A Glen Ellen wine-country wedding with an oyster bar filled Songbird Parlour with forty-four guests one September afternoon in 2023, a harvest-season day built around a raw bar, a wine-mixing ritual, and a playlist that swung from Fleetwood Mac to the Arctic Monkeys. Camille wore a fitted lace gown, and Ae wore a bright blue suit with a burnt-orange tie and a pair of orange gauged earrings. The pair of them clearly enjoyed every hour of it.
They got ready apart and met for a first look on the deck, read personal vows to each other before anyone was seated, and then let the evening stretch from the oysters through toasts, cake, and a money dance. It stayed small enough that every piece of it felt like theirs.
Camille got ready with her sister in the bridal suite, hair and makeup done there, the lace gown going on last — a fitted mermaid cut with a beaded hairpiece worked into her waves and a long veil. Her bouquet was the first hint of the palette that would run through the whole day: rust and peach garden roses, deep burgundy dahlias, dried wheat and pampas, and eucalyptus trailing off the sides, a proper autumn bunch. Ae was getting ready at the lodge down the road, and they had decided to hold off on seeing each other until the first look.
Ae arrived at the parlour in the afternoon in that blue suit, a small dried-floral boutonniere pinned to the lapel, and he and Camille met out on the wood deck with the garden behind them. They did their first look there and read personal vows to each other, just the two of them on the deck before a single guest had taken a seat.
Afternoon
A Glen Ellen Ceremony With a Wine-Mixing Ritual
The wedding party came in to "Here Comes the Sun," and Camille walked in on her father's arm, both of them coming down the deck steps — her dad in a cream barong, the bouquet held between them. She walked to Kina Grannis's version of "Stand by Me." Lili Freitas officiated, an older woman with long white hair in a cream-and-gold shawl, and she kept a warm smile going through the whole thing.
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It was an emotional one. Ae cried openly partway through, pressing a handkerchief to his eyes while Camille steadied him, and the guests felt it too. A friend stood up and read a passage of Bob Marley. Then, midway through, Camille and Ae poured two wines into a single glass — a small ritual that fit a harvest-season wine-country day, done slowly while everyone watched. They recessed to Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere," married. The whole ceremony happened out on the deck under the trees, the September afternoon warm enough that guests fanned themselves with wooden hand fans through it.
“Midway through, they poured two wines into a single glass while everyone watched — and Ae cried the whole way through the vows.”
After the ceremony
Portraits and an Open Oyster Bar at Songbird Parlour
Family portraits and couple photos happened while cocktail hour opened around the guests. Camille stood for a photo with her mother, who wore a gold lace gown and carried a small cluster of white blooms of her own. Out in the garden, Camille and Ae took portraits among the agave and dry grasses near a palm, the light going soft on them.
The centerpiece of the hour was the raw bar from The Oyster Girls, shucking away while people drifted between the parlour's lounges. Songbird Parlour sits in Glen Ellen's Jack London Village, on grounds that trace back to an 1839 sawmill and later a village winery — a layered old spot that suits a harvest-season celebration. The parlour's lounges and thirty-foot vaulted ceilings gave forty-four people room to spread out between the oysters and the first course, some of them under sun umbrellas out on the terrace where it was warm.
Evening
Toasts, Cake, and a Money Dance
Camille's aunt said a prayer before dinner, and the buffet opened with a quick game the DJ ran to send the first table up. Toasts came from both sets of parents, Ae's brother, and the best man and maid of honor. Then the couple slipped outside to catch the last of the sunset for a final set of photos.
The cake was cut in one of the parlour's emerald-green paneled rooms, a two-tier charcoal-grey cake from Flour & Bloom Cakes set with a small figurine topper the couple had brought themselves, a brass sconce lit above it. They cut it to "Sugar Sugar" and fed each other a bite of the dark chocolate inside. The first dance was to the Arctic Monkeys' "Baby I'm Yours," then a father-daughter dance to "My Girl" and a mother-son dance to the Beatles' "In My Life." The vaulted ceiling carried the music up while the room stayed warm, everyone on their feet by the third song. A money dance followed, the couple closed with a thank-you toast, and everyone got one last dance before the music stopped.
