Photos of our engagement and wedding! We got engaged on June 11th, 2009, and got married on August 8th, 2009! Yes, that’s only 2 months of planning…but somehow, our wedding could not have been more perfect, even if we had had a year to plan!
Derek lured me into a photobooth to take some fun photos, little did I know, that he had already taken pictures with proposal notes! When he handed me the photobooth strips for safe keeping, he had slipped the proposal in there. When I looked at it I just about fainted. First of all, I had never told him that before I ever even met him I used to say that a photobooth proposal would be the BEST way to get engaged! And second of all, how stinking romantic. I mean, my goodness. Does he know me, or what?! Truly a dream come true. After much screaming and crying (all happy), I said “YES!!!”
Quickly thereafter the engagement, we scheduled an engagement photo session with Vasna Wilson. A friend and incredible photographer, who we were lucky enough to have photograph our wedding also.
Our ceremony and reception was held at Radonich Ranch in Los Gatos, California. Under the tall, beautiful trees, on a perfect August afternoon, we were married with 70 of our closest friends and family present. It really was magical.
We were married by our friend Mark Scandrette, who conducted a beautiful and creative ceremony. Our closest friends were our attendants. (My little sister, and maid of honor, Janelle Gates, handmade my headpiece for me.)
Details! From the top left: 1. Our guestbook, which was also made by hand by my sister, was filled with photobooth strips from our engagement and the wedding. 2. Jars filled with flowers and candles were hung from the trees by ribbon. These jars were all recycled and collected for the 2 months prior to the wedding. 3. Flags made by my mom, Jennifer Gates, from her plethora of beautiful quilting fabrics. 4. These were packets I made that were the escort cards, and a favor; filled with California poppy seeds. 5. A friend of ours, the fabulous Anna Bond, designed our invitations, and gave me the flexibility to hand screen print them myself, which allowed me to use the screens for other purposes as well, such as for our programs! I am obsessed with her work…I find myself lucky to know the lovely lady! 6. My beautiful bouquet, which I assembled myself, from the flowers that our wonderful wedding coordinator, Marky Carr, got for us.
WE’RE MARRIED!!! Vasna got some amazing photos of the two of us together, rejoicing that the day had finally come for us to be husband & wife, partners for life.
The photobooth. This was one of the best things about our wedding. We rented a photobooth from Classic Photobooth Rentals to make up our guestbook, and double as a fun take-away gift for our guests. The result was an INCREDIBLE guestbook, and some insane photos of people having a great time in it. We also had an old typewriter for people to type their notes to us with, and photo corners to adhere the scraps of paper and photobooth strips to the book. We thought this detail to be only fitting of us, considering our engagement (not to mention my obsession with photobooths)!
My beautiful friend, Amy Ross, made our cupcakes for us: Lavender cupcakes with lavender cream cheese icing. Yummm! I made the toppers out of styrofoam letters from Michael’s, which I painted to match our decor. My dad assembled the AMAZING tiered tree cake stand for us. I have it in my home now as decor! I love it. Derek and I chose to serve our cupcakes together, since we didn’t really have anything to “cut” (seems kind of silly to cut a cupcake).
Our first dance was to the song “You and I” by Ingrid Michaelson. I would suggest listening to it if you haven’t heard it before…super sweet. :) Since I LOVE dessert, we had a SECOND dessert during dancing: ICE CREAM CONES! Woo! We served Balsamic Strawberry ice cream from Bi-Rite Creamery, out of San Francisco. Marky (our wedding coordinator)’s husband was kind enough to make us that nifty serving box thing for them. Soooo cool, right?
I hope you love our wedding. It is still so magical for me to even think about. It was truly a PERFECT day. Thanks to everyone who helped out!!!
xo
m
Melody Hansen // Blog 
Beautiful! It WAS a perfect day! And you are the perfect daughter-in-law! :D Love you!
love you too!!! i need to see you guys! xoxox.
Wow! Amazing! I’ve never seen anything like this before, and I think it’s spectacular! What a great way to do a wedding. I just love all these photos, engagement and wedding. The photobooth is brilliant! I love photobooths. I just adore the photo of Derek taking your picture at the alter, how wonderful. It really looked like a magical day. And it proves that you don’t need a lot of time to plan such a fabulous wedding. I’m going to stop gushing now. Thanks for sharing this Melody! You looked so so beautiful!
Thank you, Amanda!!! That is sooo sweet of you. :) xo.
I love reliving that day with all these beautiful photos. Memories for a lifetime. I love the fact that we did all this in only a few months! Awesome! Now, let’s see it in RealSimple Weddings!
Lovely wedding and photos! Everything from you to the venue was beautiful. Love all the crafts you did. You did a great job putting it together!
hi,i just found your blog.and am loving every bit of it. such beautiful photos,i specially love the ones of your engagement.sooo cute!!
hi melody! your photos are gorgeous! they make me even more excited about getting married at the ranch! :) we saw marky over the weekend and it’s final! we’re getting married at the ranch next year! :) sooo excited. thanks so much!
Love it all!! Very beautiful, and exactly what I’m hoping to create next summer.
I found your blog after googling Radonich Ranch – I LOVE the venue and am thinking about having my wedding there. One question I have – I’ve noticed there aren’t any hotels very close by, did you shuttle people over? Where did your guests stay? I’m worried about people having to drink and drive! Any insight you have about this would be much appreciated.
Hi Allison!
Sorry about the delay in responding. We actually just didn’t worry about it…probably should have shuttled people in though, in retrospect. Our wedding only had about 70 people, and many were staying with family or friends (or lived in the area) and we didn’t have to worry about hotels…but there are a few in Los Gatos that are lovely and quite close. Sorry I can’t offer more advice! :)
Thank you for your kind words!
Just lovely and so nice to hear the whole story from proposal to wedding day.
Janelle introduced me to this wonderful blog site last night and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and looking at the fabulous photos. It was a simply scrumptious wedding and your photo memories capture it well. I loved seeing your honeymoon pics too–what a great experience. Make lots of money so you can keep traveling and see the world. Recently I also saw interior photos of your lovely LA apt. It looks like you. I love it. Have a beautiful first Anniversary in a wonderful location. Have fun. Love Grammy
I’m glad you shared your wedding photos Melody! They are GORGEOUS and you are just glowing. Happy Anniversary! :) xo
P.S. Love your blog too!
omg soooo perfect! lovely.
what a beautiful wedding! i love everything about it.