Brianne & Patrick
One sentence sum-up of the wedding vibe: An intimate, laid-back, California springtime wedding and dance party reception, followed by a raucous karaoke afterparty at our favorite neighborhood pub.
Soundtrack for reading: “This Will Be Our Year” by The Zombies
Other Cool Stuff We Should Know About
We wanted to share our wedding with our closest friends and family, and we tried to keep things as simple and stress-free as possible. Our wedding party was just his brother and my two sisters. My sisters and I did our own hair and makeup, as I really just wanted everyone to look and feel like themselves. I made my own bouquet with my sisters, mom, and aunt the day before, and they all put together the floral centerpieces with flowers from the Oakland Flower Mart, a local farmer’s market, and Whole Foods.
Our venue was the Lake Temescal Beach House, which is an extraordinarily reasonably priced Bay Area venue. It is right in our neighborhood, and I really wanted a place that was already beautiful and didn’t need a lot of decoration. The garden patio with the waterfall in the back is just gorgeous, and the interior has high ceilings and a perfect view of the lake.
I am fortunate that one of my bandmates offered to coordinate the audio and lighting setup for us, which took a lot of stress and expense out of the day. We spent a great deal of time putting together our playlists, and asked guests ahead of time to request songs that were fun or meaningful to them. We tried to incorporate as many of their choices as possible, trying to fit things in there that twenty-five-year-old guests would dance to as well as my grandparents. When in doubt—Motown. EVERYONE likes Motown.
Even while trying to keep everything simple and relaxed, I was pretty nervous, as we are not generally big party people and tend to be fairly private. However, as soon as our ceremony started I just could not stop smiling. My mother walked me down the aisle. We were all freezing cold during the ceremony, but I barely noticed. The ceremony was full of laughter and tears, and my husband’s vows nearly floored me. I’ll never forget the way I felt hearing him say those words. We walked out to The Zombies, “This Will Be Our Year” and just felt radiant.
When the reception started, it just felt like the most fun, love-filled party I’d ever been to. I felt like I was in a group hug at least half of the time, which is confirmed by the pictures. Having a wedding on the smaller side meant that I got to speak personally to every single guest there, which was so much fun. Our siblings all gave short, hilarious, and touching toasts. I got to dance with my eighty-year-old grandfather, who was the best dancer there!
After the party, we caravanned down to our favorite local pub in all our wedding finery and did karaoke until the wee hours. I got to live my life’s dream of singing “Like a Virgin” in my wedding dress.
Favorite Thing About The Wedding
We live just a few blocks away from the afterparty location, so we walked home together hand-in-hand at 2 AM, still in our dress and suit, completely exhausted and exhilarated. It was so great to have those few quiet blocks alone together, and we just couldn’t stop talking about how much fun we’d just had. After such a long, chaotic, and exciting day, taking that familiar walk together meant so much.
