1. Real Weddings

Erin & Chris: A Traditional Wedding in Bee Cave, TX

After a college love blossomed into a post-grad relationship, Chris Jozwiak finally proposed to Erin Stege during a sunset walk in the hills of Tilden

After a college love blossomed into a post-grad relationship, Chris Jozwiak finally proposed to Erin Stege during a sunset walk in the hills of Tilden Park in Berkeley, overlooking San Francisco and the Bay. The Bride Erin Stege, 27, nurse practitioner The Groom Chris Jozwiak, 26, PH.D. candidate in physics The Date July 3 With an international wedding party and a Texas site, the California couple hired a coordinator to help them pull off their country-style affair. Whitewashed buildings and soft accents at the Star Hill Ranch outside Austin proved the perfect backdrop for the pretty-in-pink and Granny Smith apple palette.

Erin and Chris exchanged traditional Christian vows and listened to an excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet -- a tribute to the time when the two were living in different cities after college and stayed close by reading the same Rilke passages and discussing them over the phone.
The men wore their own suits, and the couple had ties made for them from the same material that was used for the bride’s sash.
The groom's cake was a three-tiered square chocolate mousse version iced with dots.
Erin found the strapless, apple green, tea-length dresses in a catalog just after she’d settled upon the color for the wedding. “It was as if by magic!” she says.
The Bridesmaid Bouquets
Dessert included a three-tiered round Italian cream cake topped with real flowers.
The Hair
The Location
Frustrated by trying on huge gowns that drowned her 5’1” frame, Erin designed her own dress and had a Hong Kong tailor make it a reality. The strapless, candlelight, silk satin gown was tied with a green silk sash that matched her bridesmaid dresses.