From the high school days and riding longboards to living and raising chickens in Portland, Oregon, Juliana and Derek’s relationship has been built on a solid foundation of friendship.
“It took us a while to start dating, but once it started, there was a lot of cheesy hand-holding while longboarding,” Juliana says.
For Derek, each day spent with Juliana has been better than the last. “I enjoy every minute with her through the good and the bad,” he says. “I love the way she does things. I love the way she handles herself. I don’t really know how or at what time I knew she was the one. It has been always from the day she said she would be my girlfriend and, luckily, she has only made me see it more every day.”
After a couple of years of dating, the couple moved in together. After a revolving door of roommates, seven more years together and a move up north to Portland, Derek proposed.
“After nine years of dating, I had given up on a surprise proposal,” she says. “Derek has always been incapable of keeping secrets or waiting to give gifts. Knowing this and knowing Derek’s ‘tells,’ I thought I would see the proposal coming from a mile away.”
She did not.
“We went for a hike on the Salmon River trail on Mt. Hood,” Derek says. “I had a good plan to wait until we got to the end and propose on one knee down by the river with the beautiful scenery. What actually happened was I was so nervous and excited that I couldn’t wait. We were both so excited afterwards, I don’t think we even finished the hike.”
Juliana’s patience paid off.
“We finished the hike grinning from ear to ear,” she says. “At the end, we drank a celebratory box of wine we had packed and enjoyed the glow of engagement without telling anyone else for the rest of the day. It was perfect.”
They decided to wait a few months before diving into the planning process. But Juliana’s mom, a professional wedding planner, wasn’t going to let that happen. She took the reins and got vendors and a date locked in.
Planning the wedding from Portland was a bit of a challenge though. “During the year leading up to the wedding, we had only two trips planned to Sacramento—for a friend’s wedding and for the holidays. A good chunk of these two trips were spent doing back-to-back appointments, which was a bit exhausting and overwhelming,” she says. “On the positive side, because we got so much done during these trips, the rest of my time back in Portland was spent on just a few smaller projects.”
Her favorite DIY project was making and canning small jars of jam for wedding favors. “My mother-in-law and I split this project and we ended up with a beautiful assortment of jams like orange-fig, quince, strawberry rhubarb and champagne blush,” she says.
As their day arrived, they were excited to break some traditions. “We had a pre-ceremony party, too!” she says. “We invited our guests to come a few hours before the ceremony for lemonade, Prosecco and snacks. Derek and I mingled with everyone as they arrived, which really took any little nerves away for the ceremony.”
—Kourtney Jason
First Dance Song
“Morning Time” by Brothers Comatose ft. Nicki Bluhm
Father/Daughter Dance Song
“Tupelo Honey” by Van Morrison
Mother/Son Dance Song
“93 Million Miles” by Jason Mraz
Last Dance Song
“One More Time” by Daft Punk
Details about the cake
We did a “naked cake” with 4 tiers:
2 layers were white cake with bruleed valrhona white chocolate ganache
2 layers were chocolate cake with raspberry mousse
Details about the flowers
A variety of marsala and blush colored flowers including dahlias, spray roses and hanging amaranth. Our florist also incorporated artichokes, beets and berries (a nod to my being a registered dietitian and backyard gardener) as well as interesting feathers (a nod to our backyard flock of chickens).
Details about the favors
4 oz jams and jellies made by myself and Derek’s mom (Terri Stonier), assorted flavors including fig-orange, quince, champagne blush and strawberry rhubarb. Derek and I also handmade the “Love is Sweet” tags.
Anything else you’d like to share about your wedding?
We opted to have a pre-ceremony “Lemonade on the Lawn” hour so that we could extend the day a bit and greet our guests as they arrived. There were lawn games, a “pimp your prosecco bar” and cheese+jam pairings to snack on. This turned out to be a great way to relax and shake off some of the nerves as well because we were able to see all of our guests and each other before the ceremony.
Although we were sad that it rained on our wedding day (and spoiled the “lawn game” concept), we were very happy with the clear-top tents that we rented. The clear tops allowed for a mostly unobstructed view of the beautiful venue but still kept us all dry.
We decided to do a butterfly release at the end of our ceremony. Each of our guests got to release a painted lady butterfly and Derek and I each released a special monarch butterfly. Because it was a drizzly and cool day, the butterflies stuck around rather than flying away immediately. One of our monarchs was so cold that it stayed on my bridal bouquet for the entire day. Derek named him “Jeremy” – no idea why!
Any tips you’d give brides and grooms planning their wedding today?
A good wedding planner is worth their weight in gold! Not only do they hold your hand through the process, but they also have tons of insider information and can refer you to tried and true vendors with excellent reputations. Our beautiful wedding venue was a new venue that had just started doing weddings and had it not been for my wedding planner mom, we would not have known about this brand new venue.
What would you have done differently if you had the chance?
If we could have changed something, we might have pushed the wedding a little closer to summer to avoid the risk of “April showers.” The rain ended up just being a minor nuisance but it was definitely an added stressor in the days leading up to the wedding in regards to renting the tents or not. Thankfully, the barn provided the majority of the shelter but it sure would have been nice to play all of those lawn games on a nice sunny day!
