A Garden Party Wedding Showcases the Bounty of Wine Country

Dylan Hunn and Jason Teplitz met in college at Stanford, when they were assigned to be teaching assistants for the same introductory computer science class. Now living in San Francisco and working in the field of artificial intelligence, the couple hosted their September wedding at Kenwood’s Chateau St. Jean Winery. With family spread across the country (Dylan grew up in Texas, and Jason’s parents are in Connecticut), they loved the idea of introducing their loved ones to Wine Country during the bounty of harvest season.

“There’s just something specific about Sonoma. The wines are amazing, but it’s also a little bit low-key,” says Dylan. “You’re showing everyone one of the hidden gems of California.”

The couple envisioned a relaxed afternoon garden party, “idyllic and pastoral,” as Dylan describes it, with a Jewish ceremony in the shade of a pergola and a reception in the gazebo.

“We wanted the whole thing to feel like a cocktail hour where you really have time to talk to everybody and hang out together,” says Dylan.

Wine Country harvest garden party wedding — Dylan Hunn and Jason Teplitz at their wedding ceremony in Kenwood. (Kathryn White)

Wine Country harvest wedding garden party — Dylan Hunn and Jason Teplitz’s wedding ceremony and reception included a harvest luncheon and relaxed afternoon garden party. (Kathryn White)

A harvest luncheon — three types of pizza, salmon and chicken, and Mediterranean sides and spreads — was followed by wedding cake and fig-and-port gelato scooped from a cute gelato cart. Their 60 guests embraced the garden party vision, playing chess and bocce and dancing a traditional hora on the grand lawn next to a grove of redwood trees.

After many years together, the couple agree they didn’t expect being married to feel all that different — and yet, so much has changed.

“I thought the wedding was just going to solidify something that was already basically true, but that ended up not being how I felt at all,” says Jason. “Immediately after, it just felt like such a change of mindset, such a change in how we think about things.”

Dylan and Jason say they now look forward to the warm nostalgia they feel each time they return to Sonoma Valley, where their new life together had its launch.