A Joaquin Miller Park Redwoods Wedding, One Coffee Cart Morning

Everyone They Brought Up the Hill

Joaquin Miller Park is one of the few redwood forests inside a city, a stand of coast redwoods in the Oakland hills, minutes from downtown but deep enough in the trees that you forget it. The couple had trolleyed their guests up from an overflow lot at the bottom of the hill, and after the ceremony everyone stayed to mingle, eat, and drink their coffee among the trunks. A small boy in a checked shirt sat at the gingham table working through a plate, and the grown-ups stood around in the fog with coffee cups, one of them in a bright floral shirt, while Jessica and Will worked through portraits nearby.

They slipped off into the grove on their own, the fog closing the trees into soft grey rows behind them, the couple small and unhurried on the forest floor.

Cake in the Grove, Then a Camping Trip

There was no long dinner to sit down to. This was a morning in the woods, and the celebration matched it. The cake was two tiers of white buttercream covered all over in toasted coconut, set on a lace doily over an amber glass plate. Jessica cut it herself with a family member close by, and then she and Will served it to their guests by hand, going around to greet each one in person.

As the last trolley carried everyone back down the hill, the couple packed up and left the grove for the rest of the day — off on a camping trip with the people they loved most, straight from the trees where they'd married.