Sonja and Chris
Almost eight years ago, Saul and I got married in the ruins of an old winery near Kenwood. I passed the spot a few weeks back, driving up to Sonja and Chris’s wedding with my truck full of dahlias. As usual on the day of a wedding, I’d been driving with white knuckles, pumping the A/C to the point of absurdity, worrying about the flowers and the traffic and the time. But then, just a few miles away from my delivery, I realized I was passing the place where we had our best party ever, our most magical night. Such clichés, but I really do feel those things about our wedding. Feeling them again on highway 12 made me remember why I like this job. There’s so much pressure in doing weddings, so much stress, but it’s all because of how meaningful the celebration is. It makes sense to me that we want to surround ourselves with natural beauty when we get married. I hope I’m helping to make this happen for the couples I work with.
Anyway, here are some shots of Chris and Sonja’s flowers. These made me so happy. I liked working with Sonja because she just loves flowers so much. Dinner-plate dahlias from our favorite little grower in Half Moon Bay; eucalyptus pods and blooms; some ferns and liquidambar; abelia; some locally grown orchids. Garden roses, antique hydrangea. Succulents and tillandsias. We used passiflora and Boston ivy for the large altarpiece bouquets. There’s even a little bit of coleus and begonia in there, cut from our nursery stock.
First a few angles on Sonja’s bouquet, then some shots from their mountaintop ceremony. The reception was deep underground in a candlelit wine cave… my meager photography skills couldn’t capture the loveliness in there, but I did get a couple of shots of the centerpieces outside among the grapevines.
