1. Real Weddings

A Natural, Rustic-Chic Wedding at Dawn Ranch Lodge in Guerneville, California

With friends and family flying in from around the world, Deborah Kim (34 and vice president of marketing at Index) and Jared Bloom (33 and cofounder o

With friends and family flying in from around the world, Deborah Kim (34 and vice president of marketing at Index) and Jared Bloom (33 and cofounder of 4th & King) picked the beautiful camping grounds at Dawn Ranch Lodge in Guerneville, California, to house their guests for their weekend-long wedding. "Our general theme was “rustic chic,” and we really wanted to play up the natural beauty surrounding us outdoors," Deborah says. The gray and yellow palette blended well with the wooden details that created a natural setting for the day, which started with getting married at the branch altar covered in greenery. For the cocktail hour, Deborah and Jared changed into traditional outfits for the Korean ceremony, where family members offered words of wisdom and toasted to their marriage. Dining tables had wooden slabs displaying numbers positioned next to wooden boxes filled with dahlias, roses and other colorful blooms. We especially loved the traditional cake that embodied the rustic-chic vibe. "The wedding cake was white with fondant frosting, featuring two beautiful coral sugar flowers in the shape of dahlias and vine designs on every other tier, both of which were meant to evoke the surrounding decor," Deborah says.

The wedding invitations printed on white stationery had colorful accents of gray and yellow that followed the day's palette. The piece with the wedding date written out in a colorful font stuck out the most, expressing the importance of the special day.
The bridesmaids helped Deborah get ready by helping her into her ivory Lazaro dress with a sweetheart neckline bodice accented in lace. A silver sash wrapped around her waistline, dividing the bodice from the ruffled chiffon skirt
The bridesmaids held bouquets filled with garden roses, chrysanthemums, roses and several other blooms in shades of pink, orange and white. The soft flower arrangements went nicely with their romantic gray dresses.
Deborah and Jared got married at the wedding arch made of branches and draped with greenery, set up outside at Dawn Ranch Lodge in Guerneville, California. The arch blended in well with the surrounding environment, bringing a natural feel to life.
Silver and Gold Wedding Rings
Deborah picked out a stunning ivory Lazaro dress with a sweetheart neckline and A-line silhouette. "I wanted something romantic and refined, but with a playful twist—fancy but informal," Deborah says. "I definitely liked having a full skirt with all the chiffon layers, it made me feel like I was lifted up on top of a cloud of silk chiffon.
"For the paebaek ceremony, we wore traditional Korean outfits and invited our parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents to offer words of wisdom, toast with soju and toss chestnuts and dates into a scarf that we held," Deborah says. "Traditionally, the number of chestnuts that stay in the scarf represent the number of sons that we will have, whereas the number of dates represent the number of daughters."
Tall Wooden Wedding Sign
The bridesmaids all wore gray dresses that fell right above the knee, in different styles that they picked out. They wore their hair styled up to differ from Deborah, who wore her hair down.
Each dining table at the reception had slabs of wood with numbers written in white. Pink dahlias, roses and several other blooms filled wooden boxes, which served as rustic centerpieces.
The four-tier ivory cake embodied rustic-chic style through the gray vine patterns that decorated alternating layers. Two sugar flowers shaped like dahlias accented the sides of the dessert.
Jared sported a gray Banana Republic suit, which he paired with a matching tie. He sat at his table for the reception next to Deborah, who wore her elegant Lazaro dress accented with lace on the bodice.