Maren & Greg’s Laid Back Californian Ranch Wedding Inspired by the French Countryside

Maren and Greg were married on 8th November 2025 at Holman Ranch in Carmel Valley, California. The couple chose this vineyard setting for its personal significance, having got engaged in Carmel and with Maren growing up nearby. They worked with Golden Coast Event Planning, with Mia Cruz leading on design and coordination.

Photographer Morgan Stoddard documented the day beautifully, with a light, unobtrusive approach that allowed Maren and Greg to remain present rather than stepping away for long portrait sessions. The result is a truly romantic set of images that reflect the laid back and relaxed pace the couple wanted for their day.

Maren wore a Grace Loves Lace gown and veil, chosen at the designer brand’s San Francisco based showroom, with the help of stylist Jazmyn. The wider aesthetic and vibe of the day drew on French countryside references, expressed through antique silver, tapestry fabrics sourced in Los Angeles and a gentle palette of mauve, burgundy, tawny brown and green.

The couple planned a guest experience that prioritised good food, generous drinks and a relaxed flow. Details were personal and hands on, from Maren designing the stationery to collecting vintage pieces for styling, with florals by her close friend Cassia Foret bringing scale and colour across the ceremony and reception spaces.

We hope you are inspired by this charming wedding as much as we are – enjoy!

We chose Holman Ranch because Carmel has always been special to us. we got engaged there, and Maren grew up nearby. The ranch felt like the perfect mix of romantic French countryside charm and relaxed California beauty. It was simply stunning, and it felt like the right place to start our marriage.

We worked with Golden Coast Event Planning as our wedding planners and for on-the-day-coordination. Mia Cruz (a local beloved business owner and creative) was instrumental in bringing our vision to life. She really did the heavy lifting when it came to design. 

My father, Dan, walked me down the aisle. We were accompanied by a song called ‘To Our Daughter’, by My Best Friend Jacob.

My brother officiated our ceremony – he did a beautiful job. I’d recommend having a loved-one officiate your wedding day 10/10.

Our rings were from Trabert Goldsmiths in San Francisco. I really wanted a vintage Diamond. Greg wanted something masculine, but still a little polished and fancy. We love the team at Trabert!

I love my engagement ring so much, I didn’t want to take away from its beauty by doing a wedding band.

We chose Morgan Stoddard as our photographer because of her effortless ability to make real moments beautiful. We told her we didn’t want to be swept away for hours to do formal photos, we wanted to be present and asked her to photograph the day as it truly was.

We are so glad she did just that. Looking at our wedding photos takes us right back to those moments. We are so grateful to Morgan.

My sister in law Catie Bolt, is a film producer and made the most fun montage of the weekend using a digital camp snap. We just got it for silly behind the scenes moments, but she took it and ran with it. The best gift we have ever received!

It feels like we had a full film crew, but she just did her thing.

I collected vintage silver to sprinkle through out and use for florals, thrifted a giant thrifted mirror for our welcome sign, sourced French tapestries for our sweetheart table and for our seating chart.

I loved putting personal touches on things.

I did all the stationery myself – our iconic pear table cards were hand written by Mia (mentioned earlier-event design) and our seating chart was created by our florist. We did the trending urns with giant hydrangeas with table assignments popping out. It was amazing.

We had custom matchbooks made by an Etsy artist 

Catering was provided by Woody’s Catering and our cake was from Gayle’s Bakery in Santa Cruz, California. Easy peasy and super cost efficient! 

A beautiful wedding is great, but a beautiful marriage is what life is all about. try not to get wrapped up in all the details, it is so fun to curate a vision, but remember it’s meant to be fun and you are celebrating your love! Soak that up. 

We also highly recommend writing your own vows. We had a beautiful wedding, but the most complimented thing we received after was how heart felt our vows were. That’s the whole reason people are there, it’s nice for guests to hear in depth about the union they are witnessing and how special that is to be a part of that story.

A lot of time went into planning, but I don’t think we would have done anything differently – the weekend was perfectly ours. We were almost gleefully anticipating the imperfections! We find humour in things like that. 

Our wedding budget was exceeded, but I partially think that is because we didn’t have realistic expectations of what a 200 person wedding in California would cost. All is good, it was worth every penny.

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