Some would say that this love story really began back in 1859 when the Old St Raymond Chapel was built in what is now known as Heritage Park in Dublin, CA. It was constructed with wood from the Oakland Redwood Forest and in the early days, Father King from St. Mary’s in Oakland rode a horse/ donkey over to Dublin once a month for mass. By 1967 the church had fallen into disarray and this is when a group of local residents banded together to save it. At the time, a little girl named MeChell Piazza helped her parents paint that church and 50 years later she would have never known her daughter Haley would be married there. Haley grew up seeing this photo of her mom painting the church and at a young age had it set in her mind that one day she would marry her one true love in that chapel. Throughout high school, Haley would drive by the chapel and just dream of her wedding day.
Fast forward to 2020 when Haley and Rob met and realized they lived just a few houses down from one another. After their engagement at Chrissy Field in San Francisco, the very first thing they put into place for the wedding was booking Old St. Raymond Chapel and the adjacent park for their reception. Once they had that locked in, they enlisted the help of Stephanie Teague with Teague Events to produce the event.
From our first calls together I knew that Haley and Rob were very trusting in our skills and experience. They gave us free rein over the design to create something romantic and elegant for their guests. It was a bit of a challenge working with a city-owned park and trying to get a sailcloth tent approved but in the end, it all came together magically. From a design perspective, we are always trying to use things that are rarely seen on Instagram and Pinterest. For this reason, the first thing we chose were the linens from the brand new collection at BBJ/La Tavola. The dusty blue-grey was one of Haley’s favorite colors and we knew would be the perfect accent to the florals we had in mind. We also have long admired these ONE chairs from Theoni. We especially love the nail heads and fabric on the backside of the chairs. Often the backside of chairs are what is photographed the most and many chairs lack details and interest. We very rarely see these chairs from Theoni used and we were so excited to have them at this event. Another design detail we was focused on is what is often called a “tentrance”. We wanted guests to be wowed from the moment they entered the space so the floral installation from LeBloomerie was the perfect way to greet the guests. One of our favorite moments was the tent reveal when Haley and Rob got a preview of their reception space. Haley walked in, gasped, and said “It looks like something out of the movies!!” and teared up. Those are the moments we live for!
