S + A // SF City Hall / New Orleans Style / Trolley Tour / Urban Antique Shop / Taco Truck Wedding!

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Oh my word. This wedding was one for the books. Sasha absolutely nailed it with her vision and we had so so so much fun bringing it to life. I asked her to describe, in her own words, some stand out moments. Keep reading to learn more!

Tell us your proposal story! “Andrew proposed with a huge custom mural in Baltimore, the place were we had met and fallen in love. The mural depicted the two of us (as well as our beloved dog), seated on a suitcase in front of a paper fortune teller (or “cootie catcher” as it’s called in some places) which opened up to ask the big question. I was completely floored by the proposal when it happened and so the mural and fortune teller imagery was used throughout the wedding.”
What was your favorite unique element in your wedding? “We had taken a trip to Japan a few years back and had a lot of fun in Tokyo with “purikura” photo booths. They are these funny Japanese photo booths which take photos against a styled backdrop and can include different facial filters. Rather than doing a traditional photo booth, we thought it would be fun for our guests to have the full purikura experience so we found a rental vendor in San Francisco who set a booth up in our reception venue for our guests to enjoy.”
Talk to us about the dress! “The gown selection process surprisingly ended up being the easiest part! I had been a longtime fan of Sachin + Babi and was cruising their website for wedding inspiration. When I came upon this silvery pink number with rose gold sequins I completely smitten. Even though it wasn’t technically a wedding dress I knew it was the dress I would wear on my wedding (and it even had pockets to boot!) In keeping with tradition, I kept dress a secret from Andrew until the big day and so was very pleasantly surprised when he serendipitous picked out a shirt and tie that perfectly matched the gown. What luck! The dress style is the Kara gown by designers Sachin + Babi.”
What did you envision your wedding being prior to planning? ”It’s safe to say that neither Andrew nor I had a very clear vision of what our wedding would look like but we knew what we wanted it to feel like: fun, whimsical and full of love.”
And your color palette and your style vision? “The color palette was based on the colors of the wedding dress (pink and rose gold) and the style vision was based on the proposal imagery and the venue itself, which was a quirky antique store in San Francisco. The store had all of these amazing, eclectic antiques so we kept with that aesthetic with mixed rose colored wine goblets, and whimsical flower arrangements.”
Tell us about some unique elements or DIY details. “I designed all of the printed elements for the event (save the dates, invitations, menus) and had them printed at a local print shop. The save the dates and menus were based on the proposal mural imagery and the wedding invitations were based on two (rather unflattering) portraits that had been done by a stranger in a bar during our first vacation to Aruba.”
What was your very favorite moment?! “When we first started talking about wedding planning, Andrew had mentioned that he wanted to get married in New Orleans so that we could have a second line brass band parade. Unfortunately, a New Orleans destination wedding was logistically challenging so instead I decided to surprise him by hiring a brass band from Oakland for a second line parade after the vows! It was a complete surprise to Andrew and to our guests (aside from a few select few who were tasked with secretly handing out the handkerchiefs to guests and equipping the bride and groom with requisite parasols). Seeing the look of surprise on Andrew’s face was easily one of my favorite moments of the day!”
- Tell us about your flowers! “I actually discovered my florist – Max Gill – on the April 2019 cover of Martha Stewart Living. I loved the arrangement he did for the cover and I reached out to my wedding planner only to find out that he was one of her close friends! Small world. During a call with Max I had mentioned that I wanted the flower arrangements to look like they had “had two glasses of wine” and he ran with it!”
- Tell us about your favors! “Most of our wedding guests were from the East Coast and many had never been to the Bay Area before. In chatting with people before the wedding, several had mentioned that they were interested in exploring the Napa Valley area but were unsure how to do so. As a wedding “favor”, we decided to offer a Napa Valley wine tour tour for all of our guests on the following day. We hired a big bus and visited three different wineries which made the wedding feel like it lasted two whole days!“
- Tell us about the venue! “The original vision for our wedding venue was an architectural salvage store which we visited when we were living in Baltimore which was full of eclectic antiques, historic furniture and vintage treasures. Through some exhaustive venue hunting, we were able to find the same eclectic aesthetic at Big Daddy’s Antiques, a small antique store which was the perfect size and location for our wedding.”
- Tell us about the activities! “We had about 3 hours of time to fill in between the ceremony and the reception so we had a tour of San Francisco landmarks in open air, retrofitted cable cars! We stopped and took photos with our guests at several iconic San Francisco Landmarks (including the Painted Ladies and the Golden Gate bridge) all while drinking champagne and snacking. Afterwards the cable cars dropped us off at the reception venue for cocktail hour.”