Great weekend!
What a great time we had up North this weekend. The drive from LA to San Francisco, or really the East Bay, can be a pain. The drive up Interstate 5 is 5.5 to 6 hours of dry, brown hills and a few slaughter houses (which is enough to turn you vegetarian on the smell alone!). However, in Spring there is a lot of green, and a good portion of the fruit trees and crops are starting to grow. The landscape is peppered with trees sprouting and flower fields. It was on the verge of raining the entire drive there, so the quality of light had an almost cozy-ing effect, making us wish we could curl up by the fire instead of being trapped in our rental!
We stayed with friends and the morning before setting out for Calistoga (another hour and a half drive each way!) to the wedding which prompted the trip, we took a lazy walk through the neighborhood. Berkeley is a beautiful place to walk around, especially when everything is just beginning to bloom! Again, it was overcast and threatening to soak us any minute, so we set out knowing we might regret leaving the house! Our friends Basak & Mark took us to a garden begun by Alice Waters in the local middle school (I will be posting about this amazing place separately.) Then we roamed through an nursery that had more trees and flowers and shrubs than anyplace around our house in LA! I have to say that that is probably a blessing because I was already formulating a strategy in my head to bring plants back with us in the car! My husband would have loved that! I would go crazy if I had access to that kind of green house right down the street! It would be like a forest in our backyard!!
Mark was to serve as the Cellist for the ceremony so we set out for Calistoga a few hours early. The wedding was at the beautiful Hans Fahden Winery. This is an incredibly romantic place to get married. The grounds consist of ponds and trails, geese and ducks, and of course the vineyards! To top it off there is a huge covered deck wrapped in Wisteria over looking the entire pond area. The ceremony was touching and emotional. The bride, Jane, was stunning! Both of them looked beautiful and happy, as you should be on your wedding day! ;) It was such a surprise when the doors opened for the reception, and a cave was revealed! 
The environment was just perfect. Candles and flowers everywhere. It was one of those weddings that is unpretentious and all about the experience of sharing the occasion with family and friends! Made the 15 hours of total driving very worth it!
Overall we had a great time this weekend visiting with friends and sharing in such a personal occasion. We where really honored to be invited to Jane and Oddells wedding! And a special thanks to Basak and Mark for inviting us to stay with them. We really miss all of our No. Cal. friends now that we are in LA and rarely get to hang out! I have to say though, it is good to be home!!
What is the most incredible place you ever attended a wedding?? Please share with us!!
Mar 28, 2006
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5 comments:
Hmmm.... I hate to say mine because that's so typical to say that, but it's true. It was set atop a hill in an english garden with the city of boston in the distance. We had a huge white tent with a Mediterranean theme - olive oil and bread on the tables, all Mediterranean food, excellent music, lots of wine, and 70 of our closest friends. I found these beautiful twinkle lights on marthastewart.com we had fresh flowers everywhere. The best part, we had a conversation with everyone at our wedding and I remember the entire night, it was so relaxing and fun. We were almost the last ones to leave, it was hard to peel ourselves away. The next morning, we flew to San Francisco and Sonoma for a 2 week honeymoon. The whole event was wonderful. My mother did a beautiful jobs arranging all the flowers...she is an amazing person, such a talented floral designer. It was lovely... When we came back from our honeymoon, a friend had 'broke in' and cleaned our apartment top to bottom and decorated the entire place with wedding bells and handmade signs to welcome us home. She even remembered to preserve my husbands' corsage and she thought of so many details, like all the presents were spread all over the table, displayed so nicely for us. I want to get married all over again! :)
Sounds dreamy!!! Knowing you it was a beautiful day surrounded by close friends!! Certainly sounds ideal!! And romantic! ;)
What a lovely entry, the scenery is great and the cave is amazing! Thank you for sharing.
this looks absolutely GORGEOUS!
how gorgeous!
one of my best friends got married in the japanese garden in portland oregan and it was really gorgeous.
my husband and i got married in vegas in their tropical chapel that looks like it is in hawaii. really cute. we wanted to get married on the beach, but people wanted to come, so you know how that goes....
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