Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know that my little sister is an actress. Her first feature length indie film, I Think It’s Raining, premiered last summer, and next month it’s finally screening in New York (where she lives.) If you’re in town you should go check it out and give her a hug for me after the screening (seriously, don’t be shy, she loves it when people introduce themselves.)
Allison and Jonas got married in Old Saint Hillary’s in Tiburon, which is very possibly the most picturesque wedding chapel I have ever seen in my life.
A late-December wedding date often means rain the Bay Area, but they lucked out big time and the weather was gorgeous all day. This was one of the most joyful weddings I have ever been a part of – literally everyone involved was just so happy to be there that it was palpable.
The reception was at the Corinthian Yacht Club down on the water, which is both a beautiful venue and an easy one to work with – their staff and the in-house catering are both fantastic. The wedding was just a week before Christmas, and Allison and Jonas had the club leave all of the holiday decorations up, which added to the general sense of festivity.
If you’ve ever been to Tiburon, then you know how almost ridiculously charming this little town in Marin is – it’s a great place to show off the beauty of the Bay Area to out of town guests, and also makes for some pretty stellar photography opportunities:
Congratulations again to both of you! Looking forward to seeing you again soon
photos: Kelly Boitano Photography
Catbird in Brooklyn is one of my favorite jewelry stores (I wear their heart ring and four of their alphabet earrings literally every day.)
While I pretty much covet their entire inventory, I’m really loving these new Elisa Solomon rings they’re carrying – the Ancienne Diamond Ring (left) and the Ancienne Infinite Love Ring (right.) Instant heirlooms indeed.
images: catbird
Becca & Don got married at HS Lordships on the Berkeley Marina in December. Despite being mid-winter, the weather was sunny, and Becca and Don did an incredible job planning a beautiful ceremony and reception.
Don collects Pez dispensers, and got special-edition bride and groom Pez dispensers to use as toppers on their cake, which was beautifully made by Torino Baking.
All of the flowers were done by Gorgeous and Green, and were indeed gorgeous.
Congratulations again Becca & Don!
Photos: Melissa Jo Keever Bridges
Ashley & Jabari live in New York and had a destination wedding in San Francisco*, and lucked out with one of the warmest nights of the year despite a late-October wedding date (we literally never had to turn on the outdoor heaters.)
The San Francisco Art Institute is one of the Bay Area’s best-kept venue secrets – it’s both gorgeous and affordable, and offers some of the most amazing views of San Francisco and the Bay that I’ve ever seen. Ashley works in publishing and Jabari is an architect, their ceremony incorporated both of these passions and was honestly one of the most personal and touching ceremonies I’ve ever witnessed. I definitely cried at this one.
The simple but super lovely decor was carefully thought out by the couple, and Ashley’s sister and I did most of the flowers (they had hired me for two days of coordination.) One of my favorite details at the reception was the bread that doubled as place cards – functional, simple, and eliminated the need for bread baskets on tables that were already going to be full with a family-style meal. All of the (super amazing) food was made by Ashley’s sister’s boyfriend and another chef friend of his who both flew in to cater.
The night ended in a pretty epic courtyard dance party, DJed by a friend of theirs. And talk about fun – this was a fun crowd of people.
Congratulations again you two! Can’t wait to see you again the next time I’m in New York!
photos: 1-4 – Daniel Johnson Photography, 5 & 6 – Brittany M. Powell, 7 – Rebecca S. Gratz
*most locals don’t realize this, but San Francisco & Northern California as a whole is a super popular wedding destination – about 25% of my clients live out of state.
Kind of a mixed bag recently… well, actually one kind of terrible book and a bunch of good ones!:
by James Franco. OK, I kind of finally understand why people bag on Franco. The truth is – this book is just not very good. The writing is essentially very-good-undergrad, or very-mediocre-MFA level. There are moments where he captures the California suburban teenage experience well (I was a teenager in a town very similar to Palo Alto) but in the end too many of the stories are too similar, and gratuitously violent beyond the gratuitous violence of teenage-hood. He shows promise here and there, and it’s honestly too bad that this was published, as it will (or, should) turn people off from his writing in the future.
by Karen Russell. gah, this was good. No big surprise, as I adored Russell’s first book. It took me a while to get into this one (the first third didn’t grab me that much) but Russel is definitely a young writer to watch.
by Mary F. Pols. A really lovely, engaging memoir, that is much more than the cover gives it credit for. About single-motherhood, yes, but more than that about family as a bigger picture. (apparently this was briefly made in to a TV show… I never saw it but the online description makes the story sound rather different.)
by Peggy Orenstein. Orenstein is a generally brilliant writer, and this book is no exception. A kind of terrifying look at the craziness that is infertility medicine in the United States – worth reading if you are or know a woman of childbearing age (so, everyone.)
by Arthur Miller. This is the first play I’ve ever read outside of school (and I haven’t been in school for years.) My favorite quote in the world comes from it, so I figured I needed to actually read the source. Plays are an adjustment to read, but I really enjoyed it a lot.
by Harper Lee. I was stoked when one of my bookclubs decided to read this, as I’d been wanting to re-read it for a while (I hadn’t read it since it was assigned in school… 8th or 9th grade?) There’s a reason it’s a classic – I literally could not put it down, to the point of distraction, and finished in in two days. Scout Finch is definitely one of the most enduring narrators in the American literary canon. (also worth noting – the 50th anniversary special edition hardback is beautiful.) Reading it made me think a lot about my late grandmother, who, like Scout, grew up in small-town Alabama during the depression, and appreciate even more how incredible it was that anyone who was a product of that place and times could grow up to be such an outspoken advocate of civil and women’s rights.Julie and Andrew are dear friends of mine from church, and as a practicing Episcopalian I can’t really tell you how excited I was to finally get to do a wedding in Grace Cathedral (it’s one of my happy places.)
