Sara & Laura

The Love Story

Sara and Laura had their first date in 2018 after meeting online through the dating app, Her. Laura was new to the Bay Area, as she was new to town by way of Texas. As the couple started talking and began getting to know each other, they bonded over their shared love for writing sci-fi short stories. 

With that first date coinciding with Halloween, it was only natural that Sara decided to wear a pink wig, and she brought along a costume hat for Laura to wear, too. The two hit it off over pizza and beer, then they kept the night going at a local bar where the date continued.

Both Sara and Laura are extremely passionate and driven in their careers and personal lives. They share their home in Martinez, CA with two fur babies: a small, gray cat and a sweet, small dog. They love wine, music, travel, making art, and twinkle lights.

The Proposal

Sara proposed to Laura in February 2022 in Paso Robles, CA at the same place they shared their first "I love you"s. For the big event, the couple brought sunflowers–Laura’s favorite flower–with them on the drive over to the proposal location. After what had shaped up to be a stressful week for Laura, Sara brought her back to that special, pivotal place in their relationship, presented her with a box of tea, and asked if it was a good time to ask an important question.

Since the big yellow blooms played such an important role in Sara and Laura’s proposal, they both knew sunflowers were sure to be a key feature in their wedding day design.

The Wedding Vision

From the start, the couple had their sights set on a small wedding, and the overall feel of the wedding was especially important to Sara and Laura. Since the pair describes themselves as playful, spiritual, connected, uplifting, and loving, they wanted their ~100 guests to feel like they were truly part of the experience. 

In their wedding planning, they were focused on feeling that warm and welcoming positive energy as a part of the big day. It’s clear that energy did indeed come through, between the happy, bright wedding color palette perfect for spring, the big and vibrant blooms, the joyous expressions from the couple and their friends, and more.

The Wedding Setting

As an architect, Sara placed extra importance on the physical structure of the wedding venue. The couple landed on hosting their wedding celebration at the Jefferson Street Mansion. It’s a building steeped in history, and Sara loved the vintage design elements and details throughout the mansion itself and the property. Laura and Sara were set on having both indoor and outdoor romantic photos, and they hoped to utilize vastly different areas of the event space to capture a wide range of photo types and settings, so a space like this storied and sprawling mansion venue with gardens and more was ideal.

The couple held their ceremony on the outdoor grounds overlooking the Bay, which made for a very special, beautiful atmosphere. They chose a spring wedding season and date thinking particularly of the fact that it should have been perfectly aligned with wisteria season. In a surprise twist to the plans, come the wedding day, there was no wisteria to be found. Fortunately, the venue decorated the space with faux blooms that looked incredibly real, and the idea for the floral arrangement design still came to life.

Cocktail hour served as a great opportunity to switch things up and allowed Sara and Laura to make use of the various spaces at their venue, as they had hoped. Beginning at cocktail hour and through the reception, the couple moved things over to a wedding tent, where they created a cozy environment and party-ready feel, plus it protected from coastal winds. 

With that cozy set-up, plenty of dancing, an intensely garden-fresh look–from the ceremony’s lush, overgrown wisteria vines to the sunflower bouquets and reception florals–and the blue, yellow, and pink spring wedding color palette, the whole day came together as an especially welcoming and warm event.

The Wedding Suits

The couple coordinated their bridal suit and wedding suit outfits to each wear their preferred color and style while creating one cohesive look and reinforcing the wedding’s focus on spring colors. Laura wore a light blue 2-piece wedding suit. She styled the suit simply with a French cuff white dress shirt and an unexpected black bow tie, which helped to ground the look, add personality, and emphasize the softness of the light blue color. It was a stylish, sophisticated, and true-to-her bridal outfit.

Sara opted for a sandy tan suit, which they paired with a blue suit vest in the same shade as Laura’s suit color and a cream colored tie with dainty a floral pattern. The 3-piece set gave their look beautiful dimension and struck a balance between neutral and colorful. Adding to that colorful side, though, was the defining element of Sara’s wedding look: the floral lapel. 

The floral installation, an exaggerated spin on a boutonniere or bouquet, extended even beyond the whole length of the suit lapel, from the shoulder down the the button. Sara’s inspiration for the floral lapel came when thinking through wedding florals. They knew they didn’t want to carry a bouquet, but they did still want a bigger way to incorporate flowers compared to a standard boutonniere. The florist, A Love’s in Bloom, suggested this piece of wearable floral art as the perfect, statement-making solution. The floral lapel was made mostly of the wedding’s signature sunflower in varying sizes, built out on a bed of deep green leaves and with exciting pops of fuchsia-colored florals throughout.