You’re going to love this sweet, intimate Cathedral Grove wedding at Saratoga Springs! Michelle and Danniel first met in college at UCSC. Michelle was a transfer student and it was her very first class, so she hadn’t met anyone yet. This sleepy guy (Danniel!) walked in with his cup of coffee and asked if he could sit next to her. She said yes, and he ended up being one of her first friends at UCSC. They were part of the same study group for the next three years and it wasn’t until Danniel’s very last quarter at UCSC that they started dating.

Michelle and Danniel were originally thinking about getting married up in Tahoe because weddings in the Bay Area tend to be pretty expensive. After months of planning, they still hadn’t found the perfect venue, so they started looking in the Bay Area again. They ended up finding Saratoga Springs (definitely one of my favorite wedding venues in the Bay Area!) and fell in love. Luckily, it was still available on the summer solstice.

Cathedral Grove, in particular, was the perfect setting for their intimate 50 person wedding. They loved all of the trees and the stream running through the site was a wonderful bonus. The best thing about Saratoga Springs is it really doesn’t take much for the venue to shine. With string lights wrapped around the stunning redwoods as part of the venue, Michelle and Danniel only needed to add a few DIY touches for a gorgeous wedding.

Michelle’s dad is Japanese, so I love that she incorporated the tradition of folding 1000 cranes for a wish. She hung the cranes in an archway set at the entrance to the ceremony site, so that all the guests could walk through the cranes. Michelle also created all the bouquets herself the night before. Her mom set the tables with simple greenery and beautiful lanterns. Instead of a traditional wedding cake, they had an adorable cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes to cut and lots of little bundt cakes (the size of cupcakes).

Danniel got ready at their house up in Fremont, but I joined Michelle and her bridesmaids at The Inn at Saratoga, which was just a few minutes drive away from Saratoga Springs. Michelle’s sister in law curled her hair and Michelle’s sisters helped arrange it and put in the lovely diamond hairpiece. From there, we drove to Saratoga Springs for the first look!

We’ve been having a bit of a heatwave in the area, so it was crazy hot during the first look, but Michelle and Danniel rocked it… and this despite informing me that they were awkward in pictures! They were totally lying, because I barely had to give them any direction before they were rocking the poses, haha. Luckily, it cooled down fairly quickly among all the trees, and the temperature was perfect by the time the ceremony started. One of my favorite parts of the wedding was listening to Michelle and Danniel exchange the vows that they wrote. It was so sweet!

Congratulations again to Michelle and Danniel on their beautiful, intimate Cathedral Grove wedding on the summer solstice! It was beautiful and I was so honored to be a part of it!

 

Congratulations again to Michelle and Danniel! If you liked this intimate Cathedral Grove wedding, you may enjoy these other weddings at Saratoga Springs. Contact me or email me at alice@aliceche.com to book your wedding now.

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Alice Che is a San Francisco Wedding Photographer based in the Bay Area specializing in intimate, emotional wedding, engagement, couple and boudoir photography. Serving the South Bay, Peninsula, and East Bay: San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Carlos, Burlingame, Los Altos, Milpitas, Union City, Fremont, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Carmel, Monterey, Santa Cruz and surrounding areas. She is available for destination weddings and engagement sessions! Contact her for more detailed pricing.