Julie was an absolutely stunning bride, and Andrew didn’t look too bad either 
Their reception was across the square from the Cathedral at the Mark Hopkins, which has one of the most beautiful ballrooms in San Francisco, due in no small part to the giant windows that cover one side of the room.
But way beyond the gorgeous settings, my favorite part of this wedding was seeing Andrew & Julie (and their super great friends and family) prove that you can have a formal wedding that’s not the least bit stuffy. I mean, take a look at this dance floor:
It’s always such a joy to get to work with friends – congratulations again you two!
photos: Cliff Brunk Photography
Lisa’s & Jim got married at a Nursery (of the tree variety, not the baby variety), and had their reception at one of the most brilliant alternative venues I’ve seen – Serenity Stone Works, a garden accessories store with a large backyard. A great reminder to look outside the box and talk to the owners of beautiful places about renting them to you for events.
How adorable is this wedding party? Lisa rocked the short dress. Some more of my favorite details:
We filled the fountains at the space with ice and drinks (above – bottles of Mexican coke and beer) which was both attractive and practical – no need to bring in extra drink containers!
Vintage plates and markers used as a guest book – Lisa planned on hanging the finished products on a wall in their house after the wedding. And the amazingly labored over favors were a giant hit – half contained fancy s’mores kits, and half contained Mexican hot chocolate kits. The packaging inside was just as cute as the outside.
It was a gorgeous wedding, headed by a truly glowing couple. Congratulations again you two!
photos: Justin Nambiar Photography
One of the questions I’m asked most by clients is which of their wedding vendors they should tip and how much they should tip them. Now, hopefully you are paying your vendors a fair wage, and if so, tipping when it comes to weddings is most definitely optional. That said, when asked, I generally suggest tipping (proven they do a good job, obviously):
Now, that being out of the way, if you feel that ANY of your vendors went above and beyond what you paid them to do (example: your photographer stayed an extra hour to catch amazing dance floor pictures, your caterer scrambled and made it work when 10 extra guests showed up unannounced, your DJ brought & lit an unexpected disco ball that made the party, you florist threw in an awesome and giant buffet arrangement, etc,) tips are always appreciated. Most wedding vendors work super, super hard to make a pretty middle-class income – it’s a total myth that we’re raking it in. BUT, when you’re paying someone several thousand dollars, tipping a restaurant-bill equivalent percentage can be obviously way over the top (20% of a dinner bill is one thing, 20% of a planning or photography bill is a totally different ballpark.) In this case, or in the case where you want to give a vendor a thank you gift but cash feels tacky, I think it’s totally fine to give some type of non-cash tip – a gift certificate to a nice restaurant in their area (make sure it’s for enough to cover dinner for two), a spa day, or something else luxurious that they’re probably not going to spring for themselves. (Although it should be noted also that I have yet to meet a wedding vendor who doesn’t appreciate a cash tip.)
All of that said, I deal intimately with client’s wedding budgets, and realize that sometimes there is just not any cash leftover to monetarily tip everyone you’d like to. Because of this I’m firmly of the school that the very best tip you can give any wedding vendor is a glowing review (on yelp, wedding wire, or any other site they’re listed on,) a written testimonial for their website, or the offer to be a referral for future clients (or better yet, all three.) Weddings by nature consist of non-repeat clients, and so we’re always working hard to keep bringing new ones in – help with this is appreciated way more that you know. I also have yet to meet a wedding vendor who doesn’t love getting hand written thank yous from their clients – add them to your list of wedding-thank-you-cards-to-write and you will definitely make someone’s day.
Getting more personal for a second: Do I expect my clients to tip me? Of course not – I own my own business and set my own prices. Do I appreciate it when it happens? Of course – tips are a concrete way for them to tell me that they really appreciated the work that I did for them. I also have a personal policy of spending tip money on unnecessary expenditures, i.e. things I want but don’t need. So that money doesn’t go to advertising, or paying my assistant, or printer paper, or phone bills, it goes towards fun things – dinner at a nice restaurant, a plane ticket, or, my last tip-money purchase – an iPad (which I’m using almost exclusively for work, but I didn’t consider “necessary” enough to build into my business budget for the year.) And, as you can see above, I adore the thank you cards I get from clients so much that I display them in my office.
photo: thank you notes I’ve received from former clients, hung across the window in my office
Cari & Matt got married at Fort Mason (ceremony in the chapel, reception at the conference center), one of my favorite San Francisco venues, and their wedding was a BLAST. People often asks me what makes a wedding fun, and the only answer I can come up with is “fun people.” This was a wedding full of fun people, led by a very, very fun bride and groom.
Also – best. bridesmaids. dresses. ever. The girls all told me that they had been dying all summer for the wedding to happen so that they could start wearing them. Simple, linen, affordable (off the rack) and most definitely re-wearable:
The night ended with a truly epic dance party. Jamie and Neal of the Berkeley Squares are some of my hands down favorite Wedding DJs in the Bay Area, and they seriously rocked this one out.
Going through the pictures was a great reminder of just how full of love & energy this wedding was – the decor and details were beautiful, but really, in the end, so totally secondary to the people. Congratulations again you two!
photos: ToniBird Photography
Hey! I'm Elizabeth Clayton, and I'm an event planner & coordinator in the Bay Area. I think that there's little in life that's better than a really good party, although a really good pair of party shoes can sometimes come close. Click here for my full bio.