Miners Foundry Wedding-Nevada City, CA

Chase and Maxwell had a warm, colorful wedding in the adorable mountain town of Nevada City, California. Full of vintage charm, Nevada City is a cute boho-victorian town in the Foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about an hour from Sacramento. The small town was once famous as the center of Northern California’s gold mining districts. Chase and Maxwell married in the infamous “Stone Room” at the historic Miners Foundry Cultural Center in the heart of downtown Nevada City. Their wedding day was infused with history, vintage charm and the loving support of their family and friends. From the flowers to the candlesticks to the bride’s classic gown, Chase & Maxwell’s day was simply gorgeous and I was honored to be their wedding photographer. I made some of my favorite photos of 2019 with them that day and wanted to share them with you along with a Q&A about the story of their beautiful Miners Foundry wedding. Enjoy!

What was your wedding day vision? And which elements did you choose to make your vision come true?

We wanted our day to be simple and personal. Northern California was always kind of our special place because we met in college at Sonoma State. Because much of my family is from Nevada City, California; my mom suggested I check out the Miner’s Foundry and honestly, that was the only place I looked! I fell in love with the Stone Room instantly. The Miners Foundry is a pretty awesome venue because you get the space for the whole day (which makes a huge difference when you are doing the wedding set-up yourself) and they didn’t have preferred vendors lists, which we also loved. It was also affordable; the staff were super flexible and it was just wonderful all around.

As far as details go, I am a super decisive person and an art history major so I love historical anything. I would say that is really the basis for every decision we made when planning our wedding. If it has a story, that makes it so much more special to me. Max and I have been together for almost a decade (college sweethearts), he is very even keeled, and thankfully really likes my taste so he pretty much let me handle the decorative details. Our linens were La Tavola in Sacramento, which had so many options and was really great quality, highly recommend! A lot of previous weddings at the Foundry chose very minimal colors for the space, but I wanted it to be super colorful and warm. Our rentals were from Standard Party Rentals (also in Sac, and attached to La Tavola, which was fantastic!). We were interested in a vintage vibe so everything was ivory with gold hues.

The caterer was Emily’s Catering and Cakes, who did an astounding job considering the power outages in Nevada County that only ended the day before our wedding! She had all of our prepped food on dry ice days before the event and wasn’t given the green light to start cooking until the night before, so she cooked well into that night and the morning of. It was amazing how she pulled it all together, we were so impressed and thankful.

Our wedding photographer, Azara Images did an excellent job. She communicated clearly and thoughtfully in high stress times. Although the Miners Foundry can be a challenging venue with limited light, our wedding photos came out great. She was able to take professional level photos that maintained a wonderful artistic sensibility. We would definitely hire her again!

And, I have to say, one of the most special things about my wedding was all of my family chipping in with their own artistic skills. The flowers and centerpieces were all my mom. She runs a garden nursery and really spent so much time with me thinking about the flowers and centerpieces, including polishing every candlestick on the table (all borrowed from a friend). The day of, one of my oldest and best friends put together my bouquet and boutonnieres based off of what we had left. The morning of my wedding my friends and family all showed up to set up the room together with coffee and pastries (one of my favorite moments of the weekend). My mom and her sister are amazing bakers and made the cake and chocolate mousse for our dessert. My other aunt did my hair and my friends did my makeup. My dad and sister put together my bridal shower party the day before and in another very special moment, my dad drove me down to the Miner’s Foundry in his 1967 MG-B for our first look photos. It was just small moments like these that really built up and made the whole day so wonderful.

My dress was my aunt’s wedding dress, but even when she bought it, it was vintage so I restored it. Its originally from the 1920’s, so a century old! I took care of the stains and rips, found the fabric for the slip underneath, and had it made for me. I was wearing my great-grandmother’s pearls, as well as a necklace that my other aunt (a jewelry maker) made for me to mark the occasion. The night before the wedding my aunt hosted a potluck for everyone, which was so casual and fun! My sister pretty much helped me plan the entire event and really took the wheel when I started school, which meant the world to Max and I because those last few months are the hardest to navigate and stay on top of. My dad and sister also put together my bridal shower party the day before and in another very special moment, my dad drove me down to the Miner’s Foundry in his 1967 MG-B for our first look photos. We just had so many people pitch in and help us which made the event that much more special in our eyes.

Were there any unexpected obstacles that occurred in planning your Nevada City Wedding?

The week of, there were massive power outages in Northern California and all of Nevada County. Although that was super stressful, Max and I felt so thankful to our families for pulling together and busting through obstacles. The best part was we all just ended up spending more time together so instead of enjoying everyone for one night, we had four days of fun. It was really important to us to feel like we got to visit with everyone as much as we could, especially because we had recently moved across the country, and we really feel like we got to spend quality time with everyone. The power outages made for a very memorable wedding for all of our guests I am sure!

What is one memory from your day that you will carry with you for the rest of your lives?

I would say my favorite part of the actual day was saying our vows. We have seen each other through very formative years of our lives and I think when we said our vows they were so genuine and I loved how similar, yet different, they were. Our friend Taylor introduced us to one another, so we asked him to play our first love song as I walked down the aisle (These Days – Nico). Everything we planned was really significant and had a lot of meaning behind it, which I think is the most important part of any wedding. Max and I were very happy that we didn’t sweat the small stuff. We both felt like there was so much pressure to provide all of these little things for guests, but your guests really just want to enjoy you, dinner, drinks, and dancing! It is so important as you are planning to remember why you are having the wedding in the first place and find little ways to celebrate the love you are inviting everyone to share.

Here is a sample of the magic created at Chase & Maxwell’s Miners Foundry wedding. I hope you are able to feel the sweetness and love in these wedding photos as much as everyone who attended. If you are interested in planning a Nevada City wedding or portrait session, get in touch with me here. I know lots of magical places to shoot.

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