A Ranch Micro Wedding Under the Oaks at Beltane Ranch

A Blessing of the Hands: Glen Ellen Ranch Wedding Ceremony

Two flower girls scattered petals ahead of Courtney, who came in on her brother's arm while Chris waited under the oak, both families seated close on either side. It was an overcast afternoon with a little rain in the air — a guest held a clear umbrella through the vows — and the enormous oak spread right over the whole ceremony, its branches hung with moss and reaching past the last row of chairs. Rose Barboza officiated between them while they held hands, the gray valley and the bare vines showing off past the low stone wall.

Before the rings, they asked for a blessing of the hands: they pressed their palms together and held a quiet moment before it was official. Then came the vows, the rings, and twenty people close enough that no one had to raise a voice. The oaks and the Sonoma Valley behind them did the rest.

“No first look — the first time Chris saw her, she was coming down the aisle on her brother's arm.”

Portraits Across the Beltane Ranch

Family portraits followed, a few of them out in the pasture, everyone in their blush and burgundy and navy against the gray-green hills. Courtney's mother stood in for one, in navy with her hair soft, the two of them cheek to cheek with the jewel-tone bouquet held between them and the fall color of the ranch trees behind. Then the guests drifted to a charcuterie spread on a long blush-clothed table on the drive — and a ranch rooster strolled right past it, the yellow Victorian and its porches rising behind, which is about as Beltane as it gets.

Courtney and Chris took a little more time on their own while cocktail hour ran. A ranch micro wedding at Beltane Ranch has plenty of room for a small group to spread out — the old house, the gardens, the vines, and the wide valley behind all of it — and the low November light did the kind of thing it only does at that hour.

The Farm Table, the Toasts, and the Firepit at Beltane Ranch

Dinner was a long farm table under a white tent strung with string lights, rattan lounge sofas set off to the side with folded blankets for when the valley cooled. Courtney's brother-in-law announced the couple in, and the evening moved through speeches and a champagne toast. Chris danced with his mother while the family watched from the couches, then Courtney danced with hers, before everyone settled in to eat. Later Chris spun Courtney out across the floor, her hand up in his, the string lights bright overhead and the night dark past the tent.

The cake came out on a wine barrel between two pillar candles — a single tier of white buttercream ringed with fresh raspberries and topped with one pink bloom, a vanilla raspberry rose sponge — and Chris leaned in to cut it while the mothers laughed behind him. When dinner wound down, the group carried the night out to the firepit, wine in hand, the valley dark and quiet around them and the lights still glowing through the branches overhead. A Sonoma Valley ranch wedding does not call for a formal close. This one ended with a fire lit and the right people around it.