Chris and Molly married at the Presidio Yacht Club and Travis Marina Bar in Sausalito, California, right at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. They were drawn to the unpretentious and lovingly divey character of the bar and the authentic vibe of the boathouse, both of which felt to the couple as though they’d barely changed since the 60s and 70s.

Against that backdrop, they introduced a bold palette of orange, yellow, brown, green and deep blue, with vibrant flowers adding even more colour to the waterside setting. Annalee Bishop photographed the day in beautiful documentary style, working with both film and digital and capturing tall the beautiful blues and hues of the marina setting.

Molly wore a modern Sarah Seven two-piece design from the designer’s San Francisco boutique, while Chris chose a custom dark brown suit. There are so many more personal details woven through the day, but I’ll leave Molly to share those with you herself.

Immense love and thanks to the couple and to their talented photographer for sharing this lovely story.

We were married at the Presidio Yacht Club/Travis Marina Bar in Sausalito, California.

We loved the unpretentious divey nature of Travis Marina Bar and the authentic feel of the PYC boathouse. They both feel like they are straight from the 60’s/70’s and are completely untouched, real, and raw.

That, paired with the venue being stationed at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge made it a perfect place to tie the knot near the city where we met.

We hired a day of coordinator, Catherine Chambers with Soulful x Sips.

My parents accompanied me down the aisle to the sound of an instrumental version of ‘In My Life’, by the Beatles. Our friend Perry officiated our wedding ceremony.

We wrote our own vows and both independently included a nod to Taco Bell. It wasn’t planned, but it was a true reflection of us and a great moment during the ceremony.

Both of us hadn’t written our vows until day of, however once pen was put to paper, we knew exactly what we wanted to say to each other.

Chris’ ring was originally his grandfather’s wedding ring. My engagement and wedding rings came from Serin Kelly. Chris designed a East/West bezeled oval engagement ring that Serin had custom made. Serin designed a matching wedding band containing 5 rectangular cut diamonds that wraps perfectly around her engagement ring.

Chris’ mom is Macedonian and, as is tradition at Macedonian weddings, there is a dance called the bread dance. During the dance, everyone joins hands and line dances around and around while the bride and groom lead everyone. The bread gets tossed back and forth between the wedding guests and at the end the bride and groom break it in half. Whoever breaks off the bigger half is deemed the “head of the house”

We met through Hinge in March 2022 and were engaged in November 2024. Chris planned a weekend getaway to San Luis Obispo (where Molly went to college) and proposed at sunset at Morro Rock in Morro Bay, California.

We were engaged for a year before our wedding.

Our florist was Sophia Keith. We opted for a lot of very colourful flowers and wanted a wild and untamed look to all of our arrangements which Sophia absolutely nailed for us.

We wanted coloruful flowers to pop alongside the venue and really highlight the colours of the landscape and Golden Gate Bridge.

We had marigolds, ranunculus, garden roses, dahlias, chrysanthemums, strawflowers, delphiniums, scabiosa, chocolate cosmos, billy buttons, and black and white anemones.

Our caterer was Katie of Katie Powers Catering and we had bottles of hot sauces to go with our Mexico-inspired menu. Instead of a traditional wedding cake, we opted for It’s-It ice cream sandwiches!

Since they’re a San Francisco staple, we loved the idea of sharing a beloved local treat that most of our out-of-town guests had never experienced before.

Make choices that actually reflect who you are as a couple, rather than just doing things because they are tradition.

Whether it’s writing your own honest vows or skipping the wedding cake for a favorite local treat, those personal, genuine details are what make the day feel like yours.

Our budget went through many iterations – and we did exceed the number we originally had in mind 😊 

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Viv and Ed married in May with a ceremony at St Mary’s Church in Staindrop, County Durham, followed by a reception at Halton Grove in Northumberland.

Their wedding brought together British and Chinese traditions across an entire weekend of celebrations, including a traditional hair brushing ceremony the night before the wedding and a tea ceremony held between the church service and reception.

The couple booked Halton Grove before the venue had officially opened for weddings, taking a chance on the newly built Northumberland venue because of its countryside setting, exposed timber beams and floor to ceiling windows. Inspired by spring meadows and the timing of their May Day wedding, they chose a palette of blush pink, lilac and yellow ochre and filled the reception with handmade details created alongside family and friends.

The talented bride designed all of the stationery herself, from the invitations and order of service through to illustrated menus, signage and bookmarks that doubled as place settings. Family history ran throughout the day too, from pearl earrings borrowed from her mother to Edward’s cufflinks, created from coins minted in the year of his late father’s birth.

