A Modern Boutique-Hotel Micro Wedding at R Inn Napa

A Garden Nook Ceremony at R Inn Napa

They married in the inn's Garden Nook, the tucked-away corner of the back garden, their people in chairs on either side. David waited in a brown houndstooth-check jacket, a white shirt, and a deep burgundy tie with a white boutonniere at the lapel. Janice came in a fitted white dress with a long veil, hair down and dark against it, to an instrumental "All of Me." Rose Barboza officiated and kept it exactly as plain as they'd asked — vows, rings, and Janice and David close in the corner.

The Nook suited a wedding this size. It sat enclosed enough to feel like a room of its own, the garden wrapping around it, nobody more than a step or two from the couple. They walked back out to Etta James' "At Last," and the day moved straight into the part they'd been waiting for.

Champagne and Portraits Through R Inn Napa

A champagne toast opened right after. A friend from each side raised a glass in the garden — one guest in a yellow patterned dress holding a small bunch of lily-of-the-valley, another in a shimmering blue gown with her flute in hand. The whole group gathered together for the family photo, David and Janice in the middle of it, laughing.

While their people ate and drank, the two of them slipped off for portraits. Brian Lima worked them from the inn's white walls and modern art out into downtown Napa and down toward the water. There was no far end of a room and no waiting — the toast, the food, and the couple were all in the same small stretch of garden.

A Chef's Table Dinner and Cake by the River

Dinner was a seated meal in the inn's small dining room. Chef Jessica Brunelli cooked, the couple's own wine poured, and a huge abstract seascape in blues and coral ran the length of the wall behind the table. Six people at that table is the right kind of close — the conversation at one end reaches the other, and there's no crowd to perform for.

As the light went soft, Janice and David stepped out for a few photos along the Napa waterfront. Back inside they cut a single-tier lemon cake from Criminal Baking, iced plain white and topped with a scatter of fresh yellow and white flowers, Janice reaching for it with a laugh while David sat in his houndstooth vest beside her. One more round of champagne, and they took the night to a bar nearby — small, modern, and unhurried, the way R Inn Napa is built to be.