Berkeley California Botanical Garden Wedding

wedding

Jan 15

Alexa and Aran’s UC Botanical Garden wedding was as pretty as can be! They took full advantage of the expansive and diverse gardens by holding the ceremony in an amphitheater of redwoods, the reception in a palm tree garden, and taking portraits amid fields of wildflowers. This creative couple also got crafty with their decor by making the ceremony arbor and 3 large reception banners and by using pieces from their own home as decorations. The bride even made her own wedding dress and veil! All in all, the details came together beautifully and married the bride’s bohemian style with the groom’s more formal style.

More From The Couple

Aran typically prefers to be more dressed up, and I typically have a much more bohemian vibe. We wanted to make sure that we were able to marry the two. We chose softer, desaturated colors to pair with darker, more formal colors. Aran was able to wear his very clean black tux jacket juxtaposed against a much more organic boutonniere. My dress was a very modern and almost revealing dress with very traditional detailing and a cathedral length veil. Our goal was to bring the best out of each other’s style and celebrate it! We chose our venue because of how beautiful every location was. The ceremony and dinner locations were breathtaking. Not only were we able to share the entire garden with our family and friends, but we were able to experience so many different botanicals in one location.

The ceremony was in a 100′ tall redwood amphitheater that towered over us, and the dinner reception was held near the Palm Garden. We wanted to make sure our entire wedding day was romantic and also shared a bit of Iranian culture. Aran is half American and half Iranian, so we wanted to make sure that there was an Iranian vibe and an ode to the color story. For our color palette, we were inspired by Iranian rugs, and figs and pomegranates, which are two very common fruits in the Iranian culture. That’s why we chose dark red and light pink tones. Aran and I also designed and built our ceremony arbor together. We spent a few weekends buying the wood from Home Depot, sourcing the fabric, and nailing it together in our garden. Once we got the pieces together, we went through a few rounds of draping the fabric! Neither of us knew how to hang it and make it look good, but we finally made it. Also, because the ceremony location only gave us 30 minutes to set up, Aran ended up standing on a chair and hanging the fabric himself before the ceremony.