Gorgeous Blush & Deep Red Back Garden Wedding

Starr and Michael just couldn’t wait any longer to be married and despite the COVID-19 restrictions they ploughed ahead with their San Rafael wedding on the 10th October 2020. They chose to have a small wedding of just 21 guests in a gorgeous back garden. They were extremely thoughtful about ensuring everyone stayed safe and yet kept everything so beautiful.

They had a stunning blush and deep red colour scheme which ran through the flowers, stationery and stylish attire. I especially adore the bouquet and the floating flowers, so pretty! Starr and Michael really did look incredible and there were so many precious moments of them captured together, oh so romantic.

Thanks ever so much to Apollo Fotografie for sharing with us these wonderful images.

San Rafael Wedding

The Proposal

It was a Friday night in San Francisco when Michael decided to walk into The Taco Shop with 10 college friends to check out a crazy $1 margarita Friday deal, when Starr approached with trays of margaritas in hand and a sparkle in her eye looking at Michael, it only took several weeks of the group coming back every week to see Starr when one night after work she joined the group at McTeagues where the two finally swapped numbers.

Starr made 3 attempts of asking Michael out on dates where he sweetly kept saying no (thinking she just wanted a friend in the city and was only trying to “hang out”) until one of his friends (thanks Tom) says “dude, I think she’s asking you out” “no way” replied Michael and then he thought one way to find out, asked Starr out on a proper date where she replied in less than a minute YES!

3 or so years later, an apartment together, a fur baby Cooper together, too many country concerts to count, travels to states and countries, camping trips, cooking together and more when Michael decided to ask another question. He told Starr they were going up to Napa to pick up a case of wine with his parents and brother and would make a wine tasting day out of it, everything was going normally, they arrived at Cline Winery (Starr and Michael’s favorite) had a wonderful wine tasting and decided to walk around the grounds as they do every time to see the animals and dreamy ponds.

When Michael got down on one knee and popped the question and don’t ya know it only took asking one time this time for Starr to say YES! If that wasn’t enough he had coordinated 13 of the couples closest friends to be put on a party bus and bussed up to Napa where they were hiding in bushes and rushed out after the soon to be newlyweds embraced. After some celebrating at Cline the fiances and friends set off in the bus to go all through Napa for an on the spot engagement party!

The Vision

Originally we had a wedding of 218 people planned to be at The Olympic Club Lakeside location which due to Covid-19 could no longer happen. We had to make a decision, do we postpone like so many others or figure out a new plan? We talked and it was a quick and easy decision… we were ready to be husband and wife and couldn’t wait to start our lives together, you don’t fight for a wedding, you fight for a marriage! (I was 100% done planning our original wedding so we had to start from scratch on the new plan!)

So with help from practically everyone in our lives, we pulled together a new plan. Family friends (The Snyders) of ours offered their estate with a gorgeous backyard, my aunt Christina Cutino who is a professional chef and caterer offered to cater our wedding at just the cost of the food, Michael’s long family friend and neighbor to his parents offered to be the day of coordinator and ended up stepping in and helping us plan so much of our day. My bridesmaids all pitched in and helped me craft signs, do their own and each others’ makeup, set up tables and chairs and so much more!

With Covid in mind, we wanted to be as safe as possible, we had 21 guests and our wedding party with us, it was outside and absolutely gorgeous. I rented luxury restrooms so that no one would enter the house, my Aunt individually packaged each bite of food so it would be safe, she found clear containers so they looked gorgeous too! We had customized silk masks made for each guest as favors and sanitizer EVERYWHERE.

The ceremony has always been the top priority and most important thing to us. We had champagne and rose ready before the ceremony while guests mingled (at a safe distance). Our ceremony (with no religious traditions) was just over 30 minutes. Our good friend Tom was our officiant and Master of Ceremonies. He exceeded any and all expectations, he got our guests pumped up before it started, worked the entry and exit music and spoke so beautifully. He told stories of us both and even emailed us questionnaires before and then used what we said in the ceremony.

Tom also did something I had never seen before, without our knowledge he had emailed and spoken to everyone in the wedding party and asked them to submit a short sentence or statement that they would want to say to us at the wedding, so in the middle of the ceremony he asked each groomsmen to come up and say to us what they wrote and then did the same with the bridesmaids, it was such a surprise and so sweet to hear what each person had to say about us! We wrote our own vows, both around 3 minutes each and then exchanged rings and said I do!

Our wedding was inspired by lots of flowers, tons of greenery and garland. No specific theme, we wanted it to be classic and romantic yet whimsical and natural. Our color palette was pretty specific, tons of green in greenery with blush and deep red pops! The groomsmen were in navy blue while the bridesmaids were in blush (I decided to let each of my bridesmaids and MOH pick their own dresses, I found this made them happier and they all felt amazing and confident in their dresses while providing fun textures within the range of dresses). The MOG and MOB were each in deep red dresses which really brought all of our colors together and cohesive.

The Decor

Decor wise we wanted to stay in theme with classic, romantic yet whimsical but now in a new venue! The main decor for us was our flowers. We had a 7-foot arch that was covered in garland and flowers, rose petals sprinkled on the aisle, a garland and bunch of flowers on each chair that lined the aisle and two large arrangements at the staircase. Pretty much everything that wasn’t flowers was somewhat DIY.

For the ceremony, we had a linen table with rose and champagne, a small table at the entrance to the reception that had a “be our guest” sign that I took out of our guest room. We rented coat racks and then took the curtains from our own living room and safety-pinned them together to cover the basketball court.

I made every sign for the wedding, I had made restroom this way signs and ceremony this way signs, welcome A-frame signs. I made sanitizer signs and wrapped sanitizer bottles. Because of Covid we wanted to have a seating chart for the ceremony so that people would stay within their “pod” so I took round pieces of wood and painted each person’s name on them and set them on their seat along with a fan.

Surprisingly to us, our officiant had a book made for each guest that he placed on their seats that contained photos of us that he got from our bridal party! (very fun and we got one in the end too!) As for the reception, because of Covid we kept the reception very simple and short. After the ceremony guests walked up the stairs in the backyard to the pool area where our florist had tons of floating flowers inside gold hula hoops!

We also had a fountain in the pool so that was a large centerpiece for the reception. We reused all of the flowers from the ceremony and had our florist scatter them on tables and the bar. Because we couldn’t have any servers or bartenders for safety. We placed linens over the hot tub and used it as a bar which ended up looking beautiful and we placed flowers and tea lights all around, we had multiple cocktail tables high and low spread throughout the space that had white linen with a burlap runner on each with tea lights and sanitizers on.

The Flowers

Our florals were such a center point for our wedding! I had always planned on them being the main decor and factor but without our original venue, they meant even more. All of the bridal bouquets and men’s boutonnières were the same style, mainly greenery (lots of eucalyptus) with small pops of blush flowers and dark red flowers. The arch was covered in our floral design (which was then carried up to the reception area), the pool was transformed by the floating flowers in gold hula hoops.

The Details

Personalize I would say yes because any wedding right now is so personalized by our situation in Covid. One being the luxury porta potty restrooms. A big one would also be the food. Because we were so worried about safety we knew we couldn’t do a buffet but we also didn’t want to have servers serving food as that didn’t seem safe either. My aunt, who catered it for us racked her brain for weeks trying to figure out a safe solution and in the end we decided that individually wrapped food was the way to go.

Each bite (literally, one slider in a box, 2 shrimp cocktail in a box, one skewer in a box) individually boxed in a clear container and stacked on top of one another so that guests could put on their mask, sanitize, grab a bite or two of food and head back to a table without touching anything else. As for our favorite parts, the biggest is the ceremony. That was the most important part for us, that we got married!

Your Outfits

For the wedding dress, from the beginning I  knew I wanted backless, I didn’t want a ball gown, and wanted a tighter fit but not a mermaid, and either little straps or strapless. I originally thought I wanted completely simple like satin with no embellishments or lace but once I tried a few on I just didn’t feel it was grand enough for my wedding day, I spiralled into trying practically everything and anything on.

I went shopping 5 times to a total of 8 places and ended up finding my amazing dream dress when I decided I was going to go shopping alone, I walked into And Something Blue and was met by Helen Miller (designer of my dress) she told me to look around and there on the manikin was the first dress I pulled, it was a spaghetti-strapped all lace backless beauty! I put it on and for the first time it felt right right away! I loved it, it had the simple feel that I wanted, it didn’t have a stopping point for the top and bottom, it all just flowed and I loved that it was such a low backless dress.

I talked with Helen and asked if I could customize it a bit (she said, of course, you can, it’s my dress!) so we added beaded buttons all down the back, lengthened the train and changed the straps to loop around my arm instead of tying in the back. The earrings that I purchased from LOHO Bride were actually decided before the dress! When I went shopping the second time with my bridesmaids and MOG my now Mother in Law saw the earrings in the store and we both fell in love with them, the gold and pearl screamed classic to me and the design was so different! I loved that they stood out as I knew I would be wearing my hair down.

I had a similar bracelet from somewhere else but it didn’t show up in time (oh well!) my shoes were Badgley Mischka, those were tough to find as it was midst Covid and I couldn’t go into any store to try on shoes, so I ordered and returned until I found them. I knew I wanted something with a little more fun and detail as I had kept my dress and otherwise un sparkled.

As for hair and makeup once again because of Covid we couldn’t have a professional doing it so I watched videos and looked at photos to find what I wanted. I am also someone who wears full face makeup every day so I wanted something a little more to make my look feel special but I also wanted to look like me and not too done up that I would look different in my wedding photos. I went with a timeless beauty look that was natural shades and a neutral lip.

Michael chose his look at the black tux store when he went in, we both knew we wanted navy blue tuxes but as Michael went in with his brother he wanted a little something special so he decided to go with a black lapel and black pinstripe down the pants for him and all of the groomsmen. With Covid also not allowing Michael to get his haircut I cut it for him a few days before 🙂

Memorable Moments

Our vows, like I’ve said the ceremony was the most special and important part of our day and it was the most special and beautiful moment to listen to each other’s vows and to vow and promise each other in front of our friends and family.

Advice For Other Couples

I would advise to sit down before you start planning and decide what your top 3 or top 5 priorities are with your wedding. When planning becomes stressful or you’re getting opinions from so many angles you can come back to the list and know what things you are willing to bend a little or not.

For me it was 1) we get married 2) my dress 3) my flowers and so when people would express opinions on music I would be willing to bend knowing that my top 3 were safe and when someone would say something about flowers I would say no.

And when Covid happened we knew postponing wasn’t an option so there was not as much stress on that decision because we made the decision a long time ago. Something else that I would advise is to stay organized, I made an entire excel with EVERYTHING for the wedding, to-do lists, timelines, guests, tables etc. I did everything myself for the wedding so staying organized and giving yourself deadlines is a must. Also, delegate where you can, I gave Michael our entire honeymoon and that helped when we were getting close to the wedding I didn’t have to stress.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Wow, so lovely.

Starr and Michael thank you ever so much for sharing your beautiful San Rafael wedding story with us.