Reno backyard glittery gold DIY wedding for Kate and Harry

By Monique

Kate and Harry had an intimate wedding ceremony in Quincy with their immediate families at the end of June, and then hosted a DIY backyard wedding reception a few weeks later back here in Reno. I have known Kate for about 10 years, since she was still in high school! We also met at that yoga studio I was telling you about where I met all my closest friends here in Reno (see previous post). It was such an honor to be there during their small ceremony, and I actually got to participate as well, I brought a special piece of vintage lace for the hand binding ceremony, that was a really special moment for me. The day of the ceremony was an adventure in itself, there was a huge rainstorm in the mountains above Quincy at the first location that they wanted to do the ceremony. So we ended up at a different, but equally scenic, river front location away from the wind and the rain. Kate and Harry met over 8 years ago working together at the Deux Grox Nez, so they had their friends Lyndsey, who they worked with there, and DGN owner Tim perform their wedding ceremony. After a few family portraits, we all enjoyed a picnic dinner and cake. As the light started to really fade in the sky we were all packing up and it started to sprinkle again, just a few light rain drops, nothing like the down pour from earlier in the day. So before we left, I did a few night shots of Kate and Harry in the rain.

Fast forward a few weeks in to July to the reception, held in Kate’s parents’ backyard. One of the best parts about 2 wedding events is the bride gets to wear 2 dresses! It was an amazing party, with so many details that she had been working on over the past year: Hand made sparkly gold flags strung all around the yard, gold dipped flower vases, even the wooden forks on the dessert tables were dipped in gold glitter. Kate describes the theme of the reception as, “a modern backyard party with lots of handmade details, bright pops of color and plenty of gold glitter.” There were several more personal touches that really added to their reception photo session too: Harry’s 1963 Datsun pickup, a tandem 1956 Schwinn Twinn that Harry pretty much rebuilt from pieces and parts, and a huge white balloon, with gold glitter streamers of course. Guests enjoyed a taco bar from Dish, and the signature cocktail was a blackberry ginger margarita, yum! The dessert bar, or should I say 3 tables of home made desserts made by Kate’s friends, was one of the all time best dessert bars I have ever seen at a wedding, and I have seen hundreds! DJ Mojo Jojo kept the vinyl spinning into the night, and vidoegrapher Mike Henderson from Arborglyph did a great job too.

I could go on and on too about how awesome Kate is, for example, she is the best baker ever! ( She made her delicious carrot wedding cake, and the salted caramel macaroons for the reception.) If you get a chance, check out her blog, Color it Lovely, she shares some of her super yummy recipes, and her writing style really gives you a peek into her sassy wit!