The Couple: Abigail and Nick
The Wedding: 8.3.12 – San Francisco City Hall and RayKo Photo Center, San Francisco, CA
What were the top three priorities for you in planning your wedding? To support local economies, unite our closest friends and family, and reflect who we are as a couple.
What wedding traditions or cultural traditions did you incorporated into your wedding and what did they mean to you? One of my favorite aspects of our wedding were the pieces of family history that I had the honor to wear. My mom offered me her wedding dress and I was so excited…until I tried it on! It was incredibly beautiful but not my style or made for my body shape. I decided to try to find a dressmaker in San Francisco to reuse the material and create something a bit more modern and a bit more me. In the end, we were able to use the lace from her veil to make a veil that matched my dress perfectly.
Nicks Aunt Janet offered to lend me the earrings given to her by Nicks grandma that both she and her daughter wore to their weddings. They were gorgeous and were a perfect match, not to mention gave me a connection to my new extended family who had welcomed me with open arms.
I felt like all of those incredible women were with me the whole day and it filled me with so much warmth and love I can still feel it!
Were there any places where you broke the rules in your wedding planning? Why and how did you do that? We wanted our vows to be a private moment without the presence of a crowd, but we also wanted to share our experience with the people we loved most in the world. So, we had two weddings! About a month before we met our friends and family at City Hall, we took off in our truck to explore the Eastern Sierra and Southern Utah. On June 28th we rose with the sun, hiked to a waterfall, soaked in a hotspring, picked a wildflower bouquet, and had a little ceremony on a rocky overlook at sunset. It was a perfect day and something we will always treasure. On August 3rd, we pledged our love again in San Francisco with the best group of witnesses we could have hoped for.
What was your biggest wedding planning success? Nick and I both love photography and when we found out RayKo Photo Center had an event space we were sold. We had been looking for a unique way to entertain our guests at the reception and the tintype photo sessions were a perfect fit. Tintype photos are a historical process where the image is developed a metal surface, rather than glass or paper. RayKo also offers an black and white photo booth from 1947. The activities were a huge success and now our friends and family have souvenirs to remember the day!
What was the most important thing that you learned through the wedding planning process and what would you tell other brides-to-be? For us there were two very important lessons from our wedding planning. The first was the beauty of how well things work out if you just let go. We were open to good ideas as they came along and we kept an open mind about all the wedding details. We look back now and see that many of the things that fell into place so easily, would not have if we had been rigid with our expectations. Second, do not underestimate the importance of family and friends. We could not have pulled off our wedding without them. They were there from start to finish, picking up the pieces we dropped along the way. We are eternally grateful for their help and support.
The Wedding Team:
Photographer: Daniel Chin for Traverse Photography
Ceremony Venue: San Francisco City Hall
Reception Venue: RayKo Photo Center
Invitation Designer: Ross Carron
Catering: Amy at Feel Good Foods
Florist: Bouquet – Madeline at Vivid Floral Designs
Table Succulents and Cactus – Ricki at Cactus Jungle
Cake: We actually had pie…Mission Pie
Wedding Dress: Elizabeth Dye
Bridal Accessories: Shoes – Nina Ricci
Groom’s Apparel & Accessories: Belvest
Hair & Make-up: Susie Chhuor
Hotel: St. Regis San Francisco
Rings: Tail of the Yak Berkeley
Thank you Abigail and Nick! I love all the personality of your wedding day!
Planning a San Francisco wedding? Don’t miss our San Francisco Plan Your Wedding Hotlist!
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