They Planned Their Vineyard Minimony from Iowa and Trusted Us with Everything

The Vineyard Minimony Ceremony at Cline in Carneros

Lili Freitas of Weddings of Heart married them outdoors, the Carneros vineyard rows spread out behind the altar and the afternoon sun full on the rows. With eight guests the ceremony sat close, no distance to fill — everyone who'd flown out stood right there for the vows.

For a couple who chose every piece of this from a kitchen table in Iowa, standing in the Carneros light was the moment the whole remote plan either held or it didn't. It held. Cline runs its own catering and knows the property season by season, and the vendors Hannah and Ray had only met on a phone call turned up exactly as promised.

Eight People Who Made the Trip to Cline

The family here was the whole point. Ray's grandmother came in pale blue lace and a grey knit, a gold brooch pinned at her collar, and later crossed the flagstone courtyard with her walker, past the CLINE "Welcome" sign and the huge old eucalyptus that anchors the entrance. Viera Photographics worked the family groupings against the adobe walls — terracotta stucco with aloe and desert plants growing right out of it — as the eight of them cycled through in twos and threes while the light held.

The grounds gave a group this size more than one setting inside a short walk. The mission building. The eucalyptus groves. The flagstone courtyards, the hedged gardens with orange blooms along the edges. For two people who'd never set foot on the property until that morning, Cline kept handing them one more thing the photos hadn't shown.

Dinner at Cline Family Cellars

Dinner stayed right where the ceremony was — no shuttle, no move, just the vineyard and the eight people they'd brought. From the afternoon there's a still-life: a glass of red and a glass of white set on the head of a wine barrel stamped CLINE, white lisianthus and eucalyptus laid beside them. Cline's own kitchen ran the food, and the cake came from Sweet C's Cakeshoppe.

A late-June evening in Carneros holds its warmth a long time, and the vineyard rows caught the last of the light while the bay fog stayed hours out. For a couple who trusted a shortlist and traveled all the way from Iowa, the evening ran quiet and easy — the day they'd asked for from the start, and never once had to run themselves.