Century House Wedding

Summer is finally starting to wind down a bit, which makes us appreciate relaxed, backyard celebrations like this one from Danielle Poff all the more. After some searching, Alexa and Eric were able to find the perfect venues for the backyard wedding feel they sought, topping the day off with impeccable floral arrangements from The Petal Co..

From the bride, Alexa: We envisioned a backyard wedding feel for our big day but did not have an actual yard to use, so our venue locations were the closest to “backyard” that we could get! We also wanted it to be really relaxed and laid back, more of a party atmosphere. To keep with the summer wedding and light fresh feel we had an adorable lemonade stand as well!

Flower recipe: For the bouquets the flowers used were gardenia branches, feverfew, garden roses, silver brunia and dusty miller. For the hanging macrame pots there were blackberry branches, seeded eucalyptus, garden roses, lemon leaf and mint. Centerpieces at the reception had feverfew, garden roses, mint, seeded eucalyptus, and dusty miller.

We had a color scheme that was mainly used for the bridal party attire and in some of the linens and floral arrangements. Yellow and gray have always been two of my favorite colors so I wanted those to be present in our big day! I wanted my girls to be comfortable so I let them chose any gray dress that they felt the best in! For the guys we kept it casual as well with yellow gingham shirts with cuffed sleeves and loose ties. Summers in Pleasanton are hot so I wanted everyone to feel comfortable! As far as DIY projects go there was quite a few! All of the invitation pats were hand stamped by my husband and me. One of my friends designed the stamps for us and we hand stamped them all! She also designed the program which we turned into a stamp and added a Popsicle stick, and an engagement photo to make a cute fan for guests while they were at the ceremony. The chalkboards at the reception were all done by me and our lotto scratcher favors were in tiny envelopes designed by my friend also.

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? It sounds cliche but go with your gut! If it’s something you and your fiance want then go for it! at the end of the day, you don’t want to have regrets about things you should have done! I got some flack for my very casual feel of the whole thing including my dress, open seating plan, and laid back approach. Once the wedding day was here though no ones opinions matter! all of our guest had a fabulous time and I couldn’t be more happy about our day! Some advice for the day of, again cliche, but don’t sweat the small stuff! Yes, little things will come up (for example we had flowers that were supposed to go around our cake tiers and the bakery just put them next to the cake) which could have been a problem I stressed about, but know one knew how it was supposed to be anyways and it still looked super cute! Another advice is DO A CAKE SMASH!! I have to say these are some of my favorite pics of our day. Since we did a First Look (also recommended) before the ceremony we already had so many nice and pretty pics so it was really fun to have the crazy pictures with cake on our face!

See Also

European Charm and Timeless Beauty in this Historic Salubria Editorial

Wedding Music:
Parents’ Processional: “What a Wonderful World”
Bridal Party Processional: “Heartbeats,” Jose Gonzales
Bridal Processional: Pachelbel’s Canon in D
Recessional: “I Do,” Colbie Caillat
First Dance: For our first dance we did something special. The best man had wrote an original song for us and him and the maid of honor (my sister) sang it to us live for our first song. Something I will treasure forever!
Father/Daughter Dance: “Isn’t She Lovely,” Stevie Wonder
Mother/Son Dance: “Over the Rainbow,” Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

Wedding Location: Pleasanton, CA / Photographer: Danielle Poff / Florist: The Petal Co. / Ceremony Venue: The Century House / Reception Venue and Caterer: Handles Gastropub / Wedding Dress: For Love and Lemons / Wedding Shoes: Free People / Bangles: Styles For Less / Gift from Groom: Kate Spade Bangle / Hair and Makeup: Cambrie Littlefield / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Target, Forever 21, J. Crew, ModCloth, Revolve / Groom’s Outfit: Top- Banana Republic, Pants- H&M, Tie- Me & Matilda / Gift from Bride: Fossil Watch, Socks from Express / Wedding Cake: Noland’s Cake Shop / Cake Plates: Paula Lidberg (handmade by bride’s mother) with candy from Sweden to tie into her Swedish roots / Cake Topper: ThePixelette / Ceremony Guitarist: Thomas Baker / DJ: DJ Pete of Eastwood Entertainment / Wedding Invitations: Adriane Harcourt / Film Processing: Little Film Lab / Videographer: CH Productions / Transportation: Vintage Fire truck from Livermore Pleasanton Fire Department (father is a retired Firefighter)