Lily & Sean's Chico-Level Throwdown at Beaumont Farms
Venue: Beaumont Farms, Sonoma County Services: Supportive Planning & Design, Stationery Design
Sean and Lily had been to enough weddings to know exactly what they didn't want. After ten years together and 140 of their most important people on their guest list, they came to me with a clear brief: something alive. Something that held Sean's Jewish roots and Lily's Indonesian heritage in the same afternoon without either one feeling like a footnote. Something their guests would actually talk about on the drive home.
We spent nearly a year building it. Here's how it came together.
Sean and Lily’s private portraits in the Arena pre-ceremony
beaumont farms
If you're looking at barn venues in Sonoma and you haven't considered Beaumont Farms, look again.
The property runs three barns — Dinner Barn, Party Barn, Arena — plus a bar barn, a pond with a sweeping willow, and a semi-enclosed courtyard that sits right at the center of everything. For Sean and Lily, we used the Dinner Barn for reception and the Party Barn for dancing once the night shifted gears. The courtyard between the barns became the cocktail hour, with Make It A Double running the Bar Barn as both front and back bar — a setup specifically designed to eliminate the bottleneck problem that kills momentum at cocktail hour. It worked.
One thing you cannot plan around at Beaumont Farms: it's an animal rescue. Mini ponies at cocktail hour. Donkeys before the ceremony. Full-size horses on the property all day. More than a few guests slipped away from the reception to go visit them. I have no notes on this.
The Arena is worth a separate mention even though we didn't use it for this wedding. The built-in draping and chandeliers give it a Ralph Lauren Stagecoach-bride aesthetic without any additional investment. If you're one of the many couples right now who want Western glamour done right, that space is made for you.
Lily’s brother gives her away at the altar
The Florals: Tropical, Bright, and Deeply Personal
I connected Sean and Lily with Mark Dillon Luna early — a floral designer based in San Luis Obispo who travels for weddings and who I recommend constantly. What Mark does better than almost anyone is design for the actual conditions of the day. Knowing we'd have Sonoma breezes throughout, he built two ceremony pieces that caught the wind. They moved. They created a natural sight line that pulled every guest's eye straight to the altar. That's not decoration — that's choreography.
The palette: hot pink and orange roses, orchids, trailing amaranthus. Bright, whimsical, spring-forward — a nod to Lily's Indonesian roots without being literal about it. It worked against the natural setting instead of disappearing into it.
Lily hugs her aunt at her ceremony
honoring two cultures
This is the part of Sean and Lily's wedding I feel most trusted to have been part of.
The Indonesian tradition
During the ceremony, Sean and Lily honored an Indonesian tradition where the couple kneels before each other's families and embraces them — a gesture of gratitude for raising the person they love. The logistical problem: Lily would be kneeling on damp grass in her gown.
My solution was a clear PVC shower curtain laid beneath where they would kneel. Completely invisible once the ceremony was underway, completely effective. (It also came in handy during Lily's first look with the groomsmen, when she iced them. The shower curtain had a long day.)
The Ulos Hela
Lily is from the Batak tribe of Indonesia. In her family's tradition, the Ulos Hela involves handwoven scarves — each with patterns specific to the Batak people — being wrapped around the couple by their families. It is one of the most tender things I have ever watched happen at a ceremony.
We planned for the Ulos to flow directly into the Hora. To make that transition work, I sourced two chairs specifically for the Ulos ceremony — sturdy enough to go from that quiet family moment straight into being lifted above a crowd of 140 people.
A note on the Hora that I will keep saying until everyone has heard it: do not use standard folding chairs. The chairs need to be robust. You need designated Hora captains — people assigned to each corner whose one job is to lift safely and keep the couple stable. This is one of the most joyful moments in any Jewish wedding celebration, and a folding chair is not the place to find out it has a weight limit.
Sean swinging Lily around as Fili blasts the sax over Justin’s DJ stylings
The Music
The foundation was Justin of Justintertainment — an MC who functions as both hype man and timeline manager, which is the combination you actually need. Justin adjusted on the fly all night, hitting every milestone we'd planned while making the room feel like nothing was planned at all.
Layered over his set: Filiberto Quintero, a live saxophonist who improvised over every song in real time. Filiberto opened the dance floor, which set the tone immediately. Having a live musician reinterpret whatever the DJ is playing gives the whole night an energy that's hard to explain until you've been in the room for it.
The mix of the night, for the record: Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten straight into Yiken by Priceless da Roc. I would not have believed it worked until I heard it. The room lost its mind.
The Live Painter
Sasha Allanja set up her canvas at the start of cocktail hour and worked through the entire reception, moving through the space so guests could watch her process. Watching a painting build over six hours — catching the ceremony, the first dances, the chaos of the Hora — is one of those things that sounds like a nice add-on and turns out to be the thing people talk about most. Sasha takes the piece back to her studio for up to 100 hours of refinement after the wedding. The final work is extraordinary.
Sean and Lily wanted a wedding that felt like their actual life — loud and warm and culturally specific and completely their own. A 140-person Sonoma celebration with Indonesian ceremony traditions, a Hora lifted on solid chairs, a live saxophonist, mini ponies, and a DJ transition that should not have worked but absolutely did.
That's the one.
Vendor Credits
Venue: Beaumont Farms
Photography: Shawna Nikou Photo
Content Creation: Shot by Kyla
Florals: Mark Dillon Luna
Bartending: Make It A Double
DJ & MC: Justin of Justintertainment
Live Saxophonist: Filiberto Quintero
Live Wedding Painter: Sasha Allanja
Planning, Design & Coordination: Natasha, Parker & Paloma Events
Planning a wedding in the Bay Area, Sonoma, or beyond? I'd love to hear about your vision.Contact Parker & Paloma Events →