When you think of wedding destinations, lots of names come to mind. Jamaica. Hawaii. Cancun. How about Sacramento?
For Natasha and Aaron, Sacramento was the perfect fit. “We were living in the Bay Area, but we have family everywhere. My Mom lives in Tahoe, my Dad in Washington and Aaron’s family is in Alaska…pretty much everyone would need to travel,” says Natasha. “So decided to look at Sacramento because it was so affordable, and it was a central location with a major airport.”
As they started exploring their options, they struck gold at Arden Hills. “It was perfect,” Natasha says. “Arden Hills is so beautiful – great grounds, great price. We couldn’t believe it!” With busy careers in the Bay Area, Natasha and Aaron realized they’d be planning the majority of their wedding long distance. But they were undaunted. After all, they’d pulled off bigger feats from afar before.
When the couple first met through mutual friends, they were residents of the same city. But that didn’t last long. Shortly after their first date, Aaron, who was a Marine, moved to Fort Lewis in Washington state. Despite having spent less than a month together, Aaron and Natasha decided to keep dating. They made plans for a visit over the Fourth of July weekend.
“I don’t think we knew where it was going; but we had chemistry and we were having fun,” Natasha recalls. “We just kept hitting it off and it worked.” For the next year and a half the couple dated long-distance. Aaron made it back to town about once a month and Natasha would often arrange to visit him as well. Things progressed well for the couple and within a year they began to discuss the future.
Just as things began to get serious, Natasha decided to enroll at Washington State University to study psychology. While the move took her to the same state as Aaron, she was still hours away. But shortly after, Aaron opted to return to school for a second degree – also at Washington State. Finally, the couple was in the same city. What’s more, they were in the same apartment…and a tiny one at that.
“We’d never even been in the same city really and we moved in together to this very tiny one bedroom apartment. It was interesting,” Natasha says. But the couple quickly hit their stride and enjoyed spending so much time with one another. They studied together, made plans for the future, and even got a dog. But when the conversation turned to marriage, Aaron played it cool. “We dabbled in it a little bit, discussing the idea of getting married,” he says. “But I was going to be mysterious. I didn’t want her to expect it or know when it was coming.”
Obviously on the track toward marriage, Natasha was determined to sleuth out her boyfriend’s plans. “I kept trying to figure it out,” she says. “But I couldn’t. I just kept telling him he couldn’t do it in Pullman (the home of Washington State University) because there was nothing there.”
So, when the couple began planning a cruise to Mexico, Natasha expected that Aaron might pop the question. She watched him for clues and tried to fish the answer out of him – but to no avail. “I finally just asked him point blank and he said no,” Natasha says. “He said that he was going to but he ran out of time and couldn’t pull it together. So there we were, boarding the cruise ship and I just thought to myself ‘it’s not going to happen’ and I let it go. My mind was totally off of it.”
Much to Natasha’s surprise, at dinner one evening on the cruise, Aaron pulled out a diamond ring and asked her to be his bride. “I was so surprised!” Natasha gushes. “He’s one of the first people to ever really surprise me.”
Thrilled, Natasha couldn’t wait to get started planning her big day. “I bet she would have planned on the ship if she’d had the internet!” jokes Aaron.
After briefly considering a wedding in the Bay Area, but finding it to be too expensive, the couple selected Sacramento as their wedding locale. They visited Arden Hills and fell in love with the country club setting and the beautiful villas. With their venue booked, they began to pull the rest of their details into place.
For a color scheme, Natasha wanted something stunning and atypical. “I actually Googled unusual wedding colors,” she explains. “I chose some color swatches and we picked from those.”
They settled on a bold color combination of peacock blue paired with burnt orange. To bring it to life, Natasha asked her florist to design a combination of low and tall centerpieces featuring orange tulips, lilies, roses, and orchids. Little pops of ivory flowers and crystals interspersed in the arrangements highlighted the look. The centerpieces were set atop stunning teal linens that Natasha found herself. Then, to create a romantic ambience in the reception, Natasha’s florist created a candlescape display on the ballroom’s fireplace.
“It was sophisticated and elegant,” the bride says. “Candles and little bits of sparkle here and there. I didn’t want it to be overwhelming, just very soft and romantic to balance out the bold colors.”
When wedding day arrived, Natasha and Aaron opted not to see each other before the ceremony. As their guests gathered for the courtyard ceremony, the couple anxiously awaited the moment they’d been long anticipating. Finally, the bride made her way down the flower-petal adorned aisle.
“I started to cry,” Aaron admits. “She looked so beautiful and I just felt so lucky to be standing there with her.”
The wedding ceremony was non-traditional and deeply personal. The bride’s brother read a charming poem comparing true love to a dog, and Aaron’s childhood best friend served as the officiant. Instead of a unity candle, the couple included a wine box ceremony. Into the box, they placed special letters to one another along with a bottle of wine – both to be enjoyed on their fifth wedding anniversary.
After exchanging vows that they wrote themselves, Natasha and Aaron were pronounced husband and wife. As guests celebrated with appetizers and a signature cocktail, a Wedding Bell-ini, the newlyweds took pictures around the grounds.
After dinner came the dancing. “The dance floor was constantly packed. It was insane!” she recalls. “Since pretty much half of the guests were party starters and DJs, they do this for a living. It was nonstop. At one point we even did a flash mob. The DJ started playing a song that we all knew choreographed moves to and we all rushed the dance floor and started doing it. Some of our family even joined it. It was so much fun!”
When the end of the evening rolled around, the newlyweds and their guests were still reveling in celebration.
“Midnight came way too soon,” Aaron says. “We didn’t want it to end!” The romantic evening was the perfect way to kick off their new life together, which the couple is delighted to say feels much like their old.
“I’m not sure much has changed, but that’s a good thing,” Natasha says. “It sounds so cliché but it’s true. It’s just so nice to have someone to come home to that knows everything about you and loves you and cares about you.”
“It doesn’t get old,” Aaron says, agreeing with his bride. “I love being with her; Natasha is my better half. I’d rather spend time with her than anyone else.”
And pretty soon they’ll have another member of their party — the couple is expecting a baby in June.
As for that adventure?
“We can’t wait,” says Natasha. “We are just thrilled.”
PHOTOS: Rachelle Photography
