Words from Jennifer + Luis: "Luis and I wanted our wedding to reflect our personalities, values, and interests. Our primary inspiration was to have a wedding in a beautiful and natural outdoor setting where we could spend the entire weekend in the company of our close friends and family. Westerbeke Ranch was the perfect location. Not only are the grounds comfortable, relaxed, and well maintained, we were able to stay on site in cabins with 40 of our guests for the entire weekend. Having the ranch to ourselves made it possible for everyone to truly relax, spend time together, and to enjoy the beauty of autumn in Sonoma. To top it all off, Carol, the chef at Westerbeke, is incredible. We enjoyed fabulous meals throughout the weekend. Eating well and enjoying the abundance of Northern California cuisine is something Luis and I are both grateful to experience on a daily basis. We wanted this to be a part of our wedding weekend as well. For our favors, we created a cookbook of some of our favorite recipes for our guests. We really love to cook and eat!

We wanted our friends and family to be a community for the weekend and just have the time to spend time together. We kicked off the weekend with an amazing dinner on Friday night, followed by super fun late-night decorating party. Saturday consisted of a leisurely morning of swimming and breakfast for some. For others it was a yoga practice led by my longtime teacher, and a basketball tournament organized by Luis. Yoga and basketball are two of our passions and we were so pleased to incorporate them. We closed out the weekend with a Sunday morning breakfast that allowed all of us to continue reveling in the happiness of the weekend.

Our friends and family really stepped up and helped to turn our vision into a reality. Our primary decorations for the dancing hall were 1,000 origami cranes. They symbolize devotion, joy, happiness, peace, and prosperity. Plus, when we were first dating, Luis created origami objects for me as part of his wooing techniques. It worked! Luis had about 400 cranes already folded. Both of us are teachers and teaching is big part of our lives. When I mentioned having 1,000 cranes at my wedding to my students, they became intent upon making them for me as a wedding gift. They ended up making around 500 of our 1,000 cranes! What an amazing gift and what a lovely way for them to be involved. Luis, my brother, and my dad were stringing up cranes in the days leading up to the wedding. When we arrived at Westerbeke, our friends finished stringing up the rest, and then hung them up all over the dancing hall. The room looked warm and festive, and far exceeded my expectations.

It was important to us that the ceremony reflected us as individuals and as a couple. When we thought about finding an officiant, we both immediately thought of our friend Laura. Together, the three of us created a ceremony that felt authentic, meaningful, and personal. We were so pleased with the process and the actual event. Many thanks to Laura for everything! We also wanted to be sure to involve our families in the ceremony. Our parents walked each of us down the aisle. Luis’ parents gave readings in Spanish, and my parents read the corresponding passages in English. Our siblings did readings, presented our rings, and also gave toasts at the reception. We were so happy to involve everyone!"