Photographed by Helen Russell Photography this lovely wedding moved from a traditional church ceremony in Durham to a Chinese tea ceremony at Halton Grove, where tea was served to elders to symbolise the joining of two families. Alongside the tea ritual, guests also witnessed the traditional hair brushing ceremony on the eve of the wedding, during which auspicious blessings are spoken with each stroke of the comb.

Originally we were looking for a venue within 30 minutes drive of the church but nothing we saw quite met what we envisioned for our special day. We came across Halton Grove and at the time, the venue hadn’t finished being built and not opened as a wedding venue yet – so it was a big gamble!

But we fell in love with Halton Grove on our first visit a few weeks before their first ever wedding in May 2023. It was exactly what we were looking for – from the size of the venue to the variety of spaces and the top quality food offering which was super important to us! It was a no brainer except for the fact that it was an hour’s drive from church!

The night before the wedding, friends and family attended to watch the brushing of the bride’s hair. This ceremony involves the bride dressed in new red pyjamas and the groom is not allowed to be present. Each stroke of the comb is paired with an auspicious well wish.

Ten strokes in total, whilst the red candles burn. Following the ceremony, friends and family share a pot of tangyuan – a traditional Chinese dessert, which represents success and togetherness. Tangyuan balls are red and white in colour and legend has it that the more the groom’s father eats, the more children the couple will bear.

St Mary’s Church is in Edward’s home parish and where he lived for over twenty years before he moved to London.

He’d always dreamed of getting married here since he was a young with his grandparents also having wed here and his grandad having been an organist there. He was also christened there.

The Vicar, Reverend Canon Eileen Harrop, lead our ceremony, during which, we had two readings. The first reading was The Song of Songs (2:10-13), read and chosen by one of my bridesmaids, as one of the lesser known books of the Bible. It describes the shift of season’s from winter to Spring and was apt given our wedding was at the beginning of Spring.

The second reading was Colossians (3:12-17), read in Chinese by my aunt. This reading has an emphasis on love and thankfulness.

Our wedding rings were from Webley London. Platinum band to match Vivian’s engagement ring and gold for Edward to match his signet ring.

The ceremony was my favourite part fo the day, it was intimate and although closest friends and family were present, the moment was special and felt like it was just the two of us.

I discovered our photographer, Helen Russell, through a school friend’s wedding photographs and just fell in love with her photography style.

From the soft lighting to the natural candid style, Helen’s vibe was exactly what we were looking for.

We met in the summer of 2016, online! All due to my frugality to driving all the way to Bishop Auckland to deliver a toaster I had sold on Facebook Marketplace and entered his radius!) and we finally went on our first date after 3 months of daily messaging.

Surprise engagement on our short trip to Toulouse in January 2023. A logistically disasterous holiday after our flights were cancelled and we didn’t land in France until 24 hours later.

The reception space as decorated by the bridal party and family and included handmade pompoms, flowers repurposed from the ceremony space, polaroid photos of the bride and groom with friends and family, brass candlesticks, gold photo frames and small bud vases.

Floral styling was by Periwinkle Barn – we found Deborah through Flowers from the Farm, having been recommended it by our friend who is a florist in London – and knew Deborah was the one. She supplied and styled locals flowers grown in her own garden mixed with some flowers from further afield – sustainable. She was also local to our wedding venue.

Our wedding invitations, order of service and menus were designed by me and printed and letterpressed with Blush Publishing. On the day stationery was drawn by me and this included the seating chart, table numbers and welcome signage.

Our tables were named after our favourite places and our wedding menus doubled up as bookmarks which were had guest names in calligraphy on them – I also designed these myself.

Our catering was in-house and lead by Emily Owen from Halton Grove. It was amazing food! Good food was really important to us and an important part of the venue choice – we received so many compliments from friends and family about how good the food was. Wine selection was also amazing and we were able to try wine pairings with our food tasting. The food for the night before and breakfast the next day was also amazing!

Our cake was by Rachel at Frances and Rae Cake Design – it was a simple but elegant design embellished with real flowers. There was a raw edge effect and a touch of edible gold leaf to match our wedding invitations and table numbers.

Your budget will go out the window if you don’t have a clear vision of what you want. But at the end of the day, there were so many parts of the wedding we stressed about that you forget about on the day – don’t stress about the small details!

Add in contingency time for your timeline on the day – you don’t want to be rushing around and getting flustered!

Plan in time alone. E.g. we drove from the church to our wedding venue alone which gave us time to chat and have some slower time to ourselves amongst the craziness of the day.

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