Raised in Elk Grove, Allyn met Johnathan when both were in law school at Georgetown University. However, they have different memories of that first encounter. “Johnathan says that we met during an orientation party during our first year,” says Allyn. “I don’t remember meeting until our third and final year of law school. Johnathan came up to me in the cafeteria before our Federal Courts class and asked if he could sit with me.”

After dating for two-and-a-half years, the pair went on a trip to London and Paris for their birthdays. Johnathan carried the ring in his messenger bag the entire trip, but Allyn didn’t think twice when he said he thought the messenger bag made him look less like a tourist. He proposed on their last day in Paris at the top of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur near where they were staying in Montmartre. “We purchased tickets to climb to the top with the most spectacular view of all of Paris,” she remembers. “I was admiring the view, and when I turned around, Johnathan was on his knee with the ring.”

Though living in Miami now, the couple chose a California wine country wedding because it was fairly close to where Allyn’s parents live in Northern California and both had been to the Napa/Sonoma area several times together. The bride-to-be wanted to have her hand in a lot of the details for the day. “I learned pointed pen calligraphy and hand-addressed all the save-the-dates and invitations,” she shares. “I also custom designed the invitations and printed items for the wedding, which incorporated watercolor paintings by my mom, Jo.”

Both Allyn and Johnathan wanted the ceremony to be simple, but also meaningful. “As huge Hamilton fans, we had a special arrangement of the song ‘Helpless’ performed by a string trio as Allyn walked down the aisle,” says Johnathan. Both attorneys, they were married by a judge, who is also a family friend of Allyn’s and first met the bride on the day she was born.

One special part of the evening was the dances, when Allyn, a professional dancer, asked some friends to help her put together a choreographed dance to “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Madeleine Peyroux. “Johnathan impressively learned the dance in under an hour rehearsal,” she says. Allyn’s dad Scott also wanted to have a special dance and went to dance lessons for months to learn a foxtrot to “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra, a song Allyn’s mom picked out as the father-daughter dance song when she was a baby.

Without a doubt, the couple says the best part of the wedding was being surrounded by so much love from their families and friends. “They came from all over the country and from all parts in our life to celebrate our love for one another,” says Allyn. “We were able to talk to and dance with people we haven’t seen in years. Looking out during our ceremony and seeing the beaming faces of our loved ones is definitely a sight that we won’t soon forget.” 

—Darren Elms