Here at GLW (and in most of the wedding industry) we often focus heavily on style—ok, we almost always focus on style. Don’t get us wrong—we LOVE a gorgeous wedding and all the personalized details that make it special, but sometimes we come across a reminder of what this whole marriage thing is really about: love, and how much better life is with it. Sarah and Chris’s wedding at Golden Gate Park is a stunner and we can’t take our eyes off of Sarah’s glam Houghton Gamila gown! However, it’s the couple’s miracle story that has us all teary eyed. Read on for the bride’s emotional story and check out the beautiful images by Katch Silva.
I met Chris in 2007 in the break room at work. He was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of his locker when I walked in. We had a very situational first conversation, but when I walked out, I knew something special had happened in that moment. What I felt can only be described as a feeling of destiny and every time I saw him after that, I knew he felt it too. We spent the next eight years madly in love, but often in doubt until the timing was right, and he proposed in April of 2014. I was shocked! I never thought we’d get married, but it was the most important decision either of us could have made at that time, and the following few months would reveal why.
We got legally married in August of 2014 in preparation for buying a house. We also started planning a small wedding for April 2015, right around the time of my Spring break from graduate school. I ordered the most beautiful wedding invitations from Marie Chang Designs and they were scheduled to arrive on the morning of November 19th. Someone had to be home to sign for them, and Chris had the day off, but I stayed home from school anyway because I was beyond excited to see the invites. At about 8:30 on that morning, Chris’ heart stopped while we were sitting at the kitchen table together. I called 911 right away, and when the paramedics arrived, he was without signs of life. They tried to aggressively resuscitate him on the kitchen floor and took him to the nearest hospital where he was worked on for an hour by the emergency room doctors and nurses. When I got to the hospital, the doctors told me that his heart was beating again, but that he would likely not survive due to the extended length of time it took to revive him. They placed him in a drug-induced coma for 24 hours as they cooled his body with the hope of reducing the damage to his organs.
It was such an unbelievable tragedy. I’ll never forget calling my dad who was on vacation in Southeast Asia at the time and telling him that Chris was dead. I thought I would be planning his funeral for Thanksgiving, but by nothing short of a miracle, Chris survived. He woke up after the sedation was withdrawn 24 hours later, and was disoriented, but very much alive! He became known throughout the hospital as the Holiday Miracle. To this day, we still don’t know why his heart stopped. What we know for sure though, is that if I hadn’t been there to witness the arrest, he would have died right there in our kitchen. The only reason I was home that morning was because of those beautiful wedding invitations.
We ended up canceling the wedding since it would take a few months for Chris to fully recover. Coincidentally, Chris went back to work during the first week of April, and when the date of the canceled wedding went by, we started to feel sad. There was so much to celebrate now, so we started planning again for a second wedding, and on October 10th we finally had our special day!
We were married in Golden Gate Park at Chain of Lakes Meadow in front of about 85 of our closest friends and family. It was a place we had spent a lot of time together over the years with our dogs. We didn’t have a wedding party, just my nieces as flower girls. We were married by our good friend Ian Brown, who also happens to be married to one of my best friends, Nhadine. I set them up on a blind date the year Chris and I met and they got married a few years later. I was the maid of honor in their wedding, so it was such a special continuation of our circle of friendship to have him officiate for us. He’s a bit of an over achiever, a surgeon, college football player, and all around wise man, and now he can call himself a reverend!
We were married in Golden Gate Park at Chain of Lakes Meadow in front of about 85 of our closest friends and family. It was a place we had spent a lot of time together over the years with our dogs. We didn’t have a wedding party, just my nieces as flower girls. We were married by our good friend Ian Brown, who also happens to be married to one of my best friends, Nhadine. I set them up on a blind date the year Chris and I met and they got married a few years later. I was the maid of honor in their wedding, so it was such a special continuation of our circle of friendship to have him officiate for us. He’s a bit of an over achiever, a surgeon, college football player, and all around wise man, and now he can call himself a reverend!
Our reception was at Le Colonial, a French Vietnamese restaurant tucked away in alley in the TenderNob neighborhood of SF. When you’re there, you feel somehow that you’ve been transported to another place. It was simple, but so perfect. It had the feeling of a really fun dressed up dinner party. All of our guests raved about how much fun they had dancing and drinking and playing in the amazing open air photo booth. It was truly a perfect blend of simple urban elegance, romance, and humor. Chris and I gave a speech during dinner to thank everyone for coming, and I’ll never forget how special it felt to look at out all of our closest friends and family and think, “Wow, all of these amazing people are here to honor us.
I did all the ceremony and reception decorations myself with seeded eucalyptus and pomegranates to honor the Fall season. To add a personal touch, I had Marie Chang (who did our second set of invites as well) personalize the menus and reception stationery even though the restaurant offered to do it for free. My bouquet, the flower girl bouquets, wrist corsages and boutonnieres were made by Melanie Tom of Hawthorn Flower Studio in Berkeley and were inspired by our ceremony decorations.
The one thing I had not done for the first wedding was find a dress. I knew I wanted something simple but I felt very indistinct in every dress I tried on. When I started searching again, I stumbled upon a dress through blog searches that looked simple and interesting and I learned that a new boutique in SF called LOHO Bride might carry it, so I made an appointment with the shop owner Christy Baird. The dress had sold out by the time of my appointment, but Christy offered up some alternatives by Houghton that I tried on reluctantly. The first was the Gamila gown, and when I put it on, I knew immediately that it was “the one.” It was so simple, elegant, feminine, and modern. I bought it the next day without hesitation, and on the day of the wedding, it just felt so right for the occasion.
The best part of it all though, was seeing my mom all dressed up in her custom Korean Hanbok dress made for her by a dress maker in Koreatown LA named Kim MeeHee. I’ve never seen her look so beautiful. The night before the wedding she thanked me for buying the dress and said, “For once in my life, I feel like a princess.”
There was time when Chris and I didn’t think we would ever get married or have a wedding. Neither of us thought it was that important. We were wrong. The marriage, and the celebration that followed were two of the most important events of our lives that brought together our friends and family, created beautiful memories to last a lifetime, and above all, saved my husband’s life!
Photographer: Katch Silva // Coordination for ceremony: San Francisco Weddings // Flowers: Hawthorn Flower Studio // Dress: Houghton Gamila gown from LOHO Bride SF // DJ/Band: DJ Justin Miller, Boutique DJs // Cake/Dessert: Fox and Fawn Bakehouse // Hair/Makeup: Skyla Arts, Camille Monique // Stationery: Marie Chang of August+White // Night Owl Photo Booth // Reception and Catering: Le Colonia