Loading...
Loading...

Melissa and Sam's livestreamed vineyard wedding at Gloria Ferrer in Sonoma was seven guests in May 2021, finally married after three postponements. A camera carried the ceremony live to the friends and family who couldn't be there.
They'd first planned a bigger wedding, but venue changes and COVID pushed the date back again and again. When it landed here, in the Carneros hills, they leaned into the version they had: small, streamed, and unmistakably theirs.
Melissa got ready at the property, her hair set, her bouquet waiting nearby, the Carneros fog still sitting on the vineyard rows past the windows. It lifts slowly in the morning out here at the southern edge of the Sonoma Valley, the bay pushing it in each night, the sun burning it back each day.
A white bridal car brought her to the venue. A red carpet rolled out as she stepped from the car, the whole arrival staged the way they'd pictured it. After three postponements, small details like the carpet and the car carried a weight they might not have otherwise, proof that the day was actually, finally, here.
Book a free 30-minute call and tell us the day you’re imagining. We’ve probably planned one like it, and we’d love to help plan yours.
An officiant led the ceremony in front of the vineyard, with the couple's closest family and friends in the chairs. A camera streamed it live, so the guests who'd been part of the original plan could watch from home as Melissa and Sam said their vows and exchanged rings. The stream meant the ceremony had two audiences at once: the seven seated on the estate and everyone else watching from wherever they were, family rooms, work-from-home setups, kitchen tables, all of them seeing the Carneros hills and the vineyard rows and the two of them finally, after three tries, getting married. Whoever was watching from home could see Melissa's face when Sam put the ring on, hear the officiant, follow the whole thing in real time.
After three postponements, this was the moment that finally held. They became husband and wife with the Carneros hills at their backs and the rest of their people watching along.
“Everything ran so smoothly and we were able to just relax.”
Family photos came next, then portraits across the property. Gloria Ferrer opened in 1986 as the first sparkling wine house in Carneros, and the estate keeps underground caves for aging its wine, so the couple had vineyard rows, the terrace, and the hillside views to work with as the light moved.
With just seven guests, the portraits were unhurried. The two of them, then the small circle who'd made it, framed against the rows.
Dinner followed for the seven of them, the winery's own sparkling on the table. Melissa and Sam had their first dance, toasts came from the people closest to them, and they cut a cake from Patisserie Angelica. With only seven guests at the table, the toasts had nowhere to hide, every word reached the people it was meant for, and the evening moved at the pace of a family dinner rather than a reception.
It wasn't the wedding they first drew up. After everything it took to get there, they said it turned out better, a small day, streamed to everyone else, that finally made them married.
“Thank you so much for making our day so special! Everything ran so smoothly and we were able to just relax. The photos were so fantastic! We were overjoyed with how they turned out.”