A Spring Wine-Country California Wedding at Chateau St Jean
This gorgeous al fresco wedding in California’s wine country has warmed us up from the inside out! With the bridesmaids in mismatched ivory dresses, the white parasols, acrylic wedding signs and lush roses is just the beginning of what their planner, Kimberly Rosen had up her sleeve. Chateau St Jean set the perfect California wine-country backdrop for the couple’s wedding and also celebrated their love for food so just you wait until you see their dessert table! #Yum. Kat McQueen beautifully captured every tender smile and delicate detail that has had us mesmerized from the first glance.
From the bride: My husband and I are from the Southeast, I’m from Birmingham, AL and he is from right outside of Atlanta, GA. We love to travel and we’ve been together since 2011, lived in different cities together and been a lot of places before we decided to settle down and get married.
One of the best trips, and our favorite places we’ve ever been together, was to California’s Wine Country. When we were planning our wedding it seemed obvious that we should do it there. For one it’s absolutely beautiful driving through the valleys and the green from the vineyards, plus we are huge food and wine people and so what better place to eat and drink! We selected the venue because it gave the european chateau vibe we were looking for (and the garden area OMG!). I had actually been there for a tasting years before but my husband had never seen it before. We booked it sight unseen and it exceeded our expectations. We did tours of venues all around the regions (Napa, Yountville, Sonoma, Carneros, Healdsburg) exactly the year before our date. We actually had not been able to go look at Chateau St. Jean but ended up booking that one anyway.
We had our guests stay in Healdsburg because we fell in love with the town when we visited doing our site tours. We wanted to have July 5 as our date because it fell on a Friday and a holiday weekend, so our guests that were primarily traveling from the East could make the trip. We had a wedding planner from Napa who was a huge help in planning because we were doing it cross country. She helped me pick a lot of my vendors but I actually chose Kat, our photographer, on my own as well as the florist, Daniele Strawn of Jolee Blooms. They were absolutely incredible to work with.
Our design really stemmed from the venue and site. I didn’t want to take anything away from the breathtaking scenery of the area so we tried to do colors that would compliment the surroundings. We chose ivory and a dark blush with green accents. We also were able to keep it pretty minimal because we had the whole wedding outside so it provided so much backdrop already.
I had my bridesmaids wear ivory as well and let them pick out whatever dress they wanted to wear as long as it was long and ivory. That was a big weight off my shoulders and it turned out so well. I loved the clean and classic look of having all ivory. I found the dress I thought I wanted from looking online and sought out a trunk show in NYC to go find it and try it on. Since it was a Berta MUSE new line it wasn’t available anywhere close to where I lived. I tried it on and it was just as amazing as I thought it would be. Easy pick over all the rest!
We wanted to do a sit down dinner because we wanted to celebrate the amazing food and our love for food. We chose to do a DJ for the reception because we have a more eclectic and electronic taste in music. We love going to DJ shows and festivals and it just seemed right for us to have a DJ at our wedding. We wanted to have disco balls on the dance floor and party favors to give it a Studio 54 vibe. We wanted everyone to be dancing all night long with us, no slow songs! We did a quiet exit and the ride back to Healdsburg with just Alex and I in our classic car was one of the most special times of the night, with a bottle of champagne and Sinatra on the radio. It was the most perfect day of our lives.
Ok so were we right or were we right about that dessert table? Yea, we’re drooling too so naturally we had to look at more sweet treats like these jaw-dropping wedding cakes. We loved the gorgeous minimalistic approach to this California wedding at Chateau St Jean that is just too perfect for words…and words are kinda our job!
Wedding Vendors:
Photographer: Kat McQueen
Venue: Chateau St Jean
Planner: Kimberly Rosen
Florist: Daniele Strawn
Dress: Berta Line: Muse City of Angels 2019
Boutique: L’Fay Bridal in New York City
Hair Stylist: Sherrie Long
Groom Attire: Sid Mashburn
Videography: Shutter and Sound
Calligraphy: Blush Type
Catering: Elaine Bell
Cake: Sweet Cake Sonoma
Dessert: Elaine Bell
Music: Josh Dukes