sure that I was meant to be married – but upon meeting Andrew through a mutual friend soon after moving to Seattle in September 2017, I quickly learned that I had only felt that way because I just hadn’t met my person until that day. After the most incredible year together, we decided to celebrate our first anniversary and shared love for a good adventure over a trip to Portugal. Two days into the trip, Andrew dropped down to one knee in the gardens of the Pena Palace in Sintra, the most beautiful backdrop for a proposal that you could imagine. Despite being completely surprised and taken aback, I had never felt more confident about saying yes to something in my life. Turns out, there is something to be said for the old adage “when you know, you know".From the start, Andrew and I shared the same vision for our wedding: romantic, elegant, inclusive, and most importantly, with no shortage of our personalities infused throughout. While we are a relatively easygoing and casual couple, we wanted to make sure that we made each aspect of our big day feel like “us”. Given our shared love for wine and how the area has long been a special place to my family, getting married in the Napa Valley was a natural choice for us. Similarly, after touring the property and learning about the unique opportunity to get married in its stunning wine cave, selecting Calistoga Ranch as our venue proved to be a no brainer as well. We had no doubt that the cave and outdoor Lommel Lawn area would serve as the perfect spaces to host our guests, and that they would also provide the perfect backdrop for the neutral & classic palette that we had envisioned for our big day. We still can’t thank my parents enough for all of the research and groundwork they provided during this process, as they even toured venues on our behalf when we were unable to take time off work to fly down to do so ourselves.

Soon after securing April 20th at Calistoga Ranch, we were incredibly lucky to be introduced to our exceptional wedding planner, Brittany Payton Anderson from L’avventura Events, whose expertise and hard work ensured that things continued to fall into place for us from there. Brittany connected us to an absolute dream team of vendors – including our Photographers, Weddings by Scott and Dana, the kindest and most talented photographer couple that not only completely assuaged our fears of camera shyness, but also captured our wedding more beautifully than we could have dreamed of; Marisa from Revel Floral, who took the vision we provided her and blew us away with the asymmetrical arches and lush greenery hanging from the wine cave’s chandeliers for our ceremony; and Josh from Boutique DJs, who ensured there was never a dull moment by expertly reading the crowd and playing music beloved across all generations in attendance throughout the day. We also worked with the talented folks at Pike St. Press on our invitations and to arrive on our emblem, a hybrid “K” and “A” centered between our wedding month and date displayed in Roman numerals, which we included on everything from our gift bags to our wine cork place card holders to Andrew’s personalized champagne saber that he used during our cocktail reception to open a bottle gifted to us by my father.In order to achieve our goal of creating a carefree day that made each of our guests feel like an integral part of every moment, we also chose to forgo many of today’s standard wedding traditions. For example, we decided against a wedding party and, instead, chose to have an open door policy while getting ready in our hotel room – which meant that while Jocelyn and her team from Bella Bridal worked their absolute hair and makeup artistry magic on us (while also proving to be a ball to be around, I might add), I was able to also enjoy the company of our friends, family, and even Andrew throughout the day. We also opted out of first dances and into enlisting the help of Little Burro Events to secure sweet little Zoey - a miniature, flower crown-wearing donkey - to serve champagne to our guests throughout the cocktail reception. Lastly, and while it was already perfect, I had the best time personalizing my beautiful Ines di Santo wedding gown - from cutting off its long sleeves to adding a belt and bows to the updated cap sleeves, it turned out even better than I had even dreamed (thank you, Andra Bose Bridal Tailoring!).

Without a doubt, my favorite moment of the day was the bridal processional. While a cover of one of our favorite Kanye West songs by the Vitamin String Quartet’s played, my dad walked me through the wine cave doors to see the smiling faces of all of the people that I love and my soon-to-be husband waiting for me at the altar looking unbelievably handsome. It was the happiest, most powerful moment that I had ever experienced in my life – and, despite being a relatively unemotional person, I couldn’t help but shed a few happy tears as we walked down the aisle.Andrew and I could not feel luckier or more grateful for our incredible family & friends, who have supported us and traveled from near & far to celebrate our love, and for Brittany & our wonderful team of vendors, whose talents and hard work helped us to achieve the wedding of our dreams. To my fellow brides who are just beginning this journey – I would encourage you to not shy away from forgoing tradition to make your wedding day more “you”, to always trust your instincts, and to select vendors with whom you just “click”. We absolutely adore Brittany, Dana, Scott, and the rest of our wonderful team both personally and professionally, which not only made the process a lot less stressful but also made it a whole lot more fun. If Andrew and I could do it all over again, we wouldn’t change a thing.

Event Planning: L'avventura Events | Florist: Revel Floral | Dress: Ines Di Santo | Catering: Blue Sky Ranch | Hair + Makeup : Bella Bridal Napa Valley | Disc Jockey: Boutique DJs | Suit: Indochino | Transportation: California Wine Tours | Champagne Burro: Little Burro Events | Dress Shop: Bridal Galleria | Invitation/Emblem Design: Pike Street Press | Photographers: Weddings By Scott And Dana | Rentals : Encore Events Rentals | Resort: Calistoga Ranch Resort | String Musicians: Vitamin String Quartet