Al Fresco Vintage Wedding in California

Brittany and Sean are both graphic designers who love vintage style, so it seems natural their wedding day would be a winner all around. Still Music Photography and Mountain Laurel were brought on board to bring their vision to life, and what a job they did! One of our favorite details is that the couple had a projector playing black and white films in the backyard during the reception — such a great idea.

From the bride, Brit: I grew up in the foothills, and Sean grew up in San Diego but fell in love with the natural beauty and peace of my hometown so we knew we wanted to get married outside in Northern California. We started out with what we wanted the wedding to feel like and then went from there. We are both graphic designers and love vintage style — so we wanted the style to be classic and romantic, but still have really fun elements that made it personal.

Flower recipe: My bouquet had anemones, roses, eucalyptus leaves, privet berries, dusty miller, and poppy and other seed pods. The bridesmaids were mostly lavender roses with loads of greenery (eucalyptus leaves and dusty miller) that cascaded down. The bouquets were the only florals we had professionally done, but my mom adding finishing touches to them, including wrapping long satin ribbons around the bases and adding buttons from my grandmother’s wedding dress (buttons my great-grandmother had made) to my bouquet.

We didn’t have a theme, but we knew we had to be careful so that it didn’t get too country since it was outdoors and there was a barn involved… so we made sure everything aside from the barn leaned more toward the sophisticated, fun side. I wanted everything to be soft. We got married in the fall and it was GORGEOUS out — the leaves were turning, but everything was golden and full still, so the colors were all pretty neutral shades of grey, nude, and pink so that we fit into the scenery without competing with it. We were on a budget, but are also both really creative and crafty, so we were excited to design and create all of the elements of the wedding from the save the dates to the drink tags, to the cookie bar signage. Sean & I designed all of the invitations, signage, and finishing touches and we had a huge amount of help from my mom who collected, constructed and styled a lot of the decorative elements at the wedding including the floral arrangements, vintage furniture, and centerpieces.

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Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? There is going to be a lot of noise from everyone else on how your wedding should be, but do what you both want to do: make it you! The biggest compliment we received was people saying it felt like us and was so personal, and that’s what it should be. I listened to all the advice and suggestions, but ultimately went with what we both wanted and we are so happy we did.

Wedding Music:
This was another thing we both sat down and did together and had a lot of fun with! Sean is a big punk fan and I am a big jazz fan, so we had fun making the playlist. Originally, we had planned another song for our recessional, but I had a surprise planned for Sean: he’s a huge Star Wars fan (Huge!) so I asked the DJ to play the Throne Room song from the original Star Wars. He flipped. I told Jeremy what I had planned and he got a great shot of Sean realizing what was playing while we were walking out.
Bridal Party Processional: “All of My Days,” Alexi Murdoch
Bride’s Processional: “Sea of Love,” Cat Power
Recessional: “The Throne Room” from Star Wars
First Dance: “Our Love is Easy,” Melody Gardot
Second Dance: “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked,” Ita Maria
Last Dance: “So Long, Farewell,” The Vandals