This take on Minted was made by undefined from , a member of Minted's community of independent artists.
After a romantic marriage proposal at her family’s lake house, Samantha Starkey and Mitchell Milner decided to plan a destination wedding in Northern California. The couple, who met during a documentary filmmaking course in India, scoured home-rental sites, hoping to find a private property that would accommodate a wedding. As chance would have it, a listing for Villa Montara—an architectural, rustic-modern home located 20 miles south of San Francisco—popped up and the couple jumped on the opportunity. And on a breezy, blue-sky afternoon in October, the couple exchanged vows in front of their 90 guests on a coastal bluff overlooking the Pacific.
Mitch and I met during a documentary filmmaking course traveling through India.
My family has a lake house I grew up going to in Indiana and that we still visit every summer. This particular summer Mitch was unable to go (or so I thought). I arrived at the lake house, and was immediately sent on a scavenger hunt around town. At the time, I was thinking Mitch was just sorry that he couldn’t make it and set up this fun gift for me. At the end of the scavenger hunt I found him in the middle of the lake on a floating platform decorated in lights and flowers!
I originally found Villa Montara on VRBO. It’s a rental house—unfortunately, the owners just sold it though!
I didn’t want to get caught up in the details, or to overdo it. I know how easy it can be to be upsold on so many things during the wedding planning process, and then suddenly realize you’ve lost the original vision. With that said, my priorities were keeping it beautiful and as simple as possible!
My only advice is to not wait to the last minute for the smaller details. For example, I did my programs about a month before the wedding and the blue I picked wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I didn’t give myself time to customize it further.
I used Minted for our wedding website, program cards, and thank-you cards. It always felt very easy. I just had to describe my vision and suddenly there’s a proof of it in my email box a few days later!
I wanted our wedding style to incorporate organic movement, contrasted with simple, geometric lines. The invite I chose ("Oceans" invitation by Wildfield Paper Co.) had watercolor at the bottom that spoke to the "movement" aspect of my wedding style, and then I chose "Details" and "Rsvp" cards with clean lines to bring in the geometric aesthetic.
I had a lot of geometric shapes already going on with my wedding design, so I specifically looked for something on Minted that I could easily cut into a geometric shape. And that RSVP design (“Mountain Sky” by Summer Winkelman) was perfect to cut! (Although I might have regretted it a bit when I realized how much time it was taking to cut them all!!)
I wanted our wedding style to incorporate organic movement, contrasted with simple, geometric lines. The invite I chose had watercolor at the bottom that spoke to the “movement” aspect of my wedding style, and then I chose “Details” and “Rsvp” cards with clean lines to bring in the geometric aesthetic.
One of my favorite moments from the day was standing with my dad right before I walked down the aisle. We were in the house looking out this big window that overlooked the ceremony. It was set up in a way that I had a perfect bird’s-eye view of ceremony and everyone else walking down the aisle without them seeing me. We just looked at each other and started to cry.
We both come from families where faith is very important, and it’s a big part of who we are as well. I’m not very traditional, but I knew I wanted the ceremony to reflect our love for God. So, we took a moment and asked our parents to come up and pray for us privately during the ceremony while music played in the background. It was a really special moment to look back on for all of us!
We decided to write our own vows—I’ve been to so many weddings and always felt it’s more special and touching that way.
It meant so much to see our family and friends from all different parts of life coming together and having fun. It’s truly something that will never happen again, so I cherished every moment!
Invitation suite
“Oceans” by Wildfield Paper Co.
Details card
“elegant angles” by peony papeterie
Response card
“mountain sky” by Summer Winkelman
Wedding planner: Katie Linter at First Comes Loves Events & Design
Florist: Meg Catherine Flowers
Caterer & cake: Salt & Honey Catering
Cinematographer: Canvas & Light; edited by SJ Videography
Photographer: Betsy Blue Photography
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