Sarah Maren Photographers

The Couple: Garrett and Brian

Wedding Date: August 18, 2012

Photography by Sarah Maren Photographers

Tell us a little about you and your beloved: We had been friends for eleven years, but always had been dating different people or just single at a time when the other was dating someone.

Finally, years later, we got together and four years after that Brian proposed to Garrett.

What was the most amazing part of your day? Honestly, just having all of our friends and family in one place. It was a first for us both as our families are so scattered.

(Also, a major perk was getting a wedding congrats from Neil Gaiman. He heard we were using his poem, “The Day The Saucers Came” in our ceremony and sent us a tweet. We both kinda freaked out about it.)

What else would you like to share about your big day? We hid from our guests for ten minutes during the reception to escape the crazy for a bit.

Also, Garrett hit a pheasant on the way to the venue. Accidentally killing a bird with a Hyundai, apparently, is not bad juju for your wedding day as everything went off just fine.

Ceremony and Reception Site: Private Estate

Photographer: Sarah Maren Photographers

Wedding Planner: Kate Miller Events

Caterer: Tres Hermanos Taco Truck did truly authentic tacos for everyone — pollo, chorizo, carna asada, and carnitas along with various salsas, seared onions and chili peppers.

Garrett works as a cookbook author so many of our friends are food writers, caterers, food bloggers, professional chefs and cooks so we asked a few to bring food: salsa, chocolate cookies, a cheese plate, green rice, and more salsas. It was all kinds of epic. Our total cost for food? $8 per person. No one went home hungry, either.

As for booze? Two friends who work at wineries in Healdsburg brought a few cases of wine as their gift. We also brewed our own Hefeweizen spiked with vanilla beans and orange peel. It was kinda the best beer ever — especially on a hot August night!

Cake: Garrett’s former pastry instructor, Elaine Baker, who is the pastry chef at Hawk’s Restaurant, did our cake — a brown sugar spice cake with cream cheese frosting. Between the layers were fresh, homemade apricot and blackberry jams. It was topped with macarons and fresh summer fruit. We. Were. So. Happy.

Flowers: Flourish

Favors: We had our date 10 months out so we took a few weekends to make 4-ounce jars of jam in various seasonal flavors throughout the year. Everyone went home with some special to eat.

Grooms’ Attire: J. Crew had a snappy linen suit that Garrett adored. Brian went with his dress military uniform.

Hair: Some styling glue, our hands, and about 30 seconds. Done and done. Being a boy makes doing your hair easy.

Invitations: Paperless Press

DJ/Entertainment/Band: Our friend who dabbles in DJ’ing did a wonderful job. He also was our beer brewer instructor!

Honeymoon Location: Lake Tahoe. A gift of a time share from Garrett’s mother. Plenty of swimming, hiking, and eating out.

First Dance Song: “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith

Anything that you would have done differently if you were given the chance? We would have given people sparklers to play with because sparklers are awesome.

Blog post by Real Weddings Magazine’s Social Media Maven, Aimee Carroll.

Photos courtesy of and copyright Sarah Maren Photographers.